Who bears the blame for vandalism on public lands?
Vandalism is the curse of our times. It is especially galling when I see evidence of this on our public lands. This is property that is owned by me, you and everybody else. Our precious tax dollars financed the purchase and upkeep of these precious few acres.
In the recent past, my wife and I visited the U.S. Forest Service lands down in the southeastern corner of Oklahoma. We parked the truck and got out for a short hike on the nature trail that was there. To our profound dismay, even a remote location such as that had been ransacked by those dastardly vandals. Both of us did a slow burn and quietly cursed under our breath at the criminal audacity of these ne’r-dowells.
... but, wait! Had we too easily jumped to our conclusion? Was this truly evidence of vandalism? The more we examined the clues, we came to the conclusion that something was amiss. The environmental damage consisted of huge, heavy slabs of rock being forcibly upended and cast aside. What gang of delinquent children would engage in such labor-intensive destruction?
Oh! Then it was that we realized that this bouldershucking activity was the result of the food foraging antics of the black bears that live thereabouts. These bruins have the heft and muscles to toss the roof off of the hidey holes of various insect grubs, mice and the like.
My wife and I took a few furtive glances to the sides, front and back. Not seeing any bears did not mean that they were not actually lurking nearby.
We got back in the truck and headed home.