# Environmental Correctness Gone Amok: What to do with a fallen tree? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 1, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/environmental-correctness-gone-amok-what-to-do-with-a-fallen-tree/601535 "2011-11-01T19:17:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/environmental-correctness-gone-amok-what-to-do-with-a-fallen-tree/601535/21 "2011-11-03T19:12:41Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > By environmental correctness I was referring to the Parks Service’s inability to handle a routine maintenance issue. They should have handled this the very next day. Cut a section out of the dead tree and clear the trail. Then decide later if the tree stays or goes. This is an internal decision. > > Instead we have paralysis. We have statements about it being a big decision with major consequences. It gets in the paper. The public is asked for suggestions. See the OP for specific quote. > > We pay these people to manage this wildlife resource. Not pee their pants because a tree falls in the forest. The tree huggers have them scared to even handle a simple maintenance issue in a park. Did you read the part about how they’d never had one of the giants fall in that park? It isn’t _just_ a tree. It’s a 1500 year chunk of history, and some people - especially visitors to the park and those who support the park - have a lot of emotion invested in it. Oh, and did you catch the part where it’s a _park_? As in “owned and operated by the Federal gov’t” - you know, the entity that, by design, must respond to the wishes of the electorate? No, they don’t get to just chop it up and haul it off. Or tunnel through it. Or build a bridge over it. Why? Because the park has a responsibility to listen and respond to the people it serves. Those people don’t want it done right now, they want it done right. Cheez, mon, find a real problem to get wound up over. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/environmental-correctness-gone-amok-what-to-do-with-a-fallen-tree/601535/22 "2011-11-03T20:15:22Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > A lot of disappointed tourists? And closing that one trail will break their little tourist hearts? That park must be a pretty boring place. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/environmental-correctness-gone-amok-what-to-do-with-a-fallen-tree/601535/23 "2011-11-03T21:12:17Z")
The park is kind of out of the way, it’s a long drive from almost anywhere on some narrow mountain roads. If you were to schlep all the way up there expecting to commune with the giants and found the trail closed, I suspect you’d be pretty disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/environmental-correctness-gone-amok-what-to-do-with-a-fallen-tree/601535/24 "2011-11-03T21:16:29Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > The park is kind of out of the way, it’s a long drive from almost anywhere on some narrow mountain roads. If you were to schlep all the way up there expecting to commune with the giants and found the trail closed, I suspect you’d be pretty disappointed. I didn’t realize there was only a single trail in the whole park. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/environmental-correctness-gone-amok-what-to-do-with-a-fallen-tree/601535/25 "2011-11-03T21:59:52Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Actually it does require immediate action. That National Park gets thousands of visitors a day from all over the world. Right now that trail is closed because one tree fell. Did you read your own article? The trail has been re-opened. I think they just closed it while they cleared the debris (I imagine a tree that big takes down a lot of other stuff when it goes over). The actual tree doesn’t seem to be that big an obstruction, tourists have just been climbing it or walking around. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/environmental-correctness-gone-amok-what-to-do-with-a-fallen-tree/601535/26 "2011-11-04T12:30:42Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Winter’s coming - somebody must need firewood. > > Regards, > Shodan :dubious: letsroll fug that, let’s start the fire right there on the trail. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/environmental-correctness-gone-amok-what-to-do-with-a-fallen-tree/601535/27 "2011-11-04T20:19:00Z")
A bridge over it or a tunnel underneath it? Choices, choices. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/environmental-correctness-gone-amok-what-to-do-with-a-fallen-tree/601535/28 "2011-11-04T20:42:55Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > By environmental correctness I was referring to the Parks Service’s inability to handle a routine maintenance issue. They should have handled this the very next day. Cut a section out of the dead tree and clear the trail. Then decide later if the tree stays or goes. This is an internal decision. > > Instead we have paralysis. We have statements about it being a big decision with major consequences. It gets in the paper. The public is asked for suggestions. See the OP for specific quote. > > We pay these people to manage this wildlife resource. Not pee their pants because a tree falls in the forest. The tree huggers have them scared to even handle a simple maintenance issue in a park. The article says the trail has been re-opened. I gotta say, you seem to be looking for something to get outraged about. [At the time I opened this thread, it was just above the “First World Problems” thread. Just noting.] ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/environmental-correctness-gone-amok-what-to-do-with-a-fallen-tree/601535/29 "2011-11-06T11:38:26Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > A bridge over it or a tunnel underneath it? Choices, choices. Can’t go over it. Can’t go under it. Have to go through it! ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2011, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/environmental-correctness-gone-amok-what-to-do-with-a-fallen-tree/601535/30 "2011-11-06T14:49:59Z")
They should take a slice of it and sand it smooth. Display it in the park’s main building with the rings labeled at interesting dates. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/environmental-correctness-gone-amok-what-to-do-with-a-fallen-tree/601535.md?page=1)