THE GREAT PUMPKIN OF MAX PATCH
Hey! I really like your pumpkin. Truly. That thing has character… and whoever hauled that ginormous gourd to the top of Max Patch clearly has strength and tenacity! I know this because I hauled it back down.
While many of us enjoy carving a scary face into a pumpkin this time of year, there are several important reasons why you should leave your jack-o-lantern on the front porch and not out in nature. But before you feel scolded, please know I understand the thinking… it’s a giant squash, after all. It came from the earth and will return to the earth, and I am sure you thought any creature who found it might be delighted.
Besides Leave No Trace asking us to literally leave no trace, leaving food in a heavily visited place in the wild creates more ripple effects than most folks realize.
IT TEACHES WILDLIFE THAT PEOPLE = FOOD
Bears and other wild creatures, such as raccoons, skunks, foxes, and mice, are clever opportunists. When they find an easy feast near a trail, they quickly learn to connect people with food. Sometimes a single exposure is all it takes for a bear to grow bold around humans, ending in relocation or, sadly, euthanasia. What begins as an innocent and well-meaning gesture often ends poorly for food-habituated wild animals. A fed bear is a dead bear.
A PUMPKIN IS NOT A WILD FOOD
Pumpkins are a cultivated crop and not part of the native menu on a mountain bald. Foreign foods can upset the diet of animals busy preparing for the upcoming winter. Plus, all those stringy innards and scattered seeds can germinate and do not belong in a native plant community.
“BIODEGRADABLE” TAKES A LOT LONGER THAN YOU THINK
Breaking down biodegradable matter is a long, slow process… especially in the cool, windy conditions of a high mountain bald. Leftover foods that slowly collapse into a moldy, fly-covered pile of unrecognizable goo could take weeks or months (or years for some things) to fully decompose. That isn’t exactly the view you climbed up there to see, is it?
MAX PATCH IS LOVED TO DEATH
This iconic mountain is one of the most visited places in the Southern Appalachians. It takes many land managers and volunteers, myself included, a great deal of time and hard work to keep this beloved place clean and safe for all the foot traffic that passes through. If everyone who came through left something “biodegradable” behind, there would be an unimaginable heap of smelly compost and a lot of confused animals.
OR EVEN WORSE…
If your jack-o-lantern were left with a candle burning, the dry grass, gusty winds, and drought conditions could spread fire across the bald faster than you could imagine. And even if it only burned out, the melted wax is an unnatural substance left behind on the summit.
SOMEONE HAS TO CARRY IT OUT
Ummmm… that would be me (or some other volunteer who happened to be in the right place at the right time!). I can officially confirm that a large carved pumpkin, and all the goopety-goop left scattered about, weighs approximately as much as a fully grown bear during ‘Fat Bear Week.’ I would much rather spend my volunteer time helping out hikers and chatting about the amazing view than wrestling a gargantuan gourd down the mountain. Just sayin’.
So, enjoy your ghoulishly carved pumpkin on the front porch and celebrate the fall season at home. Max Patch is already fully decorated with brilliant autumn colors, ghostly mist, and otherworldly sunsets that set the whole sky aglow.
Thank you for leaving no trace.
xoxCollin
