Setting an Example

The marks of man's incursion on the wilderness are by now unmistakable --bullet-riddled trail signs, garbage-strewn campsites, carved-up tree trunks and paint-smeared rock faces. To Mrs. Margaret Robarge, wife of a Seattle postal clerk, such wanton destruction, which she first encountered on a pack trip into Washington's Cascade Range nine years ago, smacked of "wreckreation." Outraged, she decided to set up the Good Outdoor Manners Association.

GOMA has since consumed most of Peggy Robarge's time and most of the family's savings, but it has attracted almost 50,000 members nationwide. "The problem," she says, "is human erosion, the impact of millions of people on the hairline balance of nature." The solution, she thinks, lies not in closing off overused parklands but in educating the public to their proper use. With a shoestring budget of $800 and the dedicated efforts of 25 full-time volunteers, her organization has put together slide shows with accompanying texts that contrast spoiled and unspoiled nature. They rent for $2, plus postage and insurance, to a growing audience of garden clubs, schools, Boy Scout groups, Audubon societies and climbing clubs. GOMA also sends out a monthly newsletter plumping for proper woodsmanship, makes members pledge to spread the word personally wherever they go. Highlight of the year, however, comes when GOMA, after soliciting candidates from all across the nation, makes its annual Booster and Buster awards for the best and worst examples of outdoor manners.

Scornfully nominated last week for its worst Busters were the unknown riflemen who last summer slaughtered more than 100 sea lions on California's Santa Barbara Island, then bravely blew up the unattended ranger station. Second award went to the unidentified vandals who, late last fall in the Cascades, demolished George Tanner's parked Volkswagen while he lay dying of cold and exposure a few hundred yards away.

Top Booster award went to San Diego's Sea World Aquarium for training its dolphins to present a diverting, three-act "play" with an anti-litter message. More to the point, GOMA honored Colorado's Adolph Coors Co. for its remarkable success in reducing the number of beer cans by the side of the highway. Coors, whose beer is the best-selling in nine of the eleven Western states, has been paying 10 for every empty can and bottle returned--at a loss to the company of 10 each. With recovery rates as high as 85% in some states, Coors last year retrieved 104 million bottles and over 13 million aluminum cans.

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