Protecting the Appalachian Trail

 

 

 

 

                                                                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is your thesis? How did this particular argument come about?

 

I decided to write my evaluative argument on the importance of preserving the Appalachian Trail and what is endangering the trail that took almost a decade to build.  I chose this because I am interested in doing the trail and wanted to do further research.

 

Who's your audience and what techniques do you use to make your writing speak to their concerns and interests? 

 

My audience are my peers that are interested in environmental concerns, hikers, and campers.

 

Upon reviewing your completed composition (and process), what aspect of your work (or it's process) most surprised you?

 

 

I was shocked when I saw the results of the hikers that attempt the trail and the percentage that actually finish.  I was also surprised when I found out how much land is owned by logging companies. 

 

Did you learn anything new while growing your composition? Explain.

 

I was shocked when I saw the results of the hikers that attempt the trail and the percentage that actually finish.  I was also surprised when I found out how much land is owned by logging companies. 

 

 

When you use secondary sources, do those sources contribute to ethos, logos, or pathos appeals?

 

When considering peer feedback as you revised your rough draft, which advice/suggestion/question/criticism/edit was most useful/helpful?

 

On your final version, where would you like to see the most feedback and attention from graders?

 

 

 

Protecting the Appalachian Trail

 

 

Introduction

 

The Appalachian Trail (A.T.) is currently encountering a number of threats and dangers to the wildlife, plant life, and even human life.  This essay will provide examples of what it is we are doing to hurt the trail that took almost a decade to create.  The trail is somewhere between 2,100 and 2,200 miles, and is constantly being altered due to the development of condominiums and ski resorts, and due to the logging industry.  The air quality is considered poor; eyesores and noise pollution are becoming more frequent along the trail.  Bill Bryson's book, "A Walk in the Woods", influenced me to write on this subject.  The book is a biography on Bill Bryson and his long time college friend who hike the A.T. and the experiences that they encounter.   

 

History of the Appalachian Trail

 

Benton MacKaye first proposed the idea of the Appalachian Trail (A.T.) after being inspired by the readings of American naturalists and poets, and by taking long walks through the Appalachian Mountains.  After graduating from Harvard, he went to work for the United States Forest Service.  In 1919, MacKaye was fired by the Forest Service because of his radical ideas and beliefs.  He eventually was given a desk job with the US Labor Department with vague assignments, coming up with proposals that were unworkable.  In April of 1921, MacKaye’s wife jumped off of a bridge into the East River in New York, committing suicide. 

 

After the passing of his wife, MacKaye devoted himself for the next ten weeks in formulating a plan to propose the A.T.  The proposal was published in the Journal of the American Institute of Architects that October.  This trail would run from the highest point in New England all the way down to the highest point in the south.  MacKaye named this path the Appalachian Trail.  He saw the rate at which urbanized communities were developing and how industrialization was taking off along the east coast.  The idea he had for the A.T. was a place for men and women to go to relax and get in touch with nature.  He envisioned wilderness communities, networking the several working camps, a place where people could go to get away and refresh their minds.  He also predicted hostels, inns, seasonal study centers, and eventually has woodland villages that were “self-owning.”  A woodland village is community, whose inhabitants would support them based on non-industrial activity and surviving by farming, proper forestry utilization, and skills in crafts.

 

The idea of the A.T. did not take off right away; in fact, it was bashed by thousands of people at that time, possibly because there were already several other hiking groups and organizations.  In 1925, a conference was held in Washington, D.C. to formally propose the A.T.  At the conference were hikers, foresters, and public officials that all shared ideas and had a common goal.  MacKaye was appointed the field organizer.  Ideas developed for about ten years and it wasn’t until 1930 that the trail would be physically constructed.  With the help of a lawyer named Myron Avery, who was an avid hiker, MacKaye developed ideas to carryout the plan for constructing the trail.  Avery ended up playing a major role in developing the trail.  He mapped out the trail, produced volunteer clubs to help clear the path, and supervised construction of the path for hundreds of miles.  Although MacKaye is most associated with the path, Avery deserves just as much credit.  Unfortunately, he died in 1952 but the path would not be well known until much later.  MacKaye was an inspiration to many, especially to those who had abstract ideas. However, the practical organizing and constructing of the trail gets credited to Myron Avery.  The path was finally completed on August 14, 1937 and it received very little to almost no attention.  

