Sustained forests; sustained profits

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Early Concepts of Ranging and Outdoor Recreation

The following was developed in early 1998 by Giles.

This enterprise markets the area and all of its resources for recreation of all types. It is interested in the diverse activities of the entire field of outdoor recreation. It advances computer enhanced decision making, models of recreation activity, in the field behavior, and uses the rapidly accumulating knowledge on effects of horses, hikers, bikers, and others on the wildlands.

Hiking, camping, carefully regulated biking, select area use of the off-road vehicle, horse-back to trail riding, mountain climbing, adventure treks, challenge runs, horse challenge races, and new sport of timed walks through the wilderness - the ranger route, youth camping, secondary scouting trips, hiker schools, campcraft schools, animal watching (unscheduled and not related to the planned or programmatic action of the other R* SYSTEM enterprises) - these are all part of the group activity.

Funds are gained from admission, permits for activities, publications, special gear sales, food sales, membership fees, flags, emblems, equipment rentals, photography (action photographs to take home), web site access, exhibit space rentals for companies selling approved equipment and clothing, free lance writing, photo sales, insurance, guide services, packing services.

This group sponsored game bird work, that from grouse and waterfowl. These may grow to full-scale enterprises in the future. Preliminary plans are underway, but the pattern is set in the R*Deer and in the Wild Turkey Group.

The Wildland Camping System, a unit of the R* SYSTEM, works with landowners, outfitters, retail outlets, and all regional enterprises to sustain and improve local economic and employment conditions, preserve and enhance nature and the wildlands, and promote high quality outdoor recreation.

It advances a hew type of private, modern, low-intensity, managed camping designed to use remote areas and encourage and enhance knowledge and appreciation of nature and natural systems. Cooperating with others, the system primarily seeks local private involvement to enhance and sustain the region. Not a preservationist/protectionist group, the system advocates sophisticated computer-aided decision-making to sustain the many diverse benefits available to campers and hikers in the region. It employs new knowledge-based approaches to outdoor recreation. The group is apolitical. It may seek certain regulatory and/or legal means to achieve its objectives, but it will not take "stands" on certain issues. It does encourage its members and their groups to do so as responsible citizenship.

The camping system consists of:
1. Diverse objectives of area users - a unique development and presentations of recreational objectives.
2. Camping - many types, length of stay, objectives, reports and experiences; group, solitary; horse; hiking; nature based; adventure based; winter; work based.
3. Membership
4. Newsletter
5. Annual rendezvous
6. Work parties and voluntary fire fighters
7. Campsite judging teams and contests
8. Security patrol
9. Signs
10. Trail construction and maintenance
11. Campsite management
12. Tourism (inter- and extra-)
13. Publications
14. Contract research
15. Consulting
16. Seminars, speeches, and workshops

The concept that makes the camping system special and assure profitable successes are:
1. Using a tested systems approach with new improvements
2. Using computer-based economic optimization
3. Using ecological and natural resource models
4. Locating next to and within a massive capital land resource
5. Affiliation with resources of other lands
6. Being remote but with high quality highway access
7. Relating to a well-established hunting and tourist industry
8. Bring 40 years of tax-based wildland research, information, software and models and concentrating it on the region.
9. Offering opportunities for Virginia Tech students for meaningful work
10. Providing a variety of employment opportunities and profit inventories for citizens.
11. Being grounded within and linked to diverse resources of the R* System
12. Offering new, meaningful, year-around recreational and nature-study opportunities to a growing citizenship.
13. Offering areas to meet personal needs such as ease of hiking, areas for the handicapped, viewscapes, remoteness, fishing, rock climbing, and specialized nature-study areas.
14. Offering land owners controls which they desire over responsible use of their wildlands by recreationists.
15. Balancing controversies over long-term sustainability of rural communities and commodity extraction and interests in wildlife and preservation.
16. Encouraging that conventional sports and activities be practiced elsewhere, retaining the wildlands for their special uses.
17. Providing new internet registration services to campers and members.
18. Continuing comprehensive, diverse management of other natural resources on the same areas, total systems management.

