Political Correctedness seems to be the theme today so
I hack, maim, dismember "deserving" trees and shrubs on a frequent basis when I do AT corridor boundary work and when I do trail work and I expect other trail maintainers do the same. I expect 95% of the folks on this board that own property do something similar on routine basis when they cut their grass. The grass doesnt "deserve" to be cut and we are doing it for our own selfish reason (or spouses) to improve our view. Arguably, I expect the photosynthesis impact of cutting a lawn is equivalent to cutting fir/spruce on Starr King. I along with even the Forest Service makes allowances for cutting and maintaining viewpoints along trails. Starr King's viewpoint is well established and given Starr King's writings, I would expect this view was at least in existence for 170 plus years. The reason for the loss of the view on starr king appears to be that the view wasnt maintained over the years, so the small seedlings that rapidly move in to any clearing, eventually grow into trees. I expect few would object to brushing a trail or viewpoint and the recent cutting is basically the same thing albeit at a less frequent basis. To take this to an illogical conclusion, we really should stop all maintenance of any trails as fundamentally we are killing trees that could have grown in the trail corridor location. I expect some might not object to this approach but I expect trails are judged by most as an acceptable tradeoff and I feel viewpoints are a logical extension of trails.