 

The Hike

 

The trail passes through Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.  For a small fee of $60, a friendly cab driver named Wes Wisson will pick you up from the airport.  Wisson makes weekly runs from the airport in Atlanta to Amicola Falls for hikers to start at the beginning of the trail on top of Springer Mountain.  For the 2,000 hikers that set off annually, 10% actually make it, 50% don’t make it to Virginia, 20% make it to North Carolina, and 20% last less than a week.  Since the first day of completion, the trail has been rerouted and moved around due to development of highways and communities. 

 

Most people typically start in the South and travel North, because at the northern end of the trail, in Maine, is Mount Katahdin.  Hikers would have to wait for all the snow to melt in the spring in order to start at the top of the trail, usually late May to early June.  If you start in the South and head north, you have to finish by mid-October before the snow arrives.  In addition, by starting your travels in the springtime, you can avoid the hottest months of the summer in the South, as well as the worst months of insects. 

 

The trail takes the average hiker about 6 months to complete.  The cost to hike the complete length of the trail is typically between $3,000 and $5,000 (not including the $1,000 to $2,000 on hiking gear).  Some may think that this is expensive, but when you come up to a town with real restaurant food, motels with actual beds and hot showers, grocery stores to stock up on your food supply, laundry, postage, and equipment repair, your money will burn a hole in your wallet.

 

Protecting the Trail

 

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is a volunteer-based, private not-for-profit organization dedicated to conserving and managing the 2,175-mile nature trail and its resources.  The National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service agreed to create a protection zone that was formalized on October 15, 1938.  This agreement protects the trail with a one mile border on each side, prohibiting the development of roads.  It also prohibits cutting timber within 200 feet of the trail.  This insulates hikers from the distracting sights and sounds of civilization, logging, and development.

 

Environmental Concerns

 

There is 229 miles of the A.T. that run through Pennsylvania and is home to dozens of threatened and endangered species.  It is known as an area that houses the most biodiversity of any unit of the National Park System.  Sadly, in Pennsylvania a portion of the A.T. is being threatened by overdevelopment in one of the most natural and historic parts of the trail.  In Reading, developer Richard Muller, Jr. has been pushing to build a $25 million auto racetrack and road course next to the Appalachian Trail in Smith Gap Township, in the Poconos.  The township lacks the appropriate zoning laws and protection for the A.T.  This is just one extreme example of many proposals where overdevelopment and extensive construction projects are encroaching on Pennsylvania’s section of the Appalachian Trail.

 

Nearly 240 million acres of forest belongs to the government.  Nationally, 191 million acres of this land, broken up into 155 separate portions is all currently owned by the US Forest Service.  A great deal of the US Forest Service land is designated as “multiple-use”, which means that it could be available for mining, oil, and gas extraction.  Additionally, ski resorts fall into 137 of the 155 portions; the other 18 portions can be used for condominium developments, logging, and off-road vehicles.  150 million of the 191 million is loggable land, and yes, loggable is a real word according to Bill Bryson.  Two thirds of 150 million acres is being held for future use and the remaining third (49 million acres), which is twice the size of Ohio, is readily available for logging.  Many people think the US Forest Service is an organization designated to protect trees; however, they mostly provide roadways into the American national forest.  The total combined mileage of these roadways, as of right now, is 378,000 miles.  This is eight times the total amount of American interstate mileage, and is projected to steadily increase. 

 

             

 

 In Maine, there is a 3-mile stretch of the A.T. that spans across the top of Saddleback Mountain.  Unfortunately, Saddleback Mountain is owned by Donald Breen, who wants to expand his existing ski resort, thus spoiling the serenity of this natural and scenic area.  The ski lifts, towers, and condominiums that Breen wants to build could potentially double his business in five years, which would economically boost the local towns.  Although this expansion area falls outside the protected zone of the A.T., development would destroy the awesome views that hikers currently get to enjoy.  Also, development still will cause a disturbance in the wildlife; deforestation will be required to expand the resort.  This is just another example of why the A.T. is constantly being re-routed, and the exact mileage of the trail fluctuates.

