September, 2019 | WBD-Travel

Wild Country Companion - The Ultimate Guide to No-Trace Outside Recreation and Wilderness Security

When I was inside the military, I wanted to leave no trace for tactical motives. This was in particular true as a sniper. We wanted to go where nobody would see us and leave without a trace. As a civilian, I nevertheless don’t need to leave a trace when I stop by the woods. Now it’s not necessarily for tactical factors, but simply to preserve our wildlife. I live in Montana, and am fortunate to possess plentiful wilderness regions at my disposal. It is actually normally a bit sad when I am on a hike with my family and we run across someone’s garbage. I am teaching my tiny girl that we need to leave the woods the identical, or improved when we pack other’s garbage out, as when we went in.

That is why I am glad Will Harmon wrote “Wild Country Companion: The Ultimate Guide to No-trace Outside Recreation and Wilderness Security.” This book is filled with suggestions from top specialists on how you’ll be able to make options that best suit your surroundings, skills, and modes of travel to lower your impact to our wild lands. There are lots of no-trace outdoor recreation and wilderness safety options in this guide, such as concepts for constructing campfires, deciding on campsites, travel routes, protecting your food from bears along with other wildlife, staying discovered, staying healthier, avoiding conflicts with other outdoor users, and much more.

The book is divided into six major chapters, The initial chapter is on the …

Traver & Leisure

Why Minority Group Members Don’t Use Public Lands More

September 18, 2019November 25, 2019 - by George Pollard

In “Meeting the Challenge of Wild Land Recreation Management: Demographic Shifts and Social Inequality” by Dorceta E. Taylor, the author raises a number of challenges and issues around diversity, race, and ethnicity in public lands and outdoor recreation areas. A key reason for this concern is the relatively small percentage of members of racial and ethnic minority groups involved in going to these areas as attendees or being involved as partners or volunteers in managing these areas compared to their percentage in the population. This article raises concerns about why they are less involved than members of the majority white population and how to get them to become more involved.

There are a number of reasons why they may be less involved. One reason for their lower participation may be the romanticized perception of wilderness areas from American history inspired by notions of transcendentalism and romanticism. These ideas have created a romanticized image of the wilderness as a retreat from the modern, industrial world, and now that vision might serve as a counterpoint to today’s high-tech, fast-paced world of immediate global connections everywhere. Still another theme from history may be the notion of the wilderness as a frontier with images of rugged male frontiersmen battling the elements and nature on their own that appealed primarily to white middle and upper class males — an image reflected in the popular image of the cowboy and male hunter in films and TV. Then, too, the national parks and wilderness areas became a …