Rock Climbing exhibit discreet What You Trample

When rock climbing humans are most interested in self preservation than anything else, which obviously stands to reason - and it's not that a truly skilled rock climber is constantly considering his or her demise, it's just that there is an ever present danger which comes inherently with the sport. What if I told you that as a responsible climber you need to be cognizant of not only yourself on those rocks, but also the environment? Would you throw a rock at me, a dirt-clod, or would you tell me to just button it?

Well, there actually is some sound advance behind my comments here today. Consider if you will the difficulty a plant has growing between rocks, or on the side of the cliff. It takes a special type of plant with a highly evolved root system to grow there. Most plants don't have that, and therefore can't. For issues having to do with erosion, these plants are highly important to not only the surface of the cliff, but also the maintenance of the rock system.

In fact, there was an interesting article not so long ago on the TerraDaily Online News Network which was titled "Climbers Leave Rare Plants' Genetic Variation on the Rocks" by The Staff Writers in London, UK, which was posted on May 5, 2011. The article discussed a recent paper which was published in the Journal of Applied Ecology (May 4, 2011) "Genetic Variation on the Rocks - The Impact of Climbing on the Population Ecology of Typical Cliff Plant" and it has shown empirical evidence of the challenges these plants face as climbers climb these rock faces.

Okay so, apparently there's been quite a bit of studies done on this topic, and it turns out that it's more serious than we might have imagined. Many of these plants only grow few places in the world, and there are not very many of them, but they have carved out a niche where other plants just couldn't go. They also have the advantage of not having other plans around them disturbing their exploitation of these niches.

However, you can understand how disturbing it is when a rock climber grabs a hold of a rock, or puts their foot in a hole, stepping on their vital root system, or damaging them. Perhaps opening up scars, which are then attacked by insects. What people may not understand is birds also use these plants to help build their nests. These birds also provide nutrients to the soil surrounding the area in the form of bird droppings. They have a perfect little ecosystem going, and when a climber comes along they can easily destroy that balance. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.