uptight/strange/illegal behaviour

[Kenelm Philip]

	The North must have a wider tolerance for deviant behavior than
do the lower 48 states. The only time I have ever been approached by law
enforcement people while collecting was one time on the Dempster Highway
when I was camping in a gravel pit (something one is, in theory, not
supposed to do). After I explained to the RCMP officer what I was doing
(and mentioned my Yukon Scientific Research License) he went away...

	Some of the best collecting in the more populated sections of
Alaska is found along roadsides--where one is visible to all the passing
traffic. I have never been harrassed--the few people who stopped to chat
seemed totally unperturbed by what I was doing. The only time I have tried
to hide from people while collecting was in Denali National Park, where
scientists are asked to carry out their work so the passing tourists do
not see them.

	I suspect that trying to hide while collecting sends the wrong
signal. You are in essence agreeing with the people who object to collect-
ing.

							Ken Philip
fnkwp at aurora.alaska.edu