Linda Eskin's Personal Site

Some thoughts on public access to public lands...

Eskin's Law of Inept Public Land Management:

When the public is kept from experiencing public lands,
In the interest of protection and preservation,
Interest in protection and preservation will decline.

My letter to the USFS
Regarding a plan that proposed to further limit access to the Sierra Nevada Forest.
August 24, 2000

Dear United State Forest Service,

I've just had a chance to briefly look into the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment. It looks pretty bleak, from where I stand. I am a 38 year old lifetime resident of California, and within the past three years I have (finally) gotten a horse and two donkeys. Maybe someday I will ride and pack in the Sierras, as I grew up hearing about from old timers when I was a kid. But the changes to rules on stock use and trail access proposed by the "Framework" (?) apparently blow a pretty big hole in that dream.

The proposed actions, especially with regard to horseback riding and packing seem to take the approach of "It's all very complicated, so let's just close the whole thing down, then we won't have to think about it." I hope that until you have the resources to do a proper job, with appropriate environmental safeguards for each of the forests in question, that you will take no action (Option #1, I think it's being called).

I'm not an expert on environmental preservation, but I know from personal experience that love of wild lands, and caring for wildlife doesn't come from books or posters, or being told about it in school (or even on the Internet). It comes from having been there and seen it in person. I know how important decaying, downed trees are to habitats because I've seen them, seen fungus and insects and animals living on them, seen how delicate it all is. I've spent hours sitting quietly, watching animals hiding their stores for winter. I spent almost every vacation as a child camping with my parents and sister in the local, State, and National Forests and Parks. These experiences are why I don't use pesticides/herbicides, telecommute to work instead of driving, buy recycled products, use compost in my garden, save water, and a hundred other little habits born of exposure to the very reasons it's important to tread lightly on all our lands.

If this sort of experience is denied to more and more children (and adults - let's not forget adults), who is going to be left in a few generations that understands why it's important to have these places, and to care about them?

California is a huge and growing state, a leader in the world community. Millions of people live here whose daily experiences include working indoors, sitting in traffic, walking on paved, lighted sidewalks, watching TV, surfing the web, eating prepared foods, and drinking treated water. Most don't even have a garden. Many haven't seen the Milky Way. They destroy water supplies with poisons because they think bugs and weeds are bad, and should be killed, and with fertilizers because they think their lawns should be green year round and leaves should be raked up and thrown away. These people desperately need the real, visceral experience of fresh air, dark skies at night, bugs and animals and plants and mushrooms all in their places as nature intended, uncontrolled. We as a country need for our fellow citizens to have these experiences.

Please, I urge you to go back to the drawing board and work on a plan that reasonably protects the environment, and wild habitats, while still permitting, even encouraging, access. I think it's critically important to our future, and to the future of these forests. Maybe someday I could even take my little nephew camping out there, too.

Thank you for your attention,
Linda Eskin