7.18.2008
Yellowstone, Yosemite, whatever ...
The Economist, July 10
I guess the image of Yellowstone illustrating an article about Yosemite should've been a tipoff.
National parks and wilderness areas are finite and fragile resources that cannot handle an annual double-digit increase in attendance in perpetuity.
To assume that fading attendance over time is equivalent to a failure in conservation is not just poor logic ... it's poor taste.
Worse yet, to argue for more luxury hotel rooms as a way to increase outdoor activity participation is laughable. Not only is it of dubious ecological impact, but the chance that putting a soft bed and a flat screen TV within arms reach of El Cap would stimulate a love for the outdoors is like serving up a feast to an overweight man and asking him to begin dieting immediately.
LINK: The Economist
7.17.2008
Has the Piton been acquired?
Inquiring minds want to know ...
LINK closed due to national sense of humor drought.
7.14.2008
7.11.2008
Didymo in the Mad River: Fish it while you can
Things were dead on the Mad River this June. I guess that should've been a tipoff.The three-piece and I headed out a couple times during what should’ve been easy money affairs. We even spread it out to include some before dawn action. But we didn’t get a thing.
Probably, it's because I suck. But I hate getting skunked, even on a single cast. My kids can always tell when I'm sulking over coffee in the garage.
There was some guilty solace when I asked around at the local bacon counter and found that not even the worm dunkers had been getting anything. “Really quiet out there,” one said. “Weird.”
The Mad River isn’t on the list of America’s blue ribbon fisheries. It’s much loved, but it's a struggling waterway, a put-and-take shadow of the wild fishery that it used to be.
In this ghost town for trout, the tumbleweeds scored another victory yesterday as we learned that Didymo was found in the Mad River. An invasive algae known for rapid proliferation, Didymo has no known cure, and it essentially hangs the closed sign on the door for fishermen.
The painful irony for me is that earlier this spring, my group started working with Simms Fishing Products, one of the loudest voices in the battle against Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) like Didymo. As ANS has spread from New Zealand to the Chesapeake, we’ve been trying to help Simms spread the word about the importance of checking your gear, cleaning it every time, and even investing in some ANS-resistant wading boots (ie, no felt).
I know the Mad isn’t the Madison or the Deschutes. It’s barely even a Boulder Creek. But as ANS knocks the legs out from under third world waterways, it’s just a matter of time before it steps on the throat of your own favorite river.
The arrival of ANS in minor waterways is not minor news. It's a wake-up call.
7.10.2008
Wiffle madness
An old friend of mine (likes to) tell (in some frequency) a specific tale of his youth. About his dad. About how his dad would scold them for being inside on a summer day. And about how they would respond."What are you doing?"
"Nothing."
"If you're doing nothing, then do it outside."
The world beyond the back porch was, as we all know, a life-changing environment. Young legs became stronger. Young minds became sharper. And eventually, it replaced the indoors as a chosen destination almost entirely.
Unfortunately, times have changed. LINK
7.08.2008
Like the Hindenberg, but French
It's a great cocktail party conversation starter, to be sure: "I hear zeppelins are making a comeback."But with the woeful (pathetic?) state of American railways, why not leapfrog the ground and go straight to the martini-swilling Pink Floydian skies?
LINK
7.07.2008
Apparently, nobody invited the Greenneck over last weekend
So he finds himself on the cusp of another July 4th and all its strange customs: Parades built on the back of cheap petroleum, night skies polluted by the small explosions of fireworks, kegs and coolers brimming with pallid domestic beers, grills stacked high with chickens who never set foot on the soft, brown earth during their short and brutish lives. And somewhere in there, perhaps, for some (and especially after a few PBRs), a swell of patriotism ....Read more: Vermont Commons
7.03.2008
6.21.2008
6.16.2008
Cash for the Catamount Trail
Because cross country ski trails and red wine go together like Van Halen and ziplock bags full of everclear, Redwood Creek is hosting the Greater Outdoors Project ... an American Idol for people who know what klister is.Vermont's own Catamount Trail is a finalist .... and, ironically, in the this GOP you can also vote as much as you want.
LINK: Vote for the Catamount Trail
Why sell organic?
* 1 in 5 consumers are LOHAS consumers (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability).* LOHAS consumers spend 4 times as much as as "unconcerned" consumers on their food.
* For 2008, LOHAS spending in the USA is estimated at $209 billion
* By 2010, LOHAS spending is anticipated to exceed $400 billion.
LINK
6.13.2008
6.10.2008
6.04.2008
Ted's tips on improving Franco-American relations
FRENCH REPORTER: “What do you think the last thought is in the head of a deer before you shoot it? Is it? ‘Are you my friend?’ or maybe ‘Are you the one who killed my brother?’”THE NUGE: “They aren’t capable of that kind of thinking. All they care about is, What am I going to eat next? Who am I going to screw next? And, can I run fast enough to get away? They are very much like the French in that way.”
LINK: the quote in context
LINK: Ted Nugent performs at Champlain Valley Expo, Aug. 29, 2008
6.03.2008
You Might Be A Greenneck If...
... you find yourself wondering what sort of gas mileage this thing gets.
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