[Cdt-l] Cattle Dung Trail...of the future

[stumpknocker]

Nah....I reject your fantasy world. I like the CDT in NM fine just the way
it is....in fact I loved the CDT in NM!!

I believe I now see why some hikers don't get along with the ranchers.  I
always had great conversation with any of them or their hands that I ran
across.  I see them as good people.

On Wed, Feb 10, 2010 at 1:11 AM, Brett <blisterfree at yahoo.com> wrote:

> While there's little question that the CDT hiking experience of today is
> part and parcel with the ranching industry, I don't think it's
> inevitable that this will always be the case. It's an increasingly tough
> and unglamorous line of work (for the next generation, especially), and
> hikers (those willing to adapt, or who know no different) would be able
> to navigate a way through a landscape less beholden to the ranching
> business. Ironically, though, there might be some major caveats to this
> future landscape that might affect hikers adversely in other ways.
>
> In this hypothetical future world (where YMMV, no question!):
>
> - The land recovers from decades of overgrazing, in some cases slowly,
> as native grassland habitat slowly replaces cattle-induced mesquite
> forests in the arid zones, for example; in other cases, with surprising
> speed, as springs and riparian zones become viable, in some cases
> perennial again, maybe in the course of only a year or two. In general,
> the land heals, wildlife habitat improves, and the net positive effect
> is profound beyond our anticipation as we recognize how desensitizing
> the status quo cow-burnt landscape really was. (And yes, it really was
> cow-burnt!)
>
> - Naturally flowing surface water being more abundant, hikers are less
> dependent on the stock tanks (which have filled with sediment) and
> windmills (many broken or removed). Hikers have also learned to seek out
> water sources farther afield and have adapted their hiking route and
> itinerary to accommodate this water (the CDT route itself evolves).
>
> - Continuing a small trend of the latter days of ranching's reign, some
> of the old wells have been converted to serve the needs of wildlife and
> recreational users and are maintained by the USFS, BLM, etc. expressly
> for this purpose. Boy Scout projects and such also contribute to this
> effect, with rainwater catchments (rain aprons) replacing some of the
> old earthen tanks and providing better quality water as a result.
>
> - The USFS and other agencies more actively include recreational use of
> their lands in management plans, and court these groups in an effort to
> increase funding for their districts. User fees may become more
> commonplace, commensurate with services provided, and user groups may or
> may not include OHV's to a greater degree than before (ostensibly an
> appropriate use of the existing road infrastructure).
>
> - More land is set aside as designated Wilderness, especially BLM land.
> Non-motorized recreational use and interest steadily increase,
> domestically but especially from abroad.
>
> - The small communities near the trail transition to more of a
> tourist-based economy, although old ways die hard and some towns thrive
> while others do not.
>
> - Some of the ranches creak on, while many sell off to developers, as a
> growing baby boomer population spreads out in search of the good life.
> Pitched battles ensue between preservationists and developers, whose
> housing and community development projects lie adjacent to public lands
> in many cases, or are located on formerly public land 'swapped' or sold
> off by the government in order to boost struggling rural economies.
>
> - Decades later now, the landscape, in some areas along the Divide,
> bears little resemblance to the one hikers knew back in the early years
> of the 21st century. In some areas, a level of pristinehood once
> reserved for places like Yellowstone or Glacier has become the new norm.
> In other places, sometimes in close proximity to these oases, patchworks
> of development signal the encroachment of the modern world - the New
> West - where before the land was still, bucolic, dirt-roaded, and silent
> except for the distant bellow of a rancher's cow, or the discharge of a
> hunter's rifle.
>
> Again, YFWMV (your future world, that is!). But as for today, in many
> ways ranching remains the glue that holds the current motley assemblage
> together. It's an imperfect world, certainly, though it *is* at least
> the devil we know. Whether or not that bond breaks of its own accord, it
> may well happen, and the future world that emerges - for hikers, for the
> Divide - will be an unpredictable place indeed.
>
> - blisterfree
>
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