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Government Approved Destruction 15-Jan-2007 At 10:23:34 AM Take!

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Nothing remains the same forever... except our ability to change our environment to suit us.
I had a discussion about this sort of thing with an old hippie mate of mine who said that no-one should be allowed in natural areas, ultimately its the only way to preserve them, full stop. A fair arguement - ultimately.
But somewhere between that extreme and the air-cond elevator with McCafe at the bottom, there has to be a sustainable compromise.

In areas where use of a natural track leads to erosion and degenaration of the area, there is a strong arguement for intervention by way of track stablisation. That is basic track stabilisation, not improved access. Track stabilisation or erosion mitigation or whatever you call it does not have to lead to the oversanitising of areas and 'easier' access. Easier access will only lead to further degeneration as the price of admission is lowered, here the price being effort etc. Lowering the price of admission does lower how much people value the area, and make it more likely to be trashed.

Shouldn't non-hikers have access to this area? If you mean people who have bugger-all care for what they are experiencing then no, they shouldn't. They can pi55-off and look at pictures or go to a zoo. Then again, how will they develop respect for something they can't experience?

I guess I don't have a steadfast answer to the problem either.