File: european-wilderness-society-supports-mapping-project-to-reveal-europe-s-wilderness.jpg (77.9 KB)
Its astonishing when you think about it. An entire continent (safe for Russia and scandinavia) has been completely stripped of its nature
Showing all 57 replies.
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>>2862702
>nature/wilderness
Not the same thing. Europe has plenty of nature, it's just all human-influenced in some way. There are great efforts to preserve at least fragments of natural biomes and prevent species from being extinguished.
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>>2862833
Wilderness is by definition not managed, except that which is needed to limit human impact of use. Most of europes forests are replantings for specific purposes like timber and are managed for those purposes.
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>>2862871
Oh cool, it just means there‘s wildlife oversight infrastructure. Explains why my time in German forests (where nature preserves are over a quarter of the country‘s land) felt as isolated as those in national forests at home in the US.
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>>2863128
Oh, fuck off.
Germans have absolutely no clue about isolation and wilderness. That’s why it’s a meme for Germans to die in America while hiking. Germans are one of the most pampered know it all peoples.
I‘m both German and American, btw.
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>>2864487
America has almost none of their old growth forests left too. After visiting genuine old growth, it drives me insane knowing that that used to be the norm everywhere in my part of the state. Even now there's fragments of old growth that are coveted by logging companies. Logging is a disease.
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>>2862711
They/I have never been in a primal forest.
I viewed many pictures of Białowieża primal forest in Poland/Belarus, I understand there are decaying logs, old trees, more biodiversity and a buffalo reserve, but for me it looks like most other forests in the same biome in Europe.
There are pists, human settlments and tourism industry next to it or in the polish reservation.
It's not some wild euro temperate jungle.
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>>2864515
America still has both a larger percentage and a larger total amount of old growth forest land.
But old growth forest is just one part and a small part at that. The wilderness preserved in america also includes desert and alpine and arctic.
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File: IMG_7722.jpg (1.8 MB)
>>2862702
Corsicas nice, live there and can do nature every day, tho continuum is kind of a mid metric imo, afaik a simple foot path ruins it even tho it doesn’t affect or endanger flora or fauna
also it’s not rlly isolated cause dickhead tourists keep making the trails lose all sense of immersion so I mostly hike in the off season when there’s a bit of snow
However some valleys are a lot more lonely than others, find the right one and u can have some great isolation and forage provided nobody makes a tourism campaign for it
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>>2862711
You can go innawoods in replanted forests. Some have even been replanted to have a natural variety just for recreation. There is just less wilderness by the american definition; land that retains its primeval character and is untrammeled by man.
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>>2862702
It is a good thing.
The nature is bad for you.
It wants to kill you.
The humans were not made to survive in nature. They are doomed in nature even with their gear and equipment. When it breaks it is over.
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>>2864515
The eastern USA is Europe lite, 99.9% + of all eastern old growth was cut down within the last 200 years. What remains of western USA old growth is actively being logged by nigger companies in the Pacific states, leaving the most pristine and safest old growth left in the USA in the mountain states and certain parts of Alaska (which the nigger companies also want to log).
Further, old growth designation in the western USA is about 300+ years old, while it is only about half of that in the eastern USA, due to species and climate differences. That said, every single western USA state (mountain states and west), minus Hawaii, have dozens or hundreds of living trees older than 2,500 years old right now. Including Arizona and New Mexico and Nevada and Wyoming.
The southeast USA has the most overall logging and tree plantations in the USA; Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana chief among them.
On average it takes an eastern USA forest about 200-500 years to fully recover its soil resilience to get it back to old growth. It takes a central USA grassland about 300-500 years to recover after farming. And it takes a western USA coastal forest about 300-1,000 years to recover after logging, while an interior western USA forest takes about 200-500 years to fully recover. Replanted forests have significantly lower biodiversity and soil resilience compared to old growth forests. Wetlands can be destroyed even faster than forests and take even longer to fully restore.
