Truly we have to protect our National Forests from over use and harm. But from what I've seen of the world and the United States in specific is that camping and hiking, even building the occasional debris shelter is not much of a threat to our environment (I like to say our environment, because that's what we're worried about. Something that looks and feels comfortable to us. We can no more destroy the Earth then we can save all the planet's species.) But what bothers me is the continual march of subdivisions out into wilderness and agricultural land. I went to Tucson, Arizona and the desert where my dad went out to shoot in college because there was no one to hit was all shotgun houses. The same goes for my parent's house near Houston. What had been out in the sticks with deer moving through the back pasture is now entirely surrounded by houses. Denver, Colorado Springs they're the same way. More land paved over and parceled and manicured lawns of a single species. Leave the poor man alone for cutting a few branches and look around at what's really making an impact. More and more people driving further to work, every single day. Instead of lots of people all in one building we have lots of people each on their own little plot of land.

When I leave my current situation, I'd like to live in the city and walk to work five times a week. I can commute to the country on the weekends.