An ultra-runner is in deep doo-doo for running on federal land

jewbacca wrote:

hmmmmmmmm wrote:

I don’t consume information from companies that have been forced to pay 12-figure settlements for bold-faced lying to the American public.

There is enormous irony in Faux News spreading this anti-federal lands BS. Utah Republican Mike Lee and many, many other western republican Congressmen want to take these lands and sell them off for development. They are very jealous of the average person's access to these lands.

Right now they sell it under the guise of affordable housing. Which is a joke. Mike Lee represents Utah, where there is a legitimate housing crunch along the Wasatch Front due to... well... look at a map. Over 60% of the state lives on land wedged between mountain ranges or wedged between the mountains and the Great Salt Lake. I'd love to hear Mike Lee show on the map which tracts of federal land are going to ease this shortage.

HOUSES - Mike Lee US Senator for Utah

9900 wrote:

Here's a better article:

Link:www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/environmen...

And follow up:

Link:www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/environmen...

As I non-partisan, left leaning guy with an environmental science graduate degree/had a career as an environmental scientist, my opinion is that it is overcriminalization, as discussed in the second article. Yes, Trump administration is arguing that, but it's historically a bipartisan arguably more left leaning take not to severely punish acts that cause no harm.

The defense, meanwhile, called Bryce Thatcher of Idaho Falls, who set the first widely known Grand Teton speed record in 1983, and Patrick Parsel, trail program manager for Utah’s Division of Outdoor Recreation.

To make their case, Calmes and Bushnell drew attention to different pieces of park literature and evidence, including Sunseri’s Instagram messages and Strava posts.

Calmes, at one point, asked Altizer, the climbing ranger, to read a line on the park’s trail map that said, “Stay on trails to protect native vegetation,” interpreting that directive as a command.

But Bushnell pointed witnesses to other park directives to visitors, including one that told them to “carry drinking water,” and another that told guests to “hike on established trails.”

He asked Newton whether the statement about carrying drinking water had the force of law.

“It’s a suggestion,” she said.

When Bushnell asked about the “established trails” directive, contrasting it with the generally accepted rule that off-trail travel is permitted in parks unless a switchback is cut, Newton’s answer was similar.

“It’s a recommendation,” she said.

Later, Calmes countered Bushnell’s point — that it’s not always easy to differentiate between rules and suggestions — by asking Parsel, the Utah trail manager: Who is responsible for knowing park rules?

“The user,” Parsel said, referring to park visitors.

Ahead of closing arguments, the defense appeared to be teeing up an argument that Sunseri had been “selectively prosecuted.” On the witness stand, Halpin admitted to using the switchback five or six times throughout her life and even being criticized by a mountain guide for doing so. Altizer, meanwhile, said she knew that Jenny Lake climbing rangers had “talked to” one climbing guide for cutting the switchback, but said the guide wasn’t prosecuted. The ranger who contacted him didn’t have law enforcement credentials.

When Calmes and Bushnell pushed her to explain why she charged Sunseri, Altizer repeatedly said that she made a decision along with the rest of the Jenny Lake rangers. Her explanation was relatively consistent.

“It was a high-profile incident,” Altizer said. “The previous record holder did not use the shortcut. And, from our perspective, the matter was settled: Nobody was going to use that shortcut.”

Altizer was referencing a 2012 drama when European mountain runner Kilian Jornet set the Grand Teton speed record by using the switchback, catching heat from Jackson’s running community and the park. Ten days later, Colorado climbing ranger Andy Anderson beat Jornet’s time, clinching the record without cutting.

As a scientist, my take (admittedly without knowing specifics of this location) is that not cutting switchbacks is more of an aesthetic rule than true environmental protection. So the human impact zone increases within the switchback zone a tiny bit, but it's still the same human impact corridor. Yes, the alpine zone is more sensitive, and the park as a right to make the rule, but I'm generally not for make-an-example-out-of-people type punishments.

As an orienteer, the sport is full of environmentalists, tree-hugger, nature lovers who actually spend a lot of time in the woods. And the sport is conducted off trails! Studies on orienteering show minimal impact to the landscape, even 10,000 to 25,000 orienteers going in relatively limited forests have no impact a year later. See this discussion for example for orienteers trying to get a permit for a park unfamiliar with orienteering and having typical US rules of not going off trail:

Link:www.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.j...

My former environmental science professors and their own mentors/friends were famous adventurers and did things like take their mountain bikes across the Alaska range (getting a National Geographic story for that). That group of Alaska adventurers also did things like bootleg runs through the Grand Canyon on packrafts, so highly illegal, but also causing no harm. You could argue that if everyone snuck into and ran the Grand Canyon on packrafts, a lot of people would die, and it would be overcrowded, but really, that's not going to happen.