Makes my blood boil!

[Andy Mink]

I saw this article this morning. This kind of stuff makes my blood boil. It's bad enough when it's on trains and buildings but when these POS start tagging parks, especially National Parks, it goes beyond. Why people think this is any way OK I don't get. Even if you're a gang banger I'd hope you have a little more respect but I guess that's too much to ask. I have a solution that will keep these offenders from re-offending but I'd probably be told the punishment has to fit the crime. In my mind, it would.

MSN

 

[Andy Mink]

There was a story a few years back and it included a video of an entire family scratching their names into a metal railing in an Oregon (I think) state park. I made a comment about what kind of person does that and was amazed at the number of "what's the big deal" responses. Everything from "who cares" to "if people didn't damage stuff, Rangers wouldn't have anything to do". As a former Park Ranger, that was a comment I heard more than once, usually about litter when I requested people pick up after themselves. 1,000 hours of community service each, please!

 

[fatbob]

Obviously I don't approve but I think it's the unfortunate flipside of wider access to the outdoors and the "showing off" through social media

Certainly in the UK, COVID restrictions on travel brought unprecented numbers of people to National Parks and other outdoor areas and not everyone knew the rules of engagement re access, litter, toilet functions and car parking and wild/fly camping. There is still a problem with excessive numbers of camper vans but things seem to be getting a bit smarter there with some overnight parking in official car parks for the appropriate fee. I don't think it's that much of a stretch to imagine that those who would buy a cheap tent, jump over a farmer's wall and camp for a few days, perhaps scorching the ground with an open fire and leaving scores of beer empties behind might stretch to graffiti or other "entertainment".

The article is kinda weird though - makes it sound that the worst tagging was in response to an attempted proactive action by rangers?

 

[noncrazycanuck]

It's not just a recent problem. Lots of graffiti is almost as old as the man made structures it's on. Spray paint just makes it easier and more prolific.
Once witnessed some moron start to scratch his name onto a stone wall on the Acropolis.
He was quickly grabbed, given a closer view of the Theatre of Dionysus beneath the the wall, before being taken away in handcuffs.
Personally I'd like to see all taggers given toothbrushes and time to clean up after themselves.

 

[locknload]

So incredibly infuriating. Where is that selfish need to deface and destroy our natural spaces coming from....

 

[scott43]

Didn't some clown push over table Rock it something a few years ago??

 

[fatbob]

There was some scouts who trashed a balanced rock in Goblin Valley and filmed it.

 

[chilehed]

Dirtbags.

 

[Lorenzzo]

If you don’t like graffiti on hiking trails don’t hike Little Cottonwood. I don’t do that anymore for that reason. Bob Dylan explains the phenomenon here:

 

[Tex]

SMH. If I was in charge...

 

[crosscountry]

I saw this article this morning. This kind of stuff makes my blood boil. It's bad enough when it's on trains and buildings but when these POS start tagging parks, especially National Parks, it goes beyond. Why people think this is any way OK I don't get. Even if you're a gang banger I'd hope you have a little more respect but

But that's the root of the problem. We accepted graffiti in the city. So it's only a matter of time the same people move outside of the city.

 

[crgildart]

There was some scouts who trashed a balanced rock in Goblin Valley and filmed it.

Their idiot adult scout leader thought it was a hazard and dangerous situation that could fall on a kid or something like that. This is NOT "leave no trace"..

Scout Leaders Who Toppled Ancient Rock Formation Are Charged

The men videotaped themselves as one of them pushed over a Jurassic-era sandstone pillar at Utah's Goblin Valley State Park.

www.npr.org

 

[Tony S]

So incredibly infuriating. Where is that selfish need to deface and destroy our natural spaces coming from....

Totally with all the sentiment here. However, I suspect that many people doing this have not personally internalized that they are defacing and destroying. To them a big rock face may be no more and no less than an opportunity to take advantage of a blank canvas that everyone who came before was too oblivious to notice. The idea that someone might assign serious value to it it as-is probably never enters their minds.

 

[pchewn]

My blood still boils every time I see these burned trees in the Columbia Gorge.

This teenager threw some fireworks and started a 47,000 acre wildfire.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...gon-wildfire-to-pay-36-million-in-restitution

 

[Bad Bob]

Not a new phenomenon, and for sure not right. Go down into 9 Mile Canyon NE of Price UT, a major site for petroglyphs. As you are looking around you will find some scratchings from the late 1800's done by cowboys from those days with names and dates.
But to intentionally deface wild country or destroy park facilities for fun puts you on a whole new level of stupid and low.

 

[Tom K.]

My blood still boils every time I see these burned trees in the Columbia Gorge.

This teenager threw some fireworks and started a 47,000 acre wildfire.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...gon-wildfire-to-pay-36-million-in-restitution

I'd like to like this eleventy billion times. Crikey. We spent the whole summer on edge on the west side of Hood River.

AAARRRGGGHHH!

Of course, it was eminently controllable, but the feds chose not to use retardant -- fertilizer -- due to river and wilderness proximity. I will never forgive this, but it's probably for another thread.....

But it's worth noting that what got the fire under control was over an inch or rain, when less than a quarter inch was forecast. This was an amount of rain I've never before seen at that time of year. So fortunate.

 

[LiquidFeet]

Totally with all the sentiment here. However, I suspect that many people doing this have not personally internalized that they are defacing and destroying. To them a big rock face may be no more and no less than an opportunity to take advantage of a blank canvas that everyone who came before was too oblivious to notice. The idea that someone might assign serious value to it it as-is probably never enters their minds.

^^This.
Minds just don't all work alike.
It's important to realize these people are among us.

 

[Andy Mink]

^^This.
Minds just don't all work alike.
It's important to realize these people are among us.

I think it's more along the lines of minds don't work. I struggle to believe that someone tagging or otherwise defacing or destroying property didn't know it's not OK.

 

[crgildart]

Some would argue that resorts, trails for human traffic and ski lifts are more disrespectful to mother nature than painting a rock.. Like those folks who cut gondola cables...

 

[dbostedo]

Some would argue that resorts, trails for human traffic and ski lifts are more disrespectful to mother nature than painting a rock.. Like those folks who cut gondola cables...

It's not really about the disrespect to nature. There's already a hiking trail there and a park, which you could argue the same thing about. It's about ruining what people like about the area, given what it is.