For all environmentalists who still insist that the tourist/recreation industry is the clean, non-impacting economic solution for the Rural West, even the Godfather of the Environmental/recreation industry is speaking the Truth…
Excerpt:
‘Paumgarten then relates an exchange he and Chouinard had. “When I ventured to mention how the catalogue sometimes irked me, he [Chouinard] was quiet for a while, and then said, ‘When you see the guides on the Bighorn, they’re all out of central casting. Beard, bill cap, buff around the neck, dog in the bow. Oh, my God, it’s so predictable. That’s what magazines like Outside are promoting. Everyone doing this ‘outdoor life style’ thing. It’s the death of the outdoors.’”
‘Read that last line again carefully. Yes, Yvon Chouinard says the outdoor life-style thing is leading to the death of the outdoors.’
AND
“Warning: parts may be unsettling, especially to those who believe that, by merely engaging in outdoor recreation or owning toys, they are, through some kind of strange osmosis, advancing the cause of conservation.”
“But this I know after writing about Greater Yellowstone and environmental issues for 30 years: More than ever before, outdoor recreationists, surrogates for some of the biggest outdoor toy manufacturers, are pressuring land management agencies to force the opening of ever-greater access to wildlands now functioning as refugia for solitude-seeking wildlife and which have not had to cope with many people.”
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