You may have heard the
news: Fewer Americans are venturing into anything that resembles
the outdoors. According to a Nature Conservancy study, the number
of visitors to state and national parks is declining, and fewer
people are hunting, fishing or going camping.
Why are
people trading in their hiking boots for slippers? The
study’s authors, Oliver Pergams of the University of
Illinois-Chicago and Patricia Zaradic of the Environmental
Leadership Program, say the culprits are high oil prices and a
newly coined word, “videophilia,” which translates to a
love of electronic media, namely the internet, television and
movies. The two researchers say that high gas prices and the
siren’s call of the computer and television can account for
97.5 percent of the decline in visits to national parks.
Apparently, any yearning to visit a wild place or national park can
be assuaged by watching a steady stream of television shows —
especially now that entire networks devote themselves to wildlife
and outdoor recreation. Why go searching the Rocky Mountains for
the sight of a bighorn sheep, marmot or a pika when you can tune
into an episode of Animal Planet’s “Meerkat
Manor” to get your critter fix? There’s even something
for the homebound survivalist: Discovery Channel’s
“Survivor Man” and “Man vs. Wild” offer
dueling treks into the perilous wild.
We can also choose
to commune with nature through the safety of our personal and
workplace computers. Take a peek at any computer screen saver or
desktop image, and you’ll likely find a serene waterfall, a
reclining cougar or an Ansel Adams photograph of a snowcapped
mountain range. Forget mountaineering: Web sites offer 24-hour,
live streaming images of Everest Base Camp. And for animal voyeurs,
there’s everything from Yellowstone wolf cams to manatee
cams.
When millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett’s
plane went missing in September 2007, friends and family decided to
employ the public in the search. Web-surfers could pull up
satellite images of the Nevada-California wilderness search area,
scan the terrain for wreckage of Fossett’s plane and report
any findings via e-mail. Reportedly, thousands enjoyed the thrill
of the hunt while basking in the warm glow of their computer
monitor. This combined getting out in nature and a good cause, too.
Safety is key, since wild places can be scary.
Hurricanes, wildfires, mudslides, volcanoes, earthquakes and
avalanches rage out of the television set from all over the world,
and a week doesn’t go by without a hapless hiker going
missing or some man-eating predator out marauding. This live video,
flashy graphic, full-color manipulation must be convincing, as more
and more of us conclude that we’d be better off staying home.
The manipulation is more subtle but no less pervasive in the print
media, too. A typical story about the search for Fossett describes
the Nevada mountains as “desolate” and
“jagged”; the landscape “savage” and
“inhospitable.” Over time, the media construct a
reality for us that’s so dangerous we’d best leave
these places alone.
If media haven’t scared you
into staying out of a national park or wilderness, at the least it
has told you it’s expensive to suit up for it. Not long ago,
there wasn’t much of an activity-segmented outdoor apparel
market. Before Lycra, fleece and sweat-wicking socks, hikers,
mountain climbers and other outdoorsy types made do with wool,
canvas, recycled military gear and old-fashioned rain slickers. In
the era of REI and mega-stores, we’ve been sold on the notion
that we must be properly outfitted, decked head to toe with
quick-dry, ultra-lightweight, reversible, Gortex-infused apparel.
Backpacks are space-age in design, and side pockets are legion.
Let’s not forget the gadgetry, for that bottomless backpack
has plenty of room for an iPod, water bladder and mouth tube, water
purifier, cellular phone, and a GPS unit for finding your way back
to your sports-rack crowned SUV. It must be true: You’ve got
to get the gear if you want to play.
So why aren’t
people headed outdoors? The answer is easy: it’s easier to
stay home and fiddle with that remote or mouse. It’s really
too bad though, because the West’s backcountry can’t be
televised; it must be experienced. Tube viewers really don’t
know what they’re missing.
Jeff Osgood is
a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High
Country News (hcn.org). He lives in Niiwot, Colorado,
where he’s a freelance writer and stay-at-home father of
four.
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