My kid spent the summer doing a survey of the salmon population in Prince William Sound Alaska. Nice office, don't you think?

It's rough work, but somebody has to do it!

Prince William Sound is one of the most beautiful places in the universe as we know it.

The salmon must be awfully big if they need shotguns. Oh, wait..Could it be be that humans aren't the only creatures conducting a "survey of the salmon population" in the region?

It certainly is a beautiful - almost as good as the Channel Islands....

The thing one always has to keep in mind in Alaska is that we humans are not necessarily at the very top of the food chain!

I'm highly skeptical of the last part of your statement. However, I have not had the opportunity to visit the Channel Islands, so I will reserve final judgement on your claim.

For that matter,I have never been in Prince William Sound, although it may have been fly over country on my one trip to Anchorage. And possibly my attitude is just a wee bit provincial - "my mind is made up, don't confuse me with facts...."

Ha, I'll be there in about a month -- if work lets me take off long enough to take a boat and hike around in all that beauty! Maybe I'll even see some whales on the way there. It will be fun to be somewhere relatively warm in December.

Very likely there will be whales - extensive pods of dolphins are almost a certainty. We may be getting winter storms by then, but the very best weather comes in the winter, in between the storm fronts.

But the islands aren't very civilized.....

There are lots of beautiful places left in the world, but eventually they will get ruined by tourism and corruption of the resources these places have. Hopefully Prince William Sound will remain spectacularly beautiful simply because of the inhospitable weather and difficult access.

I have a soft spot for Cyprus,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CxIPyriX9U

But over the years the island has catered too much for tourism and the corrupt property speculators.

A few miles away from where I live for example.

http://www.thesidlaws.co.uk/fields-and-countryside.html

Creative landscape photography will only bring the scourge of the tourist when published on the Internet.



BTW thats where the Romans built their pontoon bridge during the 3rd Roman Invasion to cross the River Tay. Otherwise known as the arse hole of the World in the film 'Centurion'

That is why we have national parks and comparable preserves. Competently planned and administered (key phrase), they withstand the ravages of unbridled tourism quite well. Difficult access helps a lot, as well.

Not to stray too far into that cess pool that starts with "P" and ends with "olitics", but even the parks and preserves are often under intense pressure. You say "difficult access", and someone else will say "we need to build a new road".

I've mostly poked some very gentle humor at the "civilization" discussion on another thread. But getting serious for a moment, I think one mark of a modern civilized society is the preservation of a few scraps of beautiful and wild areas. Enough of the population of a civilized society needs to agree that leaving some wildlands are important for future generations, or else Am_Fear_Liath Mor's comment that "eventually they will get ruined by tourism and corruption of the resources these places have" will come true for every place. I hope people think about that.

Now I will get off my soap box, and return you to your regular programing.