Living around a national park introduces you to some weird people and ideas. One of the strangest, yet most prevalent here is valuing animals and “the environment” over human life.
All you need to do to get a sense of this is pick up a copy of the local newspaper. In the first couple pages, you will see an array of stories about some of the towns restrictive laws — like shutting down Airbnbs, stopping land development, and fining tourists for fining drones– and stories about animal deaths, injuries, and movements.
In some way, it is nice that the news in the town is so innocuous, but it signals a deeper premise that many people here hold.
When you see that a bear being shot is more likely to make the front page than an accident that causes harm to humans, you get a sense for what people truly value.
Despite the fact that people have intentionally chosen to live here because this town has developed as a commercial center amongst nature, they argue and lobby for more repressive restrictions and rules.
They fight to stop the very thing that made this town so livable and as a result, drive away new people from coming and stop the town from thriving.
They live day to day experiencing how humans have made nature better, but still operate from the premise that any change to nature is a bad thing. They enjoy the fruits of development while fighting to stop the very thing that made their lives enjoyable.
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