 

Climate concern has become a major issue in this year’s presidential debate and both of the candidates had platforms that would push to lower greenhouse gas emissions, which would help reduce smog in national parks.  Summertime is not only the peak tourist season for US national parks, but also the peak air pollution season.  Air pollution spoils usually amazing views, harms plants and wildlife, and affects breathing, due to excessive ozone pollution.  The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) says that roughly one-third of US national parks have greater pollution levels than what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set for acceptable health standards.  President-Elect Barack Obama’s agenda will push for mandatory reductions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 80 percent from the 1990 levels by the year 2050.  Obama’s strategy to achieve this goal is with a cap-and-trade system, which would limit emissions and allow power plants to trade credits in order to emit greenhouse gases.

 

 As you can imagine, climate change is transforming national parks.  But while we look for long-term solutions, there are some short-term actions that could be taken.  We can reduce habitat fragmentation (basically, over-development into the animals’ natural habitats); reduce pollution; protect important ecosystem features; relocate the species that are in immediate danger; and reproduce habitats in other areas. 

 

Most of the dirty air that is affecting our national parks is due to the burning of fossil fuels.  Alternatives for energy sources are in different stages of being developed, such as wind, solar, biofuel, and clean-coal technologies.  In fact, across the country, over one hundred new coal-fired power plants are in the process of being planned and developed.  But skeptics argue that wind tunnels are not widespread, solar energy is still too experimental, natural gas is too expensive, and that the words ‘clean’ and ‘coal’ contradict each other.

While debates continue at the government levels on which clean energy alternatives should be developed; in the field, hikers and backpackers can tell you about the subtle, and also sudden, changes in many of our national park environments.  Local flora and fauna in the parks are suffering from the impact of pollution—and from the impact of humans—we are leaving behind as a legacy.  Environmentalists are concerned about leaving a ‘wilted and dying natural heritage’ for future generations.

 

   

 

‘Dirty’ air—when ozone, dust, fossil fuel emissions, and other pollutant levels are above natural levels—on A.T. not only obstructs hikers’ visibility, it also has negative impacts on the ecosystem and on human health.  These pollutants decrease the growth rates and increase the water usage of several species of trees and plants.  They also increase the acidity of streams and lakes, and suck out rich nutrients from the soil.  Poor air quality will also create breathing problems for many hikers, who then have symptoms such as coughing, shortness of breath, pain when breathing deeply, and asthma.  Ozone affects lung tissue sort of like a sunburn on your skin.  Scientists even think that repeated short-term ozone exposure can permanently damage the lungs.   

Most of the dirty air that hikers are exposed to on the A.T. does not actually come from near the trail.  These pollutants are coming from industrial facilities, electric power plants, from large cities and major highways, and from high humidity levels.  These are the things that add to air pollution problems on the trail.  In fact, air pollution on the A.T. can be used as an indicator for air quality through the East because these pollutants are blown throughout the region.  Even though the EPA’s data show a slow, gradual improvement in the air quality over the last 20 years in the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks, it is still not at natural clean air levels.  A.T. hikers are currently dealing with high ozone levels 24 hours per day for weeks at a time.  In fact, backcountry rangers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are not allowed to go in the field on high ozone days.  

 

 

 

Conclusion

The book "A Walk in the Woods" desrcibes these events that are endangering the history and quality of the wildlife that live in this region.  Bill Bryson and his friend were not able to finish the 2,200 mile trail and people looked at that as failing.  I don't see this as failing because they accomplished an appreciation of nature and saw with there own eyes the dangers of mankind.  Climate change, air quality, resorts, condominiums, and logging are all effecting the preservation of the appalachian trail and it's ability to withstand all these events is undetermined. I am not going to be able to hike the trail this year but I would like to have the option to do so next year.  

 

References:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Trail

http://www.appalachiantrail.org/site/c.jkLXJ8MQKtH/b.786749/k.D5F9/History.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Xp1g1woeO8

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE1D9143FF931A15752C1A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

http://www.npca.org/darkhorizons/pdf/GRSM.pdf

http://www.npca.org/darkhorizons/pdf/SHEN.pdf

http://www.npca.org/darkhorizons/

http://www.chiefengineer.org/content/content_display.cfm/seqnumber_content/3294.htm

http://www.pabackwoods.com/2008/03/19/save-the-appalachian-trail/