Collecting In the Huachucas

[Mark Walker]

Sorry to Doug for his unpleasant experience in Arizona.  I suppose it's safe
to say that this sort of encounter is still the exception - but I for one
believe that it's on the verge of happening every time I get out of my car
with my net in hand.  And it's not limited only to NP or NWR land.  This
sort of encounter can happen on ANY public land - sometimes enforced by
soccer moms and other vigilante citizens who have an unfair bias against
collecting.

This - for all of those on the list who have grown weary of my
pro-collecting ramblings from the past - is exactly the sort of thing that
has soured me so.

No offense to Hank - I love his SE AZ reports (not to mention his backyard),
but the ease with which the anti-collecting slant on this story gets
propagated is disturbing.

Mark Walker



> -----Original Message-----
> From: dyanega at pop.ucr.edu [mailto:dyanega at pop.ucr.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2000 4:03 PM
> To: hankb at theriver.com
> Cc: LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu
> Subject: Re: Collecting In the Huachucas
> 
> 
> >A couple of interesting developments sown our way re: 
> collecting in the
> >Huachuca Mountains.
> >
> >The first incident can be blamed on shear stupidity - the 
> kind of thing
> >which will not make things easier for folks who like to study
> >butterflies by collecting them.  A person who identified himself as a
> >grad student was caught by NPS personnel leading a group 
> with butterfly
> >nets and taking butterflies on National Park land in 
> Coronado National
> >Memorial.  In addition they had a loaded gun.
> >As one who has always tried to lessen the friction of those 
> who pursue
> >the study of butterflies by collecting and by other means - I would
> >really like to thank the stupid SOB responsible and might 
> suggest that
> >his Degree be rescinded.  He obviously is not a credit to 
> his university
> >or to science in general.  The reason I say this was really a stupid
> >thing to do is that there are thousands of acres of 
> adjoining National
> >Forest land were recreational collecting is allowed without 
> any permit.
> 
> It would also help if *you* got your facts straight. It so 
> happens that I
> was one of the people in that group (no one was "leading" it, 
> really), and
> we were NOT collecting butterflies there. We were driving 
> through, stopped
> to go to the restroom and throw out our trash (the Coronado National
> Memorial is basically a parking lot, a plaque, and an 
> outhouse, covering a
> few acres, tops - and about the only restroom for about 30 
> miles in either
> direction), and one member of our group of 10 pulled out his 
> net to kill
> some time while others were taking some pictures and such. 
> Within a matter
> of minutes, a park ranger pulled up in his Bronco and asked 
> him what he was
> doing, confiscated his net, proceeded to search his vehicle, 
> then grilled
> us and forced us to sit in the sun for two hours (while he 
> took pictures of
> the net and filled out his paperwork) - even though our 
> colleague hadn't
> collected anything, and even though it was nowhere indicated as we
> approached the area that it was National Parks land. Be 
> honest - how many
> of you *automatically* assume that a "National Memorial" that 
> occupies a
> few acres qualifies as a National Park, or that a ranger will 
> be lurking
> around such a place accusing people with nets of being 
> criminals? Do you
> HONESTLY think that anyone in ANY group of entomologists 
> would be so stupid
> as to attempt to collect in an area that was clearly a National Park?
>         If anyone here is not a credit to his office, it's an 
> officious,
> surly, condescending Park Ranger who issues 200 dollar fines for
> "possession of an insect net in a National Park" to polite, 
> cooperative
> people who had no idea that it WAS a National Park, and 
> forces them to sit
> for hours in the sun while he sits in his car and writes out 
> the citations.
> He didn't CARE whether we knew it was a National Park or not, 
> he didn't
> CARE whether any insects had actually been collected, he only 
> cared about
> writing out that citation and - evidently - spreading more 
> false rumors
> about how evil those butterfly collectors are, to come into 
> his Park (with
> a legal, registered, loaded handgun stashed away securely in 
> one vehicle,
> no less! Who could ever imagine that people on camping trips in remote
> areas near the Mexican border might actually be worried about their
> safety?!) and knowingly collect insects illegally. In fact, 
> he claimed that
> university people come onto his land all the time and 
> intentionally collect
> illegally, and he informed us that if we had actually *collected* any
> insects, he would have assessed an *additional* 200 dollar 
> fine, on top of
> the one for possession of the net. I, for one, would like to 
> know if simple
> possession of a net in a National Park really IS illegal, and 
> whether that
> truly means that people on collecting trips in Arizona are 
> breaking the law
> every time they drive through the Coronado National Memorial 
> (you cannot
> drive along that road WITHOUT passing through it). I also 
> can't believe
> anyone would actually waste their time collecting *IN* the CNM (as the
> ranger implied) when you can collect completely legally a few 
> hundred yards
> up or down the road from it, *except* purely by accident.
>         You were fed the version of the story that makes it 
> sound like the
> Ranger was the good guy, and I can assure you, he was not. 
> I've dealt with
> plenty of parks people over the years, and this was the 
> meanest-spirited
> individual I've ever met in such a position. Those of us on 
> the trip were
> even planning to file a complaint about his behavior - or do 
> you honestly
> believe that Park Rangers should routinely issue 200 dollar 
> fines for every
> accidental violation of unposted rules, instead of giving a 
> simple warning?
> Is "guilty until proven innocent" *your* preferred approach??
>         Ordinarily, I never would have brought this 
> unpleasant encounter up
> in public, but you compelled me to respond. But heck, maybe 
> it's a good
> thing this came out in public - I have half a mind to 
> organize a protest,
> attended by the media, where a few hundred insect collectors 
> gather at the
> CNM and wave our nets in the air in front of the ranger, and see if he
> feels like writing citations to all of us while the cameras 
> are rolling.
> Maybe THAT would alert people to the absurdity of the whole thing.
> Possession of an insect net is NOT a crime, people, and it's a sad and
> twisted excuse for logic that's required to *make* it one.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> 
> Doug Yanega        Dept. of Entomology         Entomology 
> Research Museum
> Univ. of California - Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
> phone: (909) 787-4315 (standard disclaimer: opinions are 
> mine, not UCR's)
>            http://insects.ucr.edu/staff/yanega.html
>   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
>         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
>