Moro Rock closed to climbing

that hasn't been my experience at all. the pushing around is recent, within the past 20 years. before that, rangers actually ranged and knew their territories much better than they do now. they were helpful, friendly people who rarely had to exercise law enforcement authority.

this was my experience in the upper midwest and even in the mountains of southern california. at the same time, the democratic process has become greatly diminished. gone are publicly reasoned approaches to policy, well-publicized meetings for public expression and discussion, and periodic review of measures which should only be temporary, such as the peregrine issue.

from this discussion it would appear that human activity is being restricted even further as the peregrine population actually increases well past the point of "least concern". and human recreational activity had nothing to do with the decline of the falcon.

what we're left with is a sick and unscientific myth that the mere presence of a human being is going to somehow pollute and destroy nature, and there's a hidden poison in that myth: if people are divorced from nature, if they encounter it rarely at best, they come to care less and less about it, and the really destructive things which happen--and they are continuing to happen--just aren't that important any more. i think that's the real result of this silly focus on the little corners of wilderness, the crises of this and that little species. the big, destructive policies trundle on without check. the public thinks small.

If the birds are so disturbed by the presence of climbers, why the heck did they select such a popular climbing rock as Summit to nest at in the first place? Santa Clara County Parks is now trying to insist that the Peregrines moved to Summit because all of the climbing activity at Castle Rock disturbed them. Improbable to say the least when you stop to consider that there must be 500 rocks in Castle Rock State Park where there is no climbing activity whatsoever.

However, those who poo-poo a conspiracy theory should take note of the fact that the Audubon Society employs paid environmental advocates like Shani Kleinhaus, who has a Ph.D. in ecology from Davis, to insist on rocks being closed down completely due to Peregrine nesting, whether the birds are bothered by climbing near their nests or not.

http://www.togethergreen.org/People/FellowDetails.aspx?fellowID=98

http://www.scvas.org/index.php?page=text&id=staff

She works all around the Western US and has a generally low opinion of climbers, regarding them as anti-social law breakers who might attack nesting peregrines to reclaim 'their' rocks. The Nature Nazis do network together rather effectively, lobbying and penetrating local government and regulatory agencies. Shani not only has contacts on the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors but on the governing board of the Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space (MROSD) board of directors.

The Nature Nazis are just a lot more effective at networking than climbers have been, at least until now. We just need to make our presence and numbers known to these little bureaucratic boards and committees that issue closure notices without any public comment or input.