[pct-l] Why remove Bear Lockers

[Travis Beals]

I should have known--when in doubt, blame Congress, and you'll usually  
be right.

As much as I appreciated having a "proper" bathroom when I hiked the  
Whitney trail a few years ago, I can understand the Forrest Service  
not wanting to devote the manpower and expense to maintaining them and  
transporting the waste off the mountain. All the outhouses really did  
was increase convenience for humans.

The bear lockers are another story. They're already in place, and they  
require essentially zero maintenance. They're there for the protection  
of wildlife rather than the convenience of humans. I could even see  
removing rather than repairing broken lockers, but removing functional  
lockers seems like it will do more to hurt than help the goals of the  
Wilderness Act. The Park and Forrest Services already know from  
surveys that one of the most common causes of bears getting food in  
the wilderness is people having more food than will fit in their  
canister; this will just exacerbate that problem.

Is there any hope of changing their minds through a polite campaign of  
emails or phone calls? Who would we contact? Is this just tilting at  
windmills?