Yikes, Barb! Even w/ R. Murray Schafer at the Canadian soundscape
helm the problems are that great? Worse than I could have even
imagined. I do know that they're trying to do a soundscape project
similar to the one done by the park service in the US in Glacier Park
just over the hill from Banff to the west. But they have no resources
and no outside funding support to do it. Any thoughts on how to get
it implemented?
Bernie Krause
>Forget quiet protection in Canada. We have transcontinenata highways
>(huge trucks with retarder brakes) and train lines through our Mountain
>National Parks as well as planes and helicopters. . I have an owl
>recording which I just let run which has the train pulling out of the
>Hinton station. 45 minutes later at the end of the tape you can still
>hear the train, its sound echoing along the canyons. Jasper and Banff
>are horribly polluted with sound. Helicopter "climbing" and skiing -
>so mountain trails are polluted by this noise. In the age of instant
>gratification do not need to hike up a mountain when a helicopter can
>deposit you in the alpine region where the hiking is easy. Sir Winston
>Churchill National Park and the nearby Lakelands Provincial Park seems
>to be a favorite place for dogfights from the Cold Lake Air base and
>supersonic runs with these planes as well as the lake is nice and
>convenient for people learning to fly water drop air bombers to practice
>all day. A few of our provincial parks (Beta Lake and Freeman Lake that
>I know of are located right NEXT to compressor plants. If you think
>airplanes are noisy try these things. I do a Breeding bird survey route
>near Beta Lake. Two miles away the noise is starting to bother my
>hearing the birds. a quarter mile away (adjacent to the Beta Lake
>Park) I can hear nothing!!. Our enlightened government has set aside
>some natural areas for "protection" but the red neck quad and bike and
>off road 4x4 people "need" recreation places so they are ALLOWED in
>these areas. We are watching the Opal Dunes and the Redwater Dunes be
>completely trashed. The Reindeer lichen and vegetation natural to the
>areas is being completely destroyed and we are getting actual blowing
>sand dunes there. Nobody in our enlightened government seems to care
>that the ecosystem that is being protected is being destroyed. These
>guys like to play in the sand and mud so even the wetlands which are
>protected are criss crossed (all standing vegetation flattened) by ATV
>tracks.
>
>Most do not visit our parks for quiet or to be in natural settings. Go
>to our parks like Jasper and Banff. The trails are relatively empty but
>the townsites are packed - impossible to get a parking space. They get
>their wonderful wilderness thrill by letting a deer eat a sandwich off
>their plate at lunch time.
>
>Now to California. I think the limit I heard there a few years ago was
>at Henry Cal (Cowl??) Redwoods Park - South of Frisco.. There was a
>concession there that BLARED canned Music through the park. Nice way to
>enjoy the redwoods accompanied by the Ballad of Casey Jones and you
>could not even hear some of the birds let alone record them. The
>concession probably did not matter anyway because almost everywhere we
>went there were idiots with their huge car sound machines blaring at
>levels which should cause deafness rapidly. Sequoia NP with a
>combination of aircraft and cars that blared was probably the absolute
>worst. How Bernie managed to record anything in that place is beyond me
>- unless things have changed drastically in the last few years.
>
>Most do not care about the sound pollution and most do not care about
>wild sounds. They hike the trails with their earphones on listening to
>their favorite "music".
>
>Anyway we have no worries about wildlife - current "scientific thinking"
>from the US apparently is saying that God allows species to go extinct
>because he can always put new ones on the earth. The fact that he puts
>new ones on the earth is prove by the fact that scientists are
>discovering new species all the time. Nuff said - I am getting bitter
>and I am in the middle of Christmas baking.
>
>Barb Beck
>
>Vicki Powys wrote:
>
>>In Australia there are no clear cut regulations for control of joy flight
>>operators who fly over our national parks. There have even been joy flig=
hts
>>using superseded military jet aircraft, where paying customers are zoomed
>>along at supersonic speed to within 150 metres of the ground, with mock
>>attacks on 'targets' such as unsuspecting park visitors who are camped on
>>lonely mountain tops of the Blue Mountains National Park, west of Sydney,
>>NSW.
>>
>>And there is the all-pervading sound of helicopters on joy flights, with
>>only a voluntary 'Fly Neighbourly Agreement' to keep the choppers above 3=
00
>>metres. Capertee Valley where I live, adjoins the Blue Mountains Nationa=
l
>>Park, and we are now looking at ways to stop a new helicopter joy flight
>>operator from starting up in our own scenic area. Currently there is NIL
>>background ambience in this valley for a large percentage of the time,
>>which makes it heaven for the wildlife sound recordist of course.
>>
>>So I am wondering if any readers from countries that might have a more
>>enlightened legislation as regards aircraft noise, could let me know just
>>what their country's policy is? I would like to start lobbying our
>>politicions on noise issues such as these joy flights, and I'm looking fo=
r
>>good angles.
>>
>>Any ideas anyone? Many thanks,
>>
>>Vicki Powys
>>Capertee Valley
>>New South Wales
>>Australia
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>"Microphones are not ears,
>>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>>A listening room is not nature."
>>Klas Strandberg
>>Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>"Microphones are not ears,
>Loudspeakers are not birds,
>A listening room is not nature."
>Klas Strandberg
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
--
Wild Sanctuary, Inc.
P. O. Box 536
Glen Ellen, California 95442-0536
Tel: (707) 996-6677
Fax: (707) 996-0280
http://www.wildsanctuary.com
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