Americans Teaching Canadians; Canadians Teaching Americans
©Bert Gildart: I’m discovering that there are some significant differences between writing blogs and writing magazine stories. With magazine stories, I always put them aside for several days and then return to reread them with a fresh eye. Invariably I discover ways to say things better.
No such grace period, however, with blogs, which are generally produced hurriedly and then posted.
Rereading my post from yesterday I believe it could have been much improved with a fresh read that time could have provided. If done again, I would shorten it and focus more on the real point I was trying to make.
My theme was that helicopter use in an area beautiful beyond belief does not comport with the organic act of national parks. I felt the pounding thump, thump, thumping that carried a mile down Moraine Lake and that was so intense that Janie and I had to shout to hear each other was not compatible with the philosophy of a world-class national park.
AMERICANS TEACHING CANADIANS
We felt the trail under repair could have been improved using manual labor provided by an old fashion trail crew. That’s the way it is always done in Montana’s Glacier National Park where I worked for so many years, and if there a difference in philosophies then that’s one thing Americans can teach the Canadians. That message would have been clearer had my posting from yesterday been shorter and more focused.
Quiet was Shattered
Though I have had difficulty finding the organic act spelled out for Canadian National Parks using a Goggle search, it was easy to find it for U.S. National Parks–and somewhere I have read that there are some similarities. For the U.S. it reads, in part:
“…to promote and regulate the use of the…national parks…which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
CANADIANS TEACHING AMERICANS
I wonder what Canadian author Farley Mowat might have said had he been present. Mowat wrote Never Cry Wolf and A Whale for the Killing, among many other books and stories with a conservation theme.
I hear, however, that Mowat was once banned from visiting the United States because he threatened to shoot down a plane whose aerial “hunters” were attempting to kill wolves. Obviously the man was voicing frustration, but I empathize with his dark sentiments.
Reverence for all forms of life is one thing this Canadian author has instilled in some of us.
FRIENDS PROVIDE BACKBONE FOR MAGAZINE STORY
Yesterday, we rendezvoused with a delightful couple we met this past spring in Mojave National Preserve. We maintain contact with lots of people we meet along the road and Dick and Linda are two. They are fulltime RVers, just now returning from Alaska. We spent the day with them hanging out at our Lake Louise campground. We prepared and cooked a delicious meal outside using our grill. Dick had several recipes in mind and at the end of the afternoon we concluded that our combined efforts produced a meal fit for an epicure.
They’re returning to serve as host and hostess once again at Mojave and we plan to stay in touch. Their lives in this desert park provided the backbone of a travel story that will run sometime early winter of 2009. When it appears I’ll post specifics.
