Just A Thought....

So I was out hiking in Juneau on the first beautiful day in MONTHS!! Yes, it's the coldest and rainiest season up here in the north. Oy!! It was breathtaking. The views, air, weather, scenery. It was all worth the exhaustion later and today. As I was hiking along there were several local folk walking dogs and enjoying the day. The dog would do it's duty and the owner would place it in a plastic bag. Then it dawned on me. This isn't a city park. This is a wildlife trail. There are bears and other wild animals that do their business quite frequently and no one picks up after them. There are no children running around here on the cliff sides and rolling in the dirt like they do in a city park. So there shouldn't be a concern for disease and bacteria from all the local dogs leaving their messes on the grass. It's completely natural. Why do we as humans have to pick up something natural (and smelly I might add) and place it in something unnatural (plastic) to be disposed of at a treatment facility that may use oil to run its facility in our ever increasing energy crisis? Not only that, plastic doesn't decompose as quickly as natural matter does. It especially bothered me when I saw a gentleman pick up after his dog, put it in a plastic bag, and then leave the bag on the side of the trail. WHAT?!?!? What is so different from just leaving it there untouched in the first place? Now he's just contaminated natural matter that could have decomposed and actually given nutrients to the life around it. Now that I think about it, why do we even pick up in city parks at all? We should just carry a scooper and then dump it under a bush or something. Natural fertilizer!! Especially in my hometown where deer run freely through the neighborhoods and parks and leave their droppings. We don't pick up after them so why dogs? I think sometimes we have our ideals backwards when it comes to things concerning nature.