Great discussion guys. Here is another perspective different from our ranger. From the Yosemite official site: 4,047,880 total visitors/year, 1,416,758 or 35% of total self-describe themselves as hikers and included are 142,864 visitors registered as overnight stays in the back country. From the EPA: average human body waste is 4.4 lb./day and this includes urine: 1.5 L or about 1.5 KG or about 3 lbs. Now here is the math: 4,047,880 visitors produce 8,905.3 tons of human waste in the front country. Assuming the 1,416,758 hikers spend only one day hiking will produce 3,116.8 tons of human waste. The 142,864 back country visitors spending the night in the back country will produce 314.3 tons of human waste. I don't have any stats on the number of horses using the back country to figure out that body waste BUT is it possible that human body waste impact is a larger number than the horses' body waste?? I will say yes. Please prove me wrong! Also, the similar math for our ranger is this: 35 years in Sequoia-Kings/not including prior time in Yosemite as a back country ranger, spending say about 60 days/year in the back country adds up to 9,240 lbs. or 4.62 tons of human waste and that is a lot of s… unaccounted for. He used the ranger cabin that was built and maintained by using horses. The majority of his supplies were packed in by horses. In addition he produced an American average of 4 lbs./day of garbage amounting to 4.2 tons that was backpacked out or packed out by horses. Please correct me if the numbers don't add up. That is why when I talk about horse manure I know my s…. Next will comment on reducing/removing horses who are allowed by law and replacing them with helicopters and other mechanized equipment in the wilderness as defined by the wilderness act.
Last edited by lucky; 04/04/12 02:23 AM.
