Backpacker Mag biased against BSA?

[GernBlansten]

I subscribe to Backpacker magazine. I keep copies of it in the various reading rooms of the house. Pretty good articles, tips and tricks, recipes.

The other night, I was scanning the October 2006 edition and found on the back page a section called "The Back Stories, Survivors, or knuckleheads? You decide."

 

Pretty humorous. First story titled "He also thought his headlamp would attract killer moths" was of a lost hiker at dusk. A ranger was within shouting range. The two yelled back and forth a few times then the hiker fell silent. The ranger retreated until the next morning and found the hiker. The hiker had stopped yelling because he was afraid his shouts would attract bears.

 

Several more stories like that. Mostly morons in the wild stuff.

 

Then a story titled "The s'mores badge is always hardest" of 20 Boy Scouts out camping in Utah. Despite at the time a total ban on fires, they proceed to have a campfire. They failed to douse the embers when they broke camp and it resulted in a 14,000 acre wildfire.

 

The next story titled "Always be prepared...with an alibi" was next. It tells of the lawsuits filed by the feds and Utah against BSA to cover the $14,000,000 costs, the BSA passed the buck, contending the blaze was started by one to three "unknown" scouts acting on their own during unsupervised time.

 

Does BackPacker have an agenda against the BSA or am I just getting hypersenitive? I sometimes have trouble spotting that liberal media bias that everyone claims is so blatant.

[local1400]

I haven't read Backpacker in years. I thought it turned into a sales brochure of all the latest gear.

[baden]

I'm with local1400, I too got tired of the constant promos for new and improved gear. I subscribed for about 15 yrs. and got a lot of great info from it.

 

As far as a bias against BSA I would say it is not any worse than what you run into in a lot of places. Over the years I have run into some "Officials" on public lands that clearly have an axe to grind with BSA. Sometimes I have felt it was political due to disagreement with BSA's stands on some issues but more often I have found it to be a reaction to the actions of some BSA members. That is one bad thing about going into the backcountry with Scouts, they don't know it all. We are probably the biggest, most visible group taking inexperienced people into the back country. If the Knights of Pythias or the Masons or the Rotary were taking large numbers of kids out there they would be under the gun too.

[gwd-scouter]

Gotta agree on the bad press being we are the most visible group going into the backwoods.

 

Once a year at roundtable we have a session on leave no trace. Without fail, the instructors have told us that the most offensive users of the outdoors (as seen by the general public) are Boy Scouts.

 

Are we really? Probably not, but that's seems to be the perception.

[OldGreyEagle]

We are the largest recognized organization taking kids in the back country so we will catch heat whether deserved or not. Wonder if Outward Bound has an image problem, does it have an image? Then again, its leaders are required to be trained (and How!)It is good (!!!) to note the last several lost climbers/hikers/whatevers were not Boy Scout related, then again, Spring is comming...

[GernBlansten]

I was delighted to find out that BSA adopted LNT as their outdoor ethics when I joined. Our troop teaches them, lives by them. Recites the Outdoor Code at every meeting. Of course, talking the talk is different than walking the walk. I'm constantly challenged when taking scouts backpacking to LNT. They just don't think sometimes. Got some evil looks when we camped where no fire ring existed and I said, "Sorry guys, no fire tonight."

 

BSA does have an image problem with other outdoor organizations. Sure it does. I've experienced it myself. Perhaps its just because we can be singled out by name, or perhaps we have units in our ranks who violate LNT, or perhaps its all the political BS that we've reaped upon ourselves.

 

I've even had people come up to me at campsites and say "You guys are pretty good campers, for Boy Scouts." I've also gotten the rolling of the eyes from rangers.

 

Isn't if funny that we are the only organization, that I'm aware of, that teaches youth outdoor ethics? Does your troop recite the Outdoor Code at each meeting? Do you hammer home LNT at every campout?

[local1400]

Living in the Whites is great! In my backyard I have over 763,000 acres of National forest to play in. Of course we have lots of tourists coming here to view this natural beauty and I cant understand why people will drive for hours to days (esp. with the gas prices!), hike for hours and then leave their garbage behind! I hiked the Arethusa falls trail several times last year and picked up trash each time. I met one group who were all carrying open beer bottles for their beverage! Very few were what I would call prepared for the trip of only 3 miles round trip but the Scout troop I met one day all looked good and ready. I met them while I was coming out so hopefully there was no trash for them to pick up!

[packsaddle]

I think everyone is tempted at times to feel and display prejudice - to characterize whole groups of people on the basis of only a few. I can think of several examples.....

