pookapermaculture:

transgirlnausicaa:

i get so pissed off by people who are blasé about their environmental impact when hiking.

i don’t care if you want to feel “nonconformist” by walking off of designated trails.

hiking trails exist to preserve the ecosystem you’re traveling through. like, for example, to prevent erosion and limit the amount of impact on flora and fauna. with hiking trails there is more of an assurance that delicate ground-growing fungi and plants will be able to grow without being crushed by a hiker’s foot.

a lot of the rules on what you can and can’t do in national parks and other wilderness areas are based on the local environmental needs of these ecosystems. you should at the bare minimum look up leave no trace policy and the local rules before you go hiking.

sure, joke about wanting to live out there in a cabin because it IS beautiful. but how many trees would you cut down for firewood? how much wildlife would you displace and how much habitat would you irreparably damage? go rent a cabin at a designated campsite if you want to have such an experience. you will impact the environment much less by not damaging a unique ecosystem. buy firewood from the store. that wood came from a tree farm, and by using that wood you have not destroyed the habitat of wildlife.

tree farms will continue to produce firewood while remaining in the same acreage, and by using that wood rather than cutting down wild trees you allow those wild trees to get good and old, to decompose naturally, to remain part of its ecosystem.

most importantly PLEASE follow fish and game laws so that you don’t literally kill and eat an endangered species.

as a rule, animal populations are much less resilient than tree and plant populations so that last point is the most important.

On the firewood topic, a lot of compressed fireblocks come from tree trimmings around power lines. Same with some mulch. Check your local electric company or tree trimming businesses for cheap/free wood and mulch.