I was always attracted
to the lifestyles of the more colorful characters
I observed who followed the less trodden paths
throughout their lives. I was lucky enough to
grow up surrounded by people who routinely made
expeditions to various parts of the world in
search of wildlife specimens for zoos or museums.
I was mesmerized by their stories, magazine
articles, and books. Their interests in wild
lands and natural history influenced my own
attitudes immensely.
It became a habit of mine early on to follow
paved back roads to graded dirt roads then onto
jeep trails until they too ended. There I would
set up camp and continue any further exploration
by shank's mare. In this fashion I could access
some of my own less travelled paths into the
back country. I was not looking to be a tourist
in these areas; I wanted to become a real participant
in the natural world. Living on the land means
having to live off of it too; this quickly makes
a person appreciate just how hard such an endeavor
is for any living being to accomplish. I just
became one more predator on the scene.
The Southwest is blessed with a lot of public
wild lands, be they Forest Service, Bureau of
Land Management (BLM), or state controlled parcels.
These are designated lands of many uses including
sightseeing, bird watching, mineral extraction,
cattle raising, timber harvesting, hunting,
fishing, trapping, and other forms of recreation.
Getting away from the rat race that we call
civilization and immersing one's self in what
is, after all, the original habitat for our
species for most of its earthly history is often
necessary just for peace of mind.
Limiting car camping on public lands any more
than it already is will have an adverse effect
on human individuality in a world that routinely
tends to crush or dissuade character building
in its purest sense. When the U.S. Forest Service
contemplates such reductions in the Gila National
Forest I hope they keep in mind that America's
strength has always been based on such singular
qualities.
The idea that "woods bums", an affectionate
term for anyone eking out a portion of their
spiritual or corporal livelihood from what is
left of our frontier heritage, must be corralled
in limited public campgrounds goes against the
American grain. Prospectors, hunters, trappers,
ranchers with cattle leases, and the like are
still seen as possessing rugged self-direction;
something looked up to by the general populace.
Limiting or doing away with dispersed (vehicle)
camping, as well as the closure of more forest
roads can be seen as an attempt by federal suppression
of some of our core values.
The Southwest has always been a haven for "characters" that
never would have had a chance to become such
mythological subject matter without the chance
to roam, and camp, freely in what are now the
forest boundaries. Who can imagine a Ben Lilly
or Nat Straw confined to developed public campgrounds
packed with adults, children, pets, boom boxes,
generators, and myriad other character-killing
influences that can easily be brought to mind?
They would be ostracized, if not stoned, for
their peculiarities and yet they are the ones
books are written about, not those who submit
readily to the continued whittling away of our
individual freedoms. I have read that both the
Center for Biological Diversity and the Upper
Gila Watershed Alliance are strongly advocating
maximum road closures and eliminating dispersed
camping, in theory to protect portions of the
San Francisco River. Yet that is only a small
part of the entire forest they would have their
agendas effect. Such arguments hold about as
much water as a colander.
This is not really a debate by environmentalists
versus the rest of the human population. We
are all environmentalists, even if it chokes
some people to say it. We all know we need clean
air and water for ourselves, future generations,
wildlife, domestic livestock, trees, and the
very survival of all living entities on the
planet. Cattleman, sheep herder, timber cruiser,
and Buddhist monk all have this in common. The
Forest Service is charged with maintaining or
improving the health of the land under its direction
but it can certainly do so without further bans
involving current road travel and camping.
The nonsensical closure of the entire Gila
National Forest to legitimate and legal furbearer
trapping by the previous lame duck governor
of New Mexico in order to "protect" the
Mexican gray wolf reintroduction fiasco should
not be something forest supervisors want to
imitate. Loss of esteem and credibility are
the only lasting results of such subjective
decisions. Public input by those actually on
the ground and in small rural communities directly
affected need to hold more weight in such deliberations,
not just be background noise at mandatory briefings.
At a time when the Forest Service is undergoing
budget crunches it makes sense to have legitimate
citizens out there on the ground in lots of
areas. Having extra eyes that can report activities
such as scofflaw ATV traffic or the start of
a wildfire should be of huge value to forest
supervisors.
I once saw two uniformed Border Patrol agents
fishing in a tank where Bear Canyon and FS 150
road intersect near the north boundary of the
Gila National Forest. Because they were obviously
on duty and way too far north of the border
I wasn't too pleased with the sight. But apparently
Homeland Security was worried about illegal
aliens passing through the forest and it's true
that illegal aliens have started a lot of wildfires,
like the Horseshoe 2, the latest one in the
Chiricahua Mountains.
Dispersed citizen campers can help monitor
such trans- gressions which would in turn keep
our Border Patrol closer to the actual border
where they belong.
I didn't exactly set out to be some odd desert
rat/backwoods character but these things have
a way of creeping up on you if enough of your
life is spent out there living a decidedly different
existence. It could never have been done without
the freedom offered by dispersed camping on
public lands. It would be a shame to see others
lose the opportunities I was lucky enough to
have had, just because a federal agency and
some self-righteous people prefer a world of
conformity and rigid structure. That's not what
the Southwest is all about.
 Dexter Oliver in a dispersed camp on public wild lands, circa 1979.The Samurai sword was just a photo-op prop. |
Dexter Oliver as a participant in the natural world, not just a tourist, circa 1980. |
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