Graffiti at Joshua Tree Nat'l Park

[Jody_S]

From the article:

To limit the impact of vandalism on historic sites, park rangers closed 308 acres of Rattlesnake Canyon until the end of the month, citing the escalating problem.

"Since January, individuals have defaced the day-use and canyon area of Rattlesnake Canyon with graffiti," the park said in a statement.

[ghostcount]

Sad.

[Brian C. Miller]

Let's see: vandals face a $5000 fine and six months imprisonment. Vandals have uploaded photographs of their graffiti to social media sites.

Will they really be that hard to catch?

[dperez]

They also had a problem with vandals at Barker Dam. The NPS had pictures of the graffiti on a flyer, asking for help identifying the culprits.

-DP

[Scott Walker]

I'm a huge fan of graffiti and think it has done an excellent job of beautifying a lot of pretty lifeless architecture and train cars, but I don’t think the balance of the world’s landscape needs help from graffiti. Too bad that mentality exists, I honestly do not understand why a person feels the urge to paint up a bunch of rocks or carve their name into a 100 year old tree.

[Heroique]

The Anasazi trashed the high desert Southwest.

As we all know, aliens abducted them and ended the madness.

Maybe the spaceships will return and get the new vandals.

[Drew Wiley]

Well, one of our late Presidents did exactly that kind of thing. Now his youthful vandalism allegedly has historical importance.
But he's the fellow who said that if you've seen one redwood tree you've seen em all. Here in Calif they carve their names on
trees thousands of years old. I even know of a rather famous outdoor photographer who sawed a limb off what was then
regarded as the oldest tree in the world and put on his fireplace mantle. I recently went up the street to our neighborhood park to photograph some spectacular lichen with my 8x10 which has been there undisturbed for generations. It had just been
spray painted by some brainless idiot.

[Heroique]

Well, one of our late Presidents did exactly that kind of thing. Now his youthful vandalism allegedly has historical importance. But he’s the fellow who said that if you've seen one redwood tree you've seen em all.

That reminds me – during the Lewis & Clark expedition, Clark carved his initials on Pompeys Pillar, a rock formation near Billings, Montana next to the Yellowstone River. Glad he wasn’t thinking about the environment. It’s pretty exciting to see!

[Drew Wiley]

I once drove out of my way to see some vandalism by the earliest Spanish explorers in New Mexico. Maybe all those hand
prints in the caves in Europe were how the young punks tried to mess up the paintings of their ancestors. Around here every
commercial building in sight has been thorougly tagged. If they catch them, they should be handed a toothbrush and a can
of paint remover, and should have to scrub it all off themselves, even if it took them all summer. Or deport them to Singapore and have them caned. But they wouldn't learn anything anyway. Their brains have already been rotted out by all that aerosol solvent. Frankly, I think our beloved late president should have been caned for what he did too.

[Tin Can]

Last time I was in that area, decades ago, I was amazed how many people shoot big holes in those defenseless Saguaros. Thank God, in Chicago we only shoot each other...