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1. Embed this notice
   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 03:12:17 JST Paul Cantrell

   • Bruce MacDonald
   • Bill Lindeke

   My dad is longtime member of the Poudre Wilderness Volunteers (https://www.pwv.org), a group who help with wilderness stewardship in the Rockies of northern Colorado.

   I thought of them when I read this article by @blindeke (ht @rationaldoge):
   https://hachyderm.io/@rationaldoge/110792599462710990

   In short: park police harass cyclists about a never-enforced “ride single file” rule by blaring at them over the loudspeaker while tailgating them, for over a mile.

   So what does that have to do with wilderness volunteers??

   1/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 03:15:42 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     The PWV do lots of things: trail maintenance, education, reporting trailhead pit toilet problems to the Forest Service. But the biggest activity they do is trail patrols.

     Here’s a patrol looks like: two or more PWV members put on official-looking (but pretty unintimidating) shirts and go for a hike.

     Along the way, they note any trail maintenance issues (e.g. downed tree), and…they talk to people. Including people who are breaking the rules.

     2/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 03:19:19 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Designated wilderness is delicate and full of rules. The whole premise of it (complex! controversial! evolving! see here: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-wilderness-tool/) is that we limit human impact, and let nature be nature.

     That means dogs on leashes, no motor vehicles, no bicycles even! “Take only pictures, leave only footprints.”

     Visitors, of course, do not know all these rules. Nor should we expect them to! And the PWV wants people to follow them.

     How do they do that?

     3/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 03:20:36 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Here’s the thing: PWV patrols emphatically do not •enforce• the rules. They do coerce. They do not intimidate. They do not escalate.

     You know what they do? They •talk to people•.

     And it works.

     4/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 03:23:17 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Every year they have a big spring training where they teach people how to walk up and talk to someone who, say, has their dog off leash in wilderness.

     They role-play it: you walk up to the person. You talking to them…like danged human being! You help them feel comfortable. You talk to them about •why• they probably don’t want their dog off leash (mountain lions) and why it’s bad for the wilderness (which they presumably care about, since they’re hiking it).

     And it works.

     5/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 03:25:22 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     I’ve watched my dad do this. It’s uncanny how effective it is. And I’m pretty sure that most of the time, the person who leashed their unleashed dog didn’t even think of the incident as having rules enforced on them. The usual reaction — yes, really! — is more along the lines of, “Oh, thanks!” “I didn’t know that!” “Oh yeah, I should do that!” Maybe a sulky “well, OK.”

     Is it 100% effective? I doubt it! But it’s a hell of a lot more effective than intimidation.

     6/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 03:28:43 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     To state the obvious: PWV members do not carry guns. They are not armed.

     They also have no enforcement authority. They can’t punish anyone.

     They are unarmed in the wilderness, far from help.

     And it works.

     Once in a while, somebody ignores them or is a jerk — and they drop it. Because what point does escalation serve?! Their goal is not to win some imaginary contest; it’s help people and wilderness. And in the aggregate, conversation is •more effective• than intimidation.

     7/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 03:32:01 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     To reiterate: they are very intentional about this whole approach. They have a hands-on training, they nip asshole authoritarianism in the people — and they do •not• give people guns or punishment power “just in case.”

     They don’t do that because •it would ruin the whole approach•. You can’t just have a human conversation with somebody who has the power lurking in the wings to threaten your freedom or your life if you step out of their lines. That approach doesn’t work.

     Their approach does.

     8/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 03:33:13 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     What would it have taken for that Minneapolis park patrol to be unarmed and out of their car, and just •talked• with the cyclist?

     It’s so easy to imagine it’s almost embarrassing.

     9/

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 03:35:15 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     Epilogue shout-out to my dad: he co-founded the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance (https://www.wildernessalliance.org), who support wilderness groups like the PWV.

     If there’s a wilderness area near you and you’d like to form a stewardship group like PWV — or if you already have such a group, and would like resources and support, NWSA is there for you. Get in touch with them!

     And if you see my dad on the trail, say hi. He’s great.

     /end

   • Embed this notice
     jonathanpeterson (jonathanpeterson@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 03:36:20 JST jonathanpeterson

     in reply to

     @inthehands Get out of the car? Talk to people like human beings? This is the city of George Floyd policing you're talking about.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 06:03:47 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • huntersjames
     • Bruce MacDonald
     • Bill Lindeke

     @goatrodeo @blindeke @rationaldoge Enjoy! My wife was wearing her Mishawaka t-shirt just the other day.

