Today I had a long talk with Paul Hanson, the FWC officer in the Chassahowitzka NWR who left his business card with my stuff while I was diving Buford on Monday. Yesterday I talked with him about people driving around the gate. Today we talked about how people have been treating the pathway down to the sink from the end of the tram. As fellow divers, I am asking you if our conservation of natural resources ends at the waterline, or does it continue on land? Of course the answer should be obvious, but to some, unfortunately it isn't. When I was back there, I noticed places in the path where someone has used boards, gravel, and apparently even dumped bags of cement to keep the mud from becoming too soft to walk through. There have also been reflectors nailed to trees. I've been hunting and fishing in Florida's WMA's since I have been old enough to hold a rod or a rifle, and under my father's stern guidance on how to treat nature, can safely say that I have never even left trash behind, much less pounded nails into trees for markers or to hang my tree stand. I know I want to continue diving Buford and will continue to gather trash and pack it out, just as I did on Monday. What I'm asking of everyone is that you abide by the WMA's rules and as ignorance of them is no excuse, please download a copy to refer to. I may not be a "native" Floridian, as in the "native" American sense, but I was born and raised here and it pisses me off to no end to see people treat nature the way they do. I almost feel like that Indian in the old commercial who is standing on the side of the road and someone throws a bag of trash at his feet and it brings a tear to his eye.
I'm no major tree hugger, but I believe in leaving nature as it is so my kids and their kids, etc., can enjoy it as I have. We are only shooting ourselves in the foot if we continue to do this sort of thing in the name of convenience. Of course it's soft and muddy and dirty to slog through. It's a dang swamp fer cryin' out loud. So suck it up and put on the hip waders.
I feel most of us on here are probably of the same mind as I am. The two divers I met on Monday were unaware of what scubaboard even is, so I would like to think that we, here, are considerably more enlightened than the general diving public. We need to point out to other divers the impact that they are having by trying to make a challenging dive more easily accessible. Be polite, but be firm. Let them know that you will report them if they continue to threaten the privileges extended to us by the FWC.
I'm no major tree hugger, but I believe in leaving nature as it is so my kids and their kids, etc., can enjoy it as I have. We are only shooting ourselves in the foot if we continue to do this sort of thing in the name of convenience. Of course it's soft and muddy and dirty to slog through. It's a dang swamp fer cryin' out loud. So suck it up and put on the hip waders.
I feel most of us on here are probably of the same mind as I am. The two divers I met on Monday were unaware of what scubaboard even is, so I would like to think that we, here, are considerably more enlightened than the general diving public. We need to point out to other divers the impact that they are having by trying to make a challenging dive more easily accessible. Be polite, but be firm. Let them know that you will report them if they continue to threaten the privileges extended to us by the FWC.
