Lauren Achtemeier: Leaving nothing behind

Discussion in class about the Appalachian Trail hiker called CC leaving his poles behind got me thinking about the “leave no mark” philosophy. I agreed with his decisions to throw the sticks away so as not to degrade the experience for others, since it was not his mountain to claim. I feel like similar acts can be applied to other things in nature. In some circumstances, the photography of wild animals seems to leave a huge mark upon the poor animals subjected to out of control human curiosity. It also tends to imply that a person is claiming that space as their own through picture taking domination, instead of sharing it with the animal. I witnessed someone camera bully a raccoon the other day on the edge of campus First off, guy seriously invaded the animals space by coming within a couple feet of it, then proceeded to snap three pictures with flash in the animals face, the whole while it was prevented from escaping due to construction fencing. It is plausible that the animal was temporarily blinded the guy’s lack of respect. The guy with the camera does not own the lawn anymore than the raccoon. It was simply out scrounging for food. The camera bullying was the guy’s way of leaving a mark upon an act of nature, instead of simply enjoying the moment. It may not be the Appalachian trail, but leaving marks upon animals in a local environment only continues destruction of the nature around us, instead of letting it be.