Components:

· System Leader - responsible for overall operations, policy, leadership, and developments

· Membership Director - recruits members, produces a newsletter, and holds an annual conference and develops membership services and programs including employing and supervising directors of special member-related projects. Supervises publications.

· Security Director - develops a security system (or uses one created elsewhere in the R* System), including safety, surveys, analyses, education, record of safety and employs advice as needed for insect, disease, health, snake, etc. potential problems. Secures an appropriate insurance program for the system and for individuals.

· Special Products and Services - develops clothing certification projects; develops and tests equipment (staff, hat, flags, emblems, foods, equipment)

· Field Director - conducts hikes, develops sites and services, develops trails, monitors and manages sites, develops sport and field events, plans special hikes or employs hike/camp masters, develops contests; assists in developing membership levels and tests; recruits and supervises guides; sponsors and guides research.

Secretarial, accounting, and computer services will be from the general pool of the R* SYSTEM itself. Computer services, including accounting, publishing, addresses and memberships, but also computer maps, ecological site analyses, allocation of camper units of impact, campsite analyses, and user satisfaction analyses.

Making strong use of past research in outdoor recreation and wilderness area recreational use, the system concentrates this knowledge and demonstrates how it can be used for private profit in a sustained manner.

Income

The system profits are derived from a changing combination of sources, all private, namely:
1. Camping fees
2. Conference and group camping fees
3. Membership fees
4. Educational fees (hiking, climbing, camping)
5. Publication sales
6. Contract trial building and stream improvement
7. Guide service fees
8. Commissions from sales of (for example)

• · a unique hiking staff
• · clothing
• · specialty foods

Costs

Staff of the system recruit land owner cooperation, conduct programs and projects, conduct education, employ consultants, develop a guides service, work with other components of the R* SYSTEM, develop publications, and promote and advertise the system and the region. A small security group represents one of the higher, less-conspicuously-productive components of the system.

There will be additional gains if land has ponds or streams near campsites. The intent is that the system be profit-driven, with feedback to all participants and incentives for cooperative efforts by small land unit owners previously excluded from so much intensive forest land management because of the problems of scale.

Incentives are for (1) customers and members (discounts as memberships and participation increases; awards for scores and safety); (2) Employees (all receiving 60% of profits; (3) The R* SYSTEM itself and all associated support functions 10%; and landowners (for use of their land for non-consumptive use by educated campers) 25%; and (4) enterprise-related research and development at Virginia Tech.

In July 2002 Ken Stein sent:

Thought you might find this interesting. I have always felt that some of the eco-tourists cater to the elite. I.e., people who go to these countries to birdwatch, then hit the spa, bars, etc.

ZENIT News Agency, The World Seen from Rome

Pope Warns of "Ecotourism" Becoming New Form of Colonialism
John Paul II´s Message for World Day

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 25, 2002 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II warns that " ecotouris" " could become a new form of " abuse and discrimination" in the world. The warning comes in a papal message written for the 23rd World Tourism Day, which will be held Sept. 27.

In the document published today, the Holy Father explains that " a new sensitivity is affirming itself, generally known with the name ´ecotourism.´ It is certainly good in its assumptions, but it must be controlled so that it is not perverted, becoming a vehicle of abuse and discrimination."

" If the protection of the environment is promoted as an end in itself, there is the risk that new modern forms of colonialism will come into being, which might injure the traditional rights of resident communities in a specific territory," the Holy Father explains.

" Hence, it would become an obstacle to the survival and development of local cultures, and economic resources would be taken away from the authority of local governments, the first to be responsible for the ecosystems and the rich biodiversity present in the respective territories," the Pope continues.

" No intervention in an area of the ecosystem can neglect to take into consideration the consequences derived from it in other areas and, more generally, the effects that it will have on the well-being of future generations," the message warns.

" In general, ecotourism takes people to places, environments or regions whose natural balance needs constant attention so that it is not compromised." Therefore, the Holy Father calls for " studies and rigorous controls aimed at harmonizing respect for nature with man´s right to his personal development."

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This Web site is maintained by R. H. Giles, Jr.
Last revision August 18, 2001.