by Roger White, started Dec 1988
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copyright Aug 2002
"It's Day Seven of Wilderness 2053. This is Chet Bradley, and our satellite monitors show us that Jim is now camping at Gem Lake." The TV viewers see a picture-perfect alpine lake surrounded with alpine meadows and pine groves. It's hard for them to tell, but the pine trees here are a lot shorter than those on Yellowstone Creek. Gem Lake is 4000 meters high. "He's only a day away from his goal: Kings Peak, the highest point in the High Uintas.
"Before this primitive area was established, Gem Lake was a popular camping and fishing area." viewers see a still shot from the late 50's showing rows of neatly-pitched tents, "Lets see how it looks now that humans have been excluded from the area for fifty years. Jim, what are you finding?"
"Well Chet, as you can see from my cameras, the area is just beautiful. I'm watching a sunset send it's last pink rays projecting onto Kings Peak. And, in fact, if you look carefully... I think those are Bighorn sheep on the slope." The camera zooms in for a closeup of the creatures moving gracefully across a boulder field.
"The lake itself is clean, clear and cold, and there is a beaver colony in the creek nearby."
"Thank you for that report, Jim. We'll sign off and let you get some rest."
Floating in the twilight over Jim's head, are the silent, motorized Park Service gliders. In daytime they float on the breezes along with the eagles and hawks--disturbing neither--at night they glide alone. They are not there to help or rescue travelers like Jim, they are looking for illegal intruders. The parks are still troubled by intrusions of poachers, farmers, ranchers, photographers and hikers.
Jim remembers sitting in the ancient classroom with only ninety days to go. The windows were open and Jim felt the spring breeze flowing in from the fresh-cut lawn outside.
"No one has been brought to court for wilderness intrusion this year, Jim." said Horace Manly, the Park Service liaison briefing Jim on primitive area conditions, "and no one is likely to be. The gliders take care of the problem quickly and cleanly; right on the spot; and a spot is generally all that remains.
"Park Service policy is to handle trespassers this way because it minimizes wilderness intrusion, and there is no reason for anyone to be in a national park without a beeper.
"Has anyone given you any flack about this? I guess maybe the environmentalists wouldn't, but what about the ACLU?"
"This policy is new--started about ten years ago. It was instituted to clear up a chronic problem in the Mount Shasta area. There were some dope growing mountain-men there that refused to stay out. They claimed that spiritual powers from the mountain suffused their crop--making it unique. They lost in court; we tried relocating them three times. Finally, we put up the gliders over Shasta. All but one or two found somewhere else to farm."
"And those one or two?"
"Haven't heard from'um. The ACLU has brought suit claiming cruel and unusual punishment and forfeit of due process and such, but it'll be a while before that works its way through the system. In the meantime, we've instituted gliders over all the national parks, and the intrusion problem has dropped dramatically."
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