Group of *******ers Destroys Alpine Meadow???

[tower]

Originally Posted by Cryptain Crunch

What is wrong with destroying some plants?

They'll grow back.

Cryptobiotic soil crusts, consisting of soil cyanobacteria, lichens and mosses, play an important ecological role in the arid Southwest. In the cold deserts of the Colorado Plateau region (parts of Utah, Arizona Colorado, and New Mexico), these crusts are extraordinarily well-developed, often representing over 70 percent of the living ground cover. Cryptobiotic crusts increase the stability of otherwise easily eroded soils, increase water infiltration in regions that receive little precipitation, and increase fertility in soils often limited in essential nutrients such as nitrogen and carbon (Harper and Marble, 1988; Johansen, 1993; Metting, 1991; Belnap and Gardner, 1993; Belnap, 1994; Williams et al., 1995).

Cryptobiotic soil crusts are highly susceptible to soil-surface disturbance such as trampling by hooves or feet, or driving of off-road vehicles, especially in soils with low aggregate stability such as areas of sand dunes and sheets in the Southwest, in particular over much of the Colorado Plateau (Belnap and Gardner, 1993; Gillette et al., 1980; Webb and Wilshire, 1983). When crusts in sandy areas are broken in dry periods, previously stable areas can become moving sand dunes in a matter of only a few years.

Figure 4. Crust in sandy soils. The visible fibers are Microcoleus vaginatus. Note how Microcoleus connects the otherwise loose sand grains together, thus preventing wind and water erosion. Microcoleus is important in enhancing water and nutrient relations within the soil, as well. Scale bar is 100 micrometers. Click on image for full size.
Cyanobacterial filaments, lichens, and mosses are brittle when dry, and crush easily when subjected to compressional or shear forces by activities such as trampling or vehicular traffic. Many soils in these areas are thin and are easily removed without crust protection. As most crustal biomass is concentrated in the top 3 mm of the soil, very little erosion can have profound consequences for ecosystem dynamics. Because crustal organisms are only metabolically active when wet, re-establishment time is slow in arid systems. While cyanobacteria are mobile, and can often move up through disturbed sediments to reach needed light levels for photosynthesis, lichens and mosses are incapable of such movement, and often die as a result. On newly disturbed surfaces, mosses and lichens often have extremely slow colonization and growth rates. Assuming adjoining soils are stable and rainfall is average, recovery rates for lichen cover in southern Utah have been most recently estimated at a minimum of 45 years, while recovery of moss cover was estimated at 250 years (Belnap, 1993).
Because of such slow recolonization of soil surfaces by the different crustal components, underlying soils are left vulnerable to both wind and water erosion for at least 20 years after disturbance (Belnap and Gillette, 1997). Because soils take 5,000 to 10,000 years to form in arid areas such as in southern Utah (Webb, 1983), accelerated soil loss may be considered an irreversible loss. Loss of soil also means loss of site fertility through loss of organic matter, fine soil particles, nutrients, and microbial populations in soils (Harper and Marble, 1988; Schimel et al., 1985). Moving sediments further destabilize adjoining areas by burying adjacent crusts, leading to their death, or by providing material for "sandblasting" nearby surfaces, thus increasing wind erosion rates (Belnap, 1995; McKenna-Neumann et al., 1996).

Bebe, I don't know you, but I like you already and I applaud the efforts you and Alec made to make things right. Unfortunately, the old saw of "No good deed goes unpunished" seems to apply here. I guess the thinking over at the HXC is we fukked up, we're guilty, but screw you for telling the truth about it and trying to fix things out of your own pocket. I am very disappointed in hearing this, because my Hummer dealer out here (at their last event) tried to get me to join HXC and I was considering doing so. They even had applications! They will certainly hear about this fiasco from me in So Cal. So, if anyone has photos, news reports or any hard evidence of what happened please post or PM me.