More on Mr. T (bflying in parks)

[Neil Jones]

In message <199709021851.OAA03957 at wally.aisvt.bfg.com> mwalker at aisvt.bfg.com writes:
> Kenelm wrote:
> 
> > I may have missed something--but the fact remains that, whether or not
> > the law makes sense (not all that much, in most cases) it has been illegal
> > to collect insects (and plants, and rocks, etc.) in National Parks with-
> > out a permit for decades. I discovered this back in the 1950's when a
> > very polite ranger informed me that I should not be attempting to collect
> > butterflies on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which I was trying to do in
> > happy ignorance. Ever since then I have obtained permits--and thus have
> > only had to hide my net from tourists--not from Park rangers.
> > 
> > 	So yes--the newspaper article was full of hype, as most such
> > articles are these days. But Mr. T. a) should not have been collecting
> > in National Parks, and b) if he was that knowledgeable a collector
> > should have known better. If he really did try to hide his net, he
> > obviously did know better. Just because the newspaper is wrong does
> > not make Mr. T. right...
> 
> When will I learn that short and terse is not appropriate for the Internet?
> 
> My remark about hiding my net was made to emphasize my disgust at the ranger's
> (and author's) assumption that _net_hiding_ is an admission of guilt.  Net
> hiding is an unfortunate response to _anti_collecting_ sentiment that only
> grows exponentially following such absurd and misinformed reporting.  To assume
> that the man in question was poaching and disguising himself as an amateur
> collector based on his impulse to hide his net would be unreasonable.  To
> assume that he knew better and thought he could get away with his amateur
> collecting in the N.P.'s is reasonable.

What is reasonable to someone to a large extent depends on their own experience.
In this case it is necessary to look at what the park authorities knew about
past cases. The fact is that there is a well known case where several collectors
conspired together to collect in national parks advising each other on how to
hide their activities in a way that seems very reminiscent of Mr. T.
Many people here will be all too familiar with the case. 

There is also the fact that standard population biology indicates that
collecting (or any other form of predation) can affect populations. Whether it
does so in any particular case may be difficult to determine but I would
point out that the greater capacity for reproduction of invertebrate
populations is largely a red herring in this arguement. 


  To consider that he grossly
> underestimated the likely consequences of his collecting behavior is logical,
> based on his willingness to collect in the N.P.'s to begin with.  The bottom
> line here is that if he really were interested in poaching valuable species, he
> wouldn't have been touring the N.P.'s.  My guess is that he really wanted to
> check out a few Giant Sequoia's.
> 
> Mark Walker.


-- 
Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk "The beauty and genius of a work of art
may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a
vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last
individual of a race of living things breathes no more another heaven and
another earth must pass before such a one can be again." William Beebe