5 minute read
VOICES Moving at a snail’s pace
it is waiting for us to consume it.
In a recent meeting with a partner, they were discussing how their technology could serve up information in real time, measuring response times in milliseconds. Again, we have become a culture that has a need for speed, instant gratifica-
As I came across a snail the other day, I watched it move slowly across the pavement. And I found myself fascinated by the slow and deliberate pace of the snail. So in that moment I reflected on my own need for speed. Although I can’t slow down advancements in technology that are designed to speed things up, nor can I or should I worry about others and their need for speed, I can decide when it’s time to slow things down for myself. Can my walks along the shoreline be a little slower so I can appreciate the sounds of the waves lapping against the sand, taking in the salt air, and maybe finding a unique shell or piece of sea glass? Can my hikes in the mountains be slowed down just a bit so I can take in the wildflowers, watch the streams rushing down the mountainside, or look out at the amazing vistas from the openings through the trees?
We are definitely a society on the go. We want the speed limits to be higher, our flights to get us to our destination faster. We want our meals delivered to our homes or tables in unreasonably fast times. We expect the elevator to show up as soon as we press the button. It’s the pace of the race these days that we are trying to keep up with and the pace is getting quicker and quicker each day.
I thought about the snail again. And as I did, I was reminded that moving at a snail’s pace is okay sometimes. I enjoy a slow brewing pot of coffee as it fills the kitchen with that beautiful coffee aroma. I love reading and spending time slowly letting the story develop and not racing to finish the book. I find it so much more meaningful to pray slowly as it connects me at a deeper level to those I am praying for and to my faith. And when I can slow down enough before rushing out of the house to write notes to my family and leave them around the house, it makes everyone feel so loved and appreciated. Is it time to slow down a bit for you? Are you running a race that just gets faster and faster all the time? I would love to hear your story at gotonorton@gmail. com, and when we can move at a snail’s pace sometimes, it really will be a better than good life.
Michael Norton is an author, a personal and professional coach, consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator of individuals and businesses, working with organizations and associations across multiple industries.
Mountains in wilderness don’t need hardware
We humans want the most out of life, so why shouldn’t we push to get more of what we want?
at’s what some rock climbers must be thinking. ey want to enter designated Wilderness in order to drill permanent anchors into wilderness rock faces, turning these wild places into sport-climbing walls.
When the Wilderness Act became law in 1964, it put wildlife and wild lands rst, decreeing that these special places should be left alone as much as possible. is unusual approach codi ed humility, arguing that some wild places, rich in wildlife and natural beauty, needed as much protection as possible.
So far, the Act protects less than 3% of what Congress called “untrammeled” public land in the Lower 48. ese are unique places free of roads and vehicles and most manmade intrusions that a ict the rest of America.
e Wilderness Act also prohibits “installations,” but to get around this, a group called the Access Fund has persuaded friends in Congress to introduce a bill that would, in e ect, amend the Wilderness Act.
Introduced by Rep. John Curtis, a Re-
WRITERS ON THE RANGE publican from thew anti-environmental delegation of Utah, and co-sponsored by Democrat Joe Neguse from Colorado, the “Protect America’s Rock Climbing Act” (PARC Act) has been promoted as bi-partisan. ous and harmful consequences for the management of wilderness areas across the nation.” ban on anchors would be tantamount to a ban on climbing in wilderness areas.”
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Yet over 40 conservation groups, from small grassroots greens to large national organizations, have written Congress to oppose the bill. Wilderness is not about human convenience, they say, it’s about safeguarding the tiny pockets of wild landscape we’ve allowed to remain.
e PARC Act directs federal agencies to recognize the legal use of xed anchors in Wilderness, a backdoor approach to statutory amendment that even the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Interior oppose.
In a hearing on the bill, the Forest Service stated that “creating new de nitions for allowable uses in wilderness areas, as (the PARC Act) would do, has the practical e ect of amending the Wilderness Act. (It) could have seri-
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CORINNE WESTEMAN Community Editor cwesteman@coloradocommunitymedia.com en there are the trail runners who want exemptions from the ban on commercial trail racing. Drone pilots and hang-gliders also want their forms of aircraft exempted.
Beyond the permanent visual evidence of human development, xed anchors would attract more climbers looking for bolted routes and concentrate use in sensitive habitats. at impact is harmful enough, but the bill also sends a loud message: Recreation interests are more important than preserving the small bit of Wilderness we have left.
What’s coming next is clear. Some mountain bikers, led by the Sustainable Trails Coalition, have introduced legislation to exempt mountain bikes from the prohibition on mechanized travel in Wilderness.
What’s confounding is that climbing is already allowed in Wilderness. is bill is simply about using xed bolts to climb as opposed to using removable protection. at’s apparently confusing to some people.
An article in the Salt Lake Tribune went so far as to wrongly state that, “a
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But now, even some climbers are pushing back. e Montana writer George Ochenski, known for his decades of rst ascents in Wilderness, calls the Tribune’s position “Total bullsh*t.” In an e-mail, he said bolting routes “bring ‘sport climbing’ into the wilderness when it belongs in the gym or on non-wilderness rocks.”
For decades, many climbers have advocated for a marriage of climbing and wilderness ethics. In Chouinard Equipment’s rst catalog, Patagonia founder and legendary climber Yvon Chouinard called for an ethic of “clean climbing” that comes from “the exercise of moral restraint and individual responsibility.”
We don’t like to think of recreation as consumptive, but it consumes the diminishing resource of space. And protected space is in short supply as stressors on the natural world increase. With every “user group” demand, the refuge for wild animals grows smaller. Meanwhile, a startling number of our animal counterparts have faded into extinction.
SEE JOHNSON, P15
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