A Usenet persona calling itself Grip wrote:

I do not justify harming anything or anyone, I've simply never seen such a
case where paddling any stream I've ever been on endangering anything.

How would you know if you're disturbing wildlife or not? Even if you observe
one type of wildlife you don't appear to be disturbing, how can you be sure
that you're not disturbing other species? Are you aware of every species
along the river and what your impact on each is? Of course you aren't.

We have to look at the research into such disturbances to determine your
impacts, and the research says you are certainly impacting, to one degree or
another, all wildlife you encounter along the river, whether you see them or
not.

If your presence causes an animal not to water at the stream, that's an
impact. And the cumulative impact of many boaters may have substantial
impacts even on species that tend to be tolerant of human activity.



--
Regards,
Scott Weiser

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© 2005 Scott Weiser