My thoughts on the access fund and climbers

Ok my friends, I started this post as a response to my brother Mikes post entitled "In my own defense" I personally feel he has nothing to defend against except maybe having to much belief in the peoples willingness to step up and do the right thing. But I digress.
When I started writing it was as a comment of encouragement but as I wrote and thought I started to get angry about my feelings towards the Impact I have seen at some of my favorite crags and the people climbing their. Then I realized that I was also mad at my own actions and inactions concerning said crag. It was at this point that I realized that in my distancing myself from popular crags and climbing groups in general I had become a part of the problem by not being a part of the solution. So on too my original writings in the original format. PLEASE let me know your thought and feelings on this issue.

Many good points here my Brother. I hope with all of my heart that people will take notice and understand the point being presented and not just jump to defend how much they have done by sending their check to the Access Fund and what they believe to be true. So I will do something that I seldom do anymore and climb up on the soapbox and give my views on a few things. So, here we go.
Point One:
We are all stewards of the land we use every single time that we use it, not just on trail day events and Access events like adopt a crag clean up. As a whole we need to be picking up our trash and packing it out with us. Even something as small as walking through the crag at the end of our day and looking for and picking up whatever is found and packing it out will go a long way. If every single climber would take 5 minutes at the end of the day to just do general stewardship duties when we have big events at the crags we could get a lot more done.
Point Two:
Ok now on to another issue. Trail maintenance, the trails do not just show up out of good wishes and dreams. They are put in by a very few hard working individuals donating their time away from loved ones, their sweat at the end of a long week working their real jobs, and the very blood that flows through their veins from smashed fingers and skinned knuckles, from blisters generated by working for you, the climber. Now knowing that all of this done so that you can easily walk to and from the crag in safety, is it to much to ask, of you the climber, to bend over and pick up that rock in the trail? Is it to much to ask that you fix the trail if it collapses when you walk along the outside edges? When you walk up a set of steps and see a stepping stone lose too put it back in place securely? These trails where put in for you, is it too much to ask that you take five minutes to help maintain them for everyone.
Point Three:
Ok now on to a subject that I personally find to be a source of heart ache and pain every time that I see it, OVER USE. There is nothing that pains me more then to see an area ounce beautiful, beaten into submission, vegetation destroyed, the turf non existent, erosion running rampant. Then you see dozens of people here every time that you are their destroying more and more, you see the problem getting worse and worse and you think to yourself something needs to be done. But still you come to the same crag again and again, climb the same routes again and again, and all the time thinking to yourself what this area used to look like and how someone needs to fix it. Well here is what needs to happen, water breaks need to be installed to stop the erosion, the area needs to be re-seeded, Vegetation needs to be re-planted including bushes and trees. Then the area needs to be closed to allow the area to recover. Which means that YOU will need to stop going here, you need to help in the effort of reclaiming and fixing what you have destroyed.
Ok friends, I’m off the soap box now. I will share one more thing on a personal note now and be done. I have lost my interest in many popular climbing areas and in climbers in general in the last few years. I had decided that if I didn’t like what I saw at the crags I would distance myself from them and from the problems their by finding and climbing new areas and by climbing alone or with like minded friends. I have re-thought that principle in the last year. I realized that I was a part of the problem and then did nothing to fix what I helped to screw up when I went off on my own trail. I am back on the right path. My brother and my true friend Mike has shown me that there are like minded people out climbing today. There are people out here today that toil away on their own time and dime trying to rectify years of miss use. They are building trails, packing out your trash. They are the ones re-seeding and re-planting vegetation, the ones building the water breaks to control erosion. They are the ones that are behind the scenes toiling and sweating away for you and your friends. Then they ask you, the climber, to please help in the easiest way, they ask that you not climb in an area until the vegetation has a chance to take root and grow. Because folks, the vegetation is the key here to stopping erosion. Now folks how do you repay all of this effort? You continue to climb the routes you always have you trample the planted bushes and trees, you grind the seeds into nothingness, you break down the water breaks, you destroy the trails. Then when the kind hearted individuals go on line and post what has occurred you call them liar’s you make snide comments, you belittle, you try to make yourself look big. You talk about the access fund. You talk trail days, you talk sir, and that is the problem, all you do is talk. So to the climber, I ask you this, what have you done for the good of your crag today besides write a check?


Pyro