Yes, once in a while, sure, and mostly when otherwise it’s because I thought I won’t be tired as fast as I do and it kinda ruins it, but I am ready for most of human pressure I see.
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Yes, several years ago a whale watching boat out of Monterey, CA. It was actually a better experience than what i was expecting. A beautiful day, with well organized and friendly people, whales, seals, new bird species; would go again.
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You quoted me and in your response set yourself up as some sort of uber experienced global explorer that none of us could possibly understand. I wrote this:
If framing my response to your claim of superior experience by pointing out that you don’t know me or the other people on this forum who could not possibly understand comes across as ”taking it personally" let me assure that I was just trying to disagree politely with a comment by you that struck me as condescending generally. Obviously I needed to speak more bluntly. You said this:
How humble of you.
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If I came across that way, it was because I may not have expressed myself as clearly as I wanted to. I was trying to respond to something I had seen in the “Children’s Places” thread, where one of the replies was “I learned that my own country, town and surrounds, backyard had as much wilderness in them as African rain-forests, Amazonian jungles and the taiga to name but a few romanticized places.” I replied to that thread by explaining why I disagreed with that statement. And I began to feel as if there must be people who do not understand, if they can say things like that. That’s where the Ray Bradbury reference came from.
So, @pmeisenheimer – having the experience you have, would you agree that your town and surrounds, and backyard, have as much wilderness in them as those romanticized places? If yes, I would very much like to end this argument and instead see the thought process behind that. Because that might finally take me to an answer to my original question.
It sounds like your advice is to lower my standards of what nature is. Not just yours – the whole critique of the concept of wilderness, running through this whole thread, is telling me that.
Is a meadow full of nonnative invasive wildflowers as good a nature experience as a savannah full of native wildflowers that are sensitive to invasion? That depends in part on what your standards are, how much experience you have, and a whole lot of other personal, subjective factors.
I didn’t give you any advice, you asked about our experiences and I answered. You keep downgrading everyone else and saying about amount of experience, while in fact you don’t have to travel around the world to understand something and now it clearly doesn’t let you to objectively read what other people say. Did I see places without introduced species and would anyone prefer not having introduced species anywhere. Yes, of course, but does it mean seeing invasive ruins experience? No, invasives grow by themselves, they’re part of nature.
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The images we see, the promotion, the advertising, is the airbrushed perfect version. The professional photographer allowed in before the crowds - which sets up expectations which cannot be met. I would like to see the temple gardens in Kyoto - but, decades ago, with minimal people - not now fighting to see thru a crowd.
If you travel with an open mind, what you do see and experience, can still be more than you expected.
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I go to iNaturalist and look for areas with few to no observations.
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Well, that may or may not work. There are plenty of places with few to no observations that have nevertheless been deforested and filled with human settlements. It may just be that the inhabitants are not posting here.
I would look for places with few observations of common, weedy species relative to observations of species of undisturbed habitats.
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