   • Embed this notice
     huntersjames (goatrodeo@mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 06:03:48 JST huntersjames

     in reply to

     • Bruce MacDonald
     • Bill Lindeke

     @inthehands @blindeke @rationaldoge
     Thanks for this "tutorial" and the link for more info! And props to pops! I"m coming up to the Mish in a few weeks for the first time!

   • Embed this notice
     dimsumthinking (dimsumthinking@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 06:04:53 JST dimsumthinking

     in reply to

     @inthehands at the Yosemite Cocoaconf @Antichrista gave an outstanding talk on this and used lessons from parks that she hoped could be applied online

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 06:04:53 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • dimsumthinking

     @dimsumthinking Oh cool! @Antichrista, if that talk ends up being available online, I’ll bet my dad would really love to see it (and me too).

   • Embed this notice
     Molly B (mjibrower@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 06:05:02 JST Molly B

     in reply to

     • oldguy52 - difficult future

     @inthehands I used to volunteer at a nature center where we were taught those things. The worst that ever happened to me was someone responding in that insincere mocking tone that 8th-grade boys use (although this guy was in his 20s). (Paging @oldguy52 for affirmation)

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 06:11:03 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • jonathanpeterson

     @jonathanpeterson
     Yup, as I am all too keenly aware. The better future starts with us imagining it. And as bitter as the 2021 election and other post-uprising backsliding has been, I think we’re closer than we’ve ever been to ripping out a whole lot of ugly from our rotten police.

   • Embed this notice
     Stacey Cornelius (staceycornelius@mstdn.ca)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 06:11:51 JST Stacey Cornelius

     in reply to

     @inthehands He sounds great. And what a great organization.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 06:11:51 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Stacey Cornelius

     @StaceyCornelius He is, and they are!

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 06:13:12 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Berkubernetus

     @fuzzychef Can confirm that’s accurate re Minneapolis.

     Unarmed patrols would make a huge difference. And yes, that’s a thing police forces do in civilized places!

   • Embed this notice
     Berkubernetus (fuzzychef@m6n.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 06:13:13 JST Berkubernetus

     in reply to

     @inthehands One of the "good" police departments is Medford, OR. They patrol on foot, or on bike or on horse, for parks.

     It's a question of whether the police see themselves as part of the community, or at war with it. Medford, they're part of it. Minneapolis, or Portland? They're at war.

   • Embed this notice
     Yeshaya Lazarevich (alter_kaker@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Jul-2023 08:20:03 JST Yeshaya Lazarevich

     in reply to

     @inthehands
     Courage, for one

   • Embed this notice
     jonathanpeterson (jonathanpeterson@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 31-Jul-2023 23:36:36 JST jonathanpeterson

     in reply to

     @inthehands I have a muslim high school friend, whose parents moved to the US in the late 70s (to a faculty position at Mississippi State University).
     She was really terrified of Trump's rhetoric and election and I rather naively felt that opening up the racism to sunlight would get us to a better place. I still feel that way on a good day. But Trump's SCOTUS nominations and the GOP's fear of the backlash of his bigot base make me feel she may have been right all along.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 04-Aug-2023 05:42:58 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Aijaz Ansari
     • Bruce MacDonald
     • Bill Lindeke

     @aijaz @blindeke @rationaldoge
     Me too, for many, many reasons! He is an exemplary person, in many ways.

   • Embed this notice
     Aijaz Ansari (aijaz@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 04-Aug-2023 05:42:59 JST Aijaz Ansari

     in reply to

     • Bruce MacDonald
     • Bill Lindeke

     @inthehands @blindeke @rationaldoge

     I am grateful that people like your Dad exist.

   • Embed this notice
     Nomi (nomi@mastodon.world)'s status on Friday, 04-Aug-2023 05:43:30 JST Nomi

     in reply to

     @inthehands
     I had your thread about your dad and the volunteers just talking to people rattling around the back of my head when I read this post. Seems like the fediverse ought to take a page from their book

     https://mas.to/@kissane/110794228422172721

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 04-Aug-2023 05:46:08 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Nomi

     @nomi
     Indeed! Clearly different, but clearly related. Helpful to view this as a skill that needs to be passed on, learned, and practiced.