Hippies And Jocks Duke It Out Over Surprise Canyon
An appeal by “extreme off-road enthusiasts,” as the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) calls them, to gain access to the remote ghost town of Panamint City, was rejected for the third time in two years.
First of all, “extreme off-road enthusiasts” makes these guys sound like they’re extremists – almost fanatical, violent off-roading extremists. I assure you they are not. Over the last two years, these off-roaders have helped clean up Chris Wicht’s camp at the bottom of the canyon, as well as debris inside Surprise Canyon. No doubt about it, these guys do care about the canyon. They’re just regular guys who actually do care about Surprise Canyon, but aren’t nearly as extreme in their care as the CBD. Incidentally, the CBD’s idea of caring about Surprise Canyon is to DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING (aka “preservation”), except complain about the offroaders of course (aka “preservationism”).
The Center for Biological Diversity’s Associate Public Lands Director (whew, that’s a mouthful!), Chris Kassar said, ”Death Valley is a national park – not a playground for offroad vehicles.” Chris, by the way, is a hot chick, so don’t let the name “Chris” deceive you.
On the other hand, the offroaders say they’re losing their rights to gain access to their own private property (many offroaders purchased land up near the top in order to make this case).
Now, before I rant I’d like to focus our attention on the two groups, and try to distance myself from both. The Center for Biological Diversity is a nonprofit group of preservationists who are concerned about keeping a natural habitat safe from groups they think are dangerous to life. So …. they’re basically hippies, right?
And a loose coalition of offroading groups who want a chance to utilize their expensive trucks, winches, and gear.
ISN’T THIS THE AGE-OLD HIPPY VS. JOCK DICHOTOMY!?!?!
Environmental activists are the new, well-educated and less stinky hippies; and the offroaders – well, they’re offroaders, which is nothing more than a subgroup of larger family called Jocks, or Bros; meaning a bunch of Americans looking for a tough, rugged, but basically fun, time.
This is a very interesting issue. I can see both sides of the argument, and I think there’s a compromise that can be had. Definitely, maintaining biodiversity is a great thing; but at what cost? I don’t think the winches and vehicles could cause THAT much damage! Clearly, the CBD is exaggerating their claims for PR reasons. It’s not like the offroaders are a logging company, or a band of vigilante hunters bent on killing bighorn sheep and Inyo California towhee birds.
I can definitely see how offroading has torn up certain areas of the desert (when they actually go off the road). Wanton offroading is a real problem.
But if these offroaders play it cool and consistently show that they respect the land, and make sure others do too, and drive home that the winning argument is conservation (doing something) vs. preservation (doing nothing), then they are displaying that it is possible for both the conservation of a natural environment, and offroading, can indeed coexist in a friendly manner. And yea, they can actually reach their properties at the top of the mountain.
