It's Not OK to Poach Trails in Unstaffed National Parks

On Sunday, January 6, two western Montana skiers headed out for a tour. They drove snowmobiles to the border of a federal wilderness area, then switched to backcountry touring gear, expecting to break trail through powder. Instead they found themselves following fresh tread tracks. In the distance, two snowmobilers were high-marking a bowl that was clearly within the designated wilderness. The outlaw motorists paid no mind to the skiers, who were obeying the social contract, and eventually buzzed within 20 feet of them.

Due to the government shutdown, the skiers couldn’t report the incident to rangers, but one of them called the local sheriff with a description of the sleds as well as a truck and trailer that was parked at the trailhead. (He shared these details with me on the condition of anonymity.) The sheriff’s office, not often tasked with public-lands violations, appeared indifferent. As for the throttle-twisting malefactors, one presumes they saw the government closure as an opportunity for an illegal joyride. “They were being so blatant about it,” the skier told me. “It sure seemed like they knew exactly what they were doing—and they didn’t care.”

The violation wasn’t as egregious as the snowmobilers who buzzed Old Faithful during the three-day government shutdown last January, but such civil atrophy has become rampant in our national parks as the current crisis enters its fourth week. News stories have mostly focused on several deaths and the overflowing toilets occurring there, but what’s gone largely unreported is the fact that inconsiderate adventurers see the closure as an opportunity to fun-hog around public lands without a care for the rules that we the people have written to protect our open spaces and natural habitats. The national parks largely remain open, as do our national forests and other public lands. The laws that govern these lands are also still in effect. It’s only the diligent stewards we employ to care for those lands who are now out of work. Sadly, with little to no oversight, society devolves and people behave poorly. As George Orwell, who had a handle on dystopias, once stressed, “Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out ... depends on the general temper in the country.”

Let’s characterize the current temperament as increasingly brazen with instances of outright criminality. The worst reports are just now coming out of California’s Joshua Tree National Park, where marauding off-road vehicles have created tracks through the desert that will remain for decades. Crowds pitching illegal campsites are also doing lasting damage to the fragile landscape. In Northern California’s Marin County, mountain bikers have begun poaching the singletrack in Muir Woods National Monument and Point Reyes. On Christmas Day, I was cross-country skiing on national forestland near my home in Missoula, Montana, along a groomed track that is clearly marked as off limits to hikers and snowshoers when I encountered a teenager postholing along with a new sled from Santa, intent on ripping down a nearby avalanche path.

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