[pct-l] PCT usage quotas

[Brett]

>But I don't think artificially limiting traffic - eg, quotas - along the PCT 
> corridor via government regulation is a viable long-term solution to 
> increasing use of a National Scenic Trail. You build it so they will 
> come, and manage it so that they may continue to do so.

enyapjr at comcast.net wrote:

    Why do the agencies HAVE to increase use? They are also supposed to
    'preserve and protect' the "wilderness corridor" for future
    generations, also...

My reply:

They don't have to increase use. That's not what I'm implying in 
"building it so they will come." The National Scenic Trails are intended 
to provide recreational opportunities away from civilization, as an 
extended, unbroken refuge of sorts from modern life. The NST's are 
intended to be available to all Americans, now and into the future - a 
national heritage; access and opportunity are just as important as 
resource protection. And if and when the NST's receive increased use 
that could result in detriments to the resource, the goal of land 
managers should be to balance the two - to preserve and protect, but 
also to accommodate. Limiting users' access or freedom of movement along 
NST's should be a position of last resort. The goal instead should be to 
manage the trail so that it can handle the use it happens to receive.

The East vs West philosophical divide is huge. I've hiked both trails in 
full, and have lived here as well as there. But as the trail grows in 
popularity, it will be a stumbling block to success if Western land 
managers continue to view the PCT in a myopic, regional sort of way, and 
to lump this NST into the generalized management plan for individual 
Forests, Wilderness areas, and National Parks the trail passes through 
from Mexico to Canada.

If PCT thru-hikers are on the radar of Cleveland National Forest 
managers, then those managers should recognize that the phenomenon is 
related entirely to the PCT's unique condition as a border to border 
National Scenic Trail, complete with "thru-hiking windows of 
opportunity" and "starting masses that winnow down farther north" and 
yes, even Kick-off Parties that tend to concentrate hikers into roving 
bands. Any solution that ignores the big picture of a 2600 mile 
border-to-border trail in all its complexity and unique social dynamic 
is probably inappropriate, and stopgap.

- blisterfree