![]() We don’t need to alter a place we don’t own to say something about the world. But in 2022, we don’t need to spray paint rocks to make a statement. And perhaps those who make that argument are right. Some might argue that they were just trying to say, “I was here.” They were trying to send a message or create art. Some might argue that the natives who placed ancient petroglyphs weren’t doing anything different than the modern visitor. 'Tagging' of natural features is a widespread problem. ![]() She was ultimately sentenced to two years of probation and 200 hours of community service for painting pictures on rocks in seven national parks and posting them online.Ĭarved graffiti in the sandstone at Boat Launch Wall can't be removed. In 2016, Casey Nocket - a San Diego-based artist - learned the hard way that defacing public lands can come at a cost. In some cases, they post these pictures online and take credit for them. They paint complicated pictures on rocks or chip them away in some kind of pattern. Outdoor stewards have long promoted the idea that we should “take only pictures and leave only footprints.” Perhaps there’s a way that public lands officials and outdoor educators could package this idea in a more palatable way for those most likely to vandalize the rocks.Īnd finally, there are those who choose to vandalize public lands as an artistic statement. And though there are many problems with social media, the ability to say “look at me” every day online might allow some level of respite from graffiti for our parks and forests. This is likely some kind of toxic remnant of our colonial past. The second reason for graffiti is to say, “I was here.” We seem to have a cultural need to put our names on everything. Joe Sombataro, with a bucket, works to remove grafitti in Larrabee State Park in a 2017 Access Fund project. Indeed, I have to admit that every time I see that message etched there forever, a dark and spiteful little alleyway in my heart hopes that the person being proposed to saw that piece of environmental damage and said no. This is a profoundly personal message we should not have to see every time we go to the viewpoint above the wall. For example, at the top of the Boat Launch Wall in Larrabee State Park, someone scratched, “will you marry me?” into the rock. Unfortunately, this type of hate etched into the rock is the hardest to mitigate through public lands education.īut not all messages are mean, and perhaps if more people understood how their messages might be interpreted by others they wouldn’t place them. And as it was a cultural site, the vile words hurt all that much more. This was a toxic and hateful message that went significantly beyond the words scratched into the rock due to the damage that it did to a cultural site. ![]() The person who wrote this had a message - a reason for placing the graffiti - that they were trying to convey. The “white power” graffiti falls into one of the three reasons people commit this kind of vandalism. ![]() Painted graffiti mars a rock face in Sehome Arboretum. The most disturbing of these discoveries took place in April 2021, when the racist term “White Power” was found scrawled over 2,000-year-old petroglyphs in Moab, Utah. Graffiti has not only marred the places we recreate, it has also been discovered next to or on historic Native American petroglyphs. Regardless of how you feel about the Broken Windows theory and its application on public lands, there’s no question we have a problem. The idea essentially is, if there’s graffiti here, then no one is paying attention and I can do whatever I want. On public lands, graffiti may give people license to litter, willfully ignore trail signs or disregard a given area’s rules or regulations. In urban settings, the theory goes, graffiti is certainly a precursor to more graffiti, but also may be a precursor to petty crime. Indeed, the controversial Broken Windows theory posits that the existence of graffiti in a given area lays the groundwork for other problems. When graffiti appears it often begets more graffiti. Scratches and carvings in the rock, on the other hand, are much more permanent. Paint can be removed from many rock types with a wire brush, an acidic product called Elephant Snot and significant work by volunteer stewards. And the second is in scratching or carving. The first way that it appears is in paint. ![]() Locally, the areas that have been most impacted by this are the beaches of Larrabee State Park and the Sehome Hill Arboretum. If you’ve spent any time around boulders or cliff bands in the outdoors - especially those close to a road - you’ll note that many of them have been marred by graffiti. ![]()
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