[rkfrance]

I saw the story. I had our Scouts read it. We talked about responsibility.

 

I don't feel Backpacker is any more biased than the local TV news channel. I read a story in Reader's Digest a couple of years (or so) ago about a Troop out west that was breaking up rocks and throwing them in a lake. The rocks happened to be dinosaur print fossils.

 

I think the bigger point to address is how do we establish better PR. The media, any media, will focus on the negative, particularly if it's a well known/established group like the BSA. Yes, there are positive stories about Scouts out there, but they are often overshadowed by the negative stories, such as Scouts lost or killed in hiking or camping accidents, or just plain doing something un-Scout-like.

 

I was just turned on to Backpacker about a year ago from our BSRT Commissioner. He told me how it's helped him with his Troop's outdoor program. The Scouts in our Troop use it to work through scenarios that we might not have the opportunity to experience for a year or more down the road, especially more high adventure related programs.

[OldGreyEagle]

I need solace of the BSA historian types out there to help me, wasnt Leave No Trace developed with the help of the BSA? I seem to remember something said at either a Wood BAdge or Powderhorn Course on how the BSA and other organizations got together to develop the principles, or did I deam it?

[SR540Beaver]

http://archive.lnt.org/LNTHistoryPaper.pdf

[CA_Scouter]

We strongly push LNT on every campout, backpacking, car-camping, whatever. We've even taken to reciting the 7 LNT principles during our meeting once a month, after we do the oath, laws, outdoor code, etc...

 

With regard to bias, we did a backpack trip in Yosemite last year and ran into a very snotty and rude rangerette at the Wilderness Permit center ( I think I posted here about that )., however, rangers I met on the trail couldn't be nicer. Go figure.

 

FYI - REI has a LNT program. Its geared to 6-12 yr olds, but I'm thinking of asking them to come by anyway as I'm sure they can add to what we are already teaching.

 

Backpacker Magazine is usually pretty good. Their basecamp skills, menus and 'survive this' sections have useful information. OUTSIDE magazine has some good stuff too. Yea, lots of ads, gotta pick and choose... its part of the game, eh?

 

 

[Lisabob]

Maybe it is biased but is it also true? Many or most of the troops I know do a pretty good job of respecting their environment. On the other hand, I have run across troops who were just a walking disaster. One time (with our webelos den) we camped near a troop that, in the middle of the night, started hacking at live trees with their axes, for no good reason. They did some serious damage. The attitude of the adults in charge of the troop at that event was "boys will be boys." Dumb troop - they were camped literally right next to their troop trailer which displayed all of their identifying info. We contacted the troop, the council, the CO, and the park ranger (in writing) to let them know about this troop's awful behavior. Worse, the whole purpose of our webelos camp was to teach basic LNT principles!

 

Lots of people do dumb things outdoors. Some of them, unfortunately, will be boy scouts, who OUGHT to know better. I think that's what makes these stories so appealing to the media. So long as the media also runs stories about the good things we do (and they do - witness various stories over the years about boy scouts saving people - witness the very public presence of scouts at the Ford funeral, which was given a lot of media coverage) then I'm not too worried about bias. I'm more concerned about policing our own to try to reduce the number of "knuckleheads" in the ranks.

 

 

[John-in-KC]

There is the not very small matter of evolving outdoor ethics.

 

I keep putting the 1965 edition of the Boy Scout Handbook up here as a guidepost for all to see. Well, it has faults as well:

 

BROWSE BEDS

 

TRENCH FIRES

 

are just two in terms of outdoor skills. We can and must do better than this. That means TRAINING for adult leaders as well.

 

Additionally, we attract a lot of hunters and fishermen to our leader ranks. The vast majority do care, both frontcountry and back, about how they treat the land. The ones who do not, well, that's where we got "sod surfing" from.

 

In my lifetime, we've all but doubled the population of the US (~168 million to > 300 million) but we've not gained a square inch of land for agriculture, living space, work space, or recreation. WE MUST TAKE CARE OF WHAT WE HAVE.

[baden]

I like what John in K C said. When I was a Scout we went into nature to conquer it. We dug trenches around our tents, cut down trees to build towers, cut evergreen boughs for ground beds, dug trench latrines, etc. etc. To our way of thinking at the time we were to turn every campsite into a military style bivouac. BSA has come a long way in 40-45 yrs. The Outdoor code and LNT ethic are great, just not utilized by all. But we're better. Not good enough yet, but better.