Sierra Nevada: many thanks for following up on that as well as your reasonable comments along the way. For me, deciding whether to comment or not is tied up with repetition; not wanting to get into a mud wrestling contest and, of course, having something new and useful to say (the latter not always the case).
Increasingly what motivates me, frustrating as it is, is feeling a responsibility to weigh in against the Big Lie. All of us need to do this more, not just here but in all discussions. This has become an epidemic tactic as the result of talk radio. People take extreme positions and repeat them such that those then becomes the focus of the discussion. When the Big Lie (whatever it is) becomes the discussion, all hope of a mutual conversation and possible compromise is lost.
In this case it was "they're trying to ban horses from the park" and any attempt at a discussion about the actual impact those horses have and, critically, how to reduce that impact such that ALL users could enjoy different aspects of wilderness, never took hold as a serious discussion.
What I would really encourage people to do is go walk in a meadow. Just sit there. Let your feet dangle in the river; lie back in the grass and listen to it's sound in the breeze! Get a feel for what an iconic Sierra meadow feels and looks like. Forget about bare granite peaks for awhile and just enjoy a meadow. Become hopelessly and forever a meadoweer!
If there's been stock use there, note the subtle and not so subtle impacts they have. Look for stream banks caved off as stock goes to drink. Look for roll pits where they take a dust bath. Note the smell of urine or manure if stock use is recent. Hoof prints in wet areas, trampling and cropped grasses instead of long stalks with the seed heads waving in the breeze.
How would you react, say, if a scout troop had had a jamboree in a meadow for 3 days? Why is our reaction different when it's stock?
This is not to say that stock should be banned, only that there should be places where a pristine meadow can be enjoyed by everyone. At the moment, that's not the case, and that's all that HSHA was trying to accomplish.
George
PS: I can't do it now, but I have a vague hope of creating a live map of Sequoia Kings meadows where people can post photos of what they experience in a meadow; stock and human impacts as well as their beauty. I'm looking into ArcGIS Online and people could post their geotagged photos along with other data I might be able to gather. Many months away, but I'm starting to think about it... . Suggestions welcome!
