Vandals Topple Joshua Trees Amid Shutdown, Igniting Outrage

I have never felt that our National Parks are at grave risk as I do now.  Even before the government shut-down, Trump was already sizing them up for oil derricks.


Vandals Topple Joshua Trees Amid Shutdown Igniting Outrage

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/joshua-trees-shutdown_us_5c39adb0e4b0922a21d527cb


While thousands of workers remain furloughed or forced to work without pay as the government shutdown surpasses week three, the victims aren’t only human ― they’re environmental. Facing a huge staffing shortage, Joshua Tree National Park employees are unable to police the land, which spans nearly 800,000 acres of Southern California.

Now, workers have noticed illegal roads and chopped down trees, the work of vandals who likely were able to wreak havoc on the area because of Washington’s ongoing dysfunction.

Last Tuesday, nonprofit news outlet National Parks Traveler uploaded an image of one of the downed trees on its website. Since then, the photo, which was taken by the National Parks Service, has gone viral, provoking a wave of backlash on social media.



I was reading about this earlier in the week (I had to look up Joshua trees). See, I don’t even understand why someone would want to just randomly butcher a tree especially one so old. 

I certainly don’t understand how someone could undermine a small regional community by so horribly taking advantage of a few unsupervised days. 

Either the damage was already occurring but was undetected, or there’s a much more coordinated plan. Which is a truly scary thought, even for someone who know little about the matter. 


joanne said:
I was reading about this earlier in the week (I had to look up Joshua trees). See, I don’t even understand why someone would want to just randomly butcher a tree especially one so old. 
 

 There are people in the US who rankle at any measure of environmental conservation, and given the opportunity are happy to do damage. Look up the practice of "Rolling coal" some time for another example.

It could also be a non-specific anger at the Federal government (something that's very real in the US and fueled by right wing media) that manifested an attack at the nearest Federal entity.


People in the southwest get upset about federal controls on (very large areas of) undeveloped land.  Even my very pacific brother-in-law rankles at absolute bans on motorized access to some areas, though he would never ever do something like this. 

Some people obviously get nasty and destructive, and i absolutely agree that it's fueled by right-wing media, and egged on even more by the statements and tone of the current administration, which seems to make a point of appointing people (cabinet secretaries) who are opposed to the mission of their department.


But that kind of assumes people are hanging around, waiting for an opportunistic lazy half-day when no-one’s around so they can barge right in, done their nasty vicious thing then disappear until the next time, laughing secretly. 

I’m not buying it. 


I totally buy it. I have no problem believing that when the government shut down and the national parks were left unstaffed there were some local yahoos happy to jump right in and act like hooligans. I doubt anything was carefully planned ahead of time but I don't think it would take much for these people to get motivated.


Our societies are so different. 

We have our louts and destructive idiots, but they have stuff to do during the week, or are busy getting drunk etc and can’t get organised enough to get to such a remote place quickly enough, make their mark, and leave quickly without some stupid idiot uploading identifying videos on YouTube.


Conveniently located right off highway I-10, between LA/San Bernardino and the Colorado River.  Lots of people with trucks or motorcycles passing by. : (

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Joshua+Tree+National+Park/@33.8750006,-116.741662,8z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x1977eda73aeb9de2!8m2!3d33.873415!4d-115.9009923

These are the sons of 1970s So Cal high school kids who used to take their trucks out in the desert & try to hit rabbits.


cheese I love the directions from my place to there!

Yeah, your hoons and ours often seem to be weirdly different types of evil/crazy. 

Meantime, a place of haunting beauty suffers (and reasonable people weep). LOL


mrincredible said:


joanne said:
I was reading about this earlier in the week (I had to look up Joshua trees). See, I don’t even understand why someone would want to just randomly butcher a tree especially one so old. 
 
 There are people in the US who rankle at any measure of environmental conservation, and given the opportunity are happy to do damage. Look up the practice of "Rolling coal" some time for another example.
It could also be a non-specific anger at the Federal government (something that's very real in the US and fueled by right wing media) that manifested an attack at the nearest Federal entity.

 Or the asshats with gas or diesel trucks who purposely park in charging station spots to block electric vehicles from charging.  It’s apparently a thing now 


joanne said:
Our societies are so different. 
We have our louts and destructive idiots, but they have stuff to do during the week, or are busy getting drunk etc and can’t get organised enough to get to such a remote place quickly enough, make their mark, and leave quickly without some stupid idiot uploading identifying videos on YouTube.

 Check the thread on the mountain bikes in our local reservation. The damage is not severe because the tires on the bikes are not wide and "its only a bicycle." The louts know they are not supposed to be there but "bugger all."  


Then read about the damage to the New Jersey Pine Barrens every weekend. This is done by off road vehicles tearing up trails. The trails used to be flat. Now, there are one and two foot ripples in the trails that were caused by bikes. State l.e.o. have no resources to chase these entitled characters.



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