Another problem is that modern forest fire prevention strategy (periodically removing undergrowth and soil cover, too quickly and often) actually depletes soil resilience, nutrients, and soil moisture; which creates a vicious cycle of soil and forest destruction on very slow scales. Trees in this strategy take longer to mature, do not grow as large as quickly and overall, and are generally more sickly.
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>>2862702
>Europe has no real nature/wilderness left
That is false, and totally, completely false.
1) Romania and Poland have excellent ancient forests, with deer; bear; boar available for hunting.
2) Germany: every village has their forest lot for firewood and hunting. Admittedly, it is not pristine ancient forest, but it is cultivated over the centuries, and still real forest. There are some ancient forests left as well.
3) The Pyrenees (France-Spain border mountains) have excellent forest. People still get killed and eaten by bears.
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Coming from nordics mainland Europe is a bit grim when it comes to outdoors. The consequence for travel is illegality to sleep outside. Scandinavia and Baltics it's encouraged with windshelters or free to use tent-sites like in Estonia. Plus you can just bushcamp legally but often much easier to find something meant for overnight stays. You can relax early and enjoy million dollar lakeside- or seaviews all to yourself. It's also easy mode compared to what I've heard of North America in that wildlife isn't really a threat.
I know people wild camp in Europe too but something like Germoney it's extra stress to try to find a stealthy place when there's barely any woods, then setup late and leave early. And while maybe tolerated it's nicer to sleep knowing you're within your rights.
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biggest thing i've learnt from this thread is that there is a lot of people on this board who think forest is the only kind of wilderness and apparently have absolutely no idea other habitats exist.
embarrassing.
>>2862721
it's not a map of forests, you fucking moron.
do you fucking retards seriously have no idea about upland habitats? coastal habitats? heathlands? wetlands?
fuck sake.
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>>2862702
it just becomes part of the fabric of the wilderness. southern new england is basically 2nd gen old growth forest, with random stone walls in the forest because the 1st gen was clear cut. now we have oreservation so the 3rd gen will be huge in 500 years
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>>2868854
nah dude i live on a craggy-ass peninsula that is composed of glacial granite, constantly sinks into the ocean, and doesn't have a single mountain. the AT technically runs through it but it's not part of the mountain range itself. my favorite camping is sailing to a beach forest only accessible via tidal cove entrance, so i can steam wild mussels and bathe in salt water
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>>2862702
american? right?
im just here to tell you that parts of europe has bear and wolf problems and other parts look like pic related.
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>>2867860
This, I'm from Spain and free camping is prohibited. You can spend the night in a tent in mountain areas above 2000m, but you need to set your tent at dawn and pack it at sunrise.
I sealthcamp anyway in some places.
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>>2869105
Too many people for too few spots worth camping in. They'd get overrun and ruined.
Banning free camping while de-facto allowing it if you're sufficiently sneaky about it is a great way to minimize the impact IMO.
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>>2869105
>>2869097
It really depends on the area. Each protected natural landscape has his "own laws" in Spain. In some National Parks you can camp above some altitude and other conditions, in others, you simply cant.
In other areas, like natural parks, biosphere reservers and so on, is like a grey zone. Its not allowed but not prohibited either. So if you're respectful with nature and dont stay more than a night in the same place, nobody will bother you.
Also, Spain differenciates camping from "sleeping" (pernoctar). Basically, it is legal to cowboy sleep or bivouac in any place wich doesnt explicitly prohibits it, but it is illegal to place a tent in mostly all circumstances.
So check the local legislation if you want to do an /out/ing in Spain. It is possible to do some pretty nice multiday treks if you avoid the most restricted areas.
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>>2862702
It's sad how barren Germany has become. A 150 years ago we had so much beautiful untouched nature. Now we are horribly overpopulated and every spot left of nature is about to be industrialised. Every little glimpse I get of what it must have looked like in the past, I feel nothing but remorse in my heart.