How Many Recreational Tree Climbers In the U.S.

My friends think I'm \"out there\" when geocaching. I was wondering about how many people are climbing trees technically in the USA? It seems there are many more folks on the geocache forums then tree climbing ones. Any comments? Thanks

groleau wrote:

My friends think I'm \"out there\" when geocaching. I was wondering about how many people are climbing trees technically in the USA? It seems there are many more folks on the geocache forums then tree climbing ones. Any comments? Thanks

Agreed, there's a much lower barrier to entry for geocaching. All you need is physical mobility and the desire to participate.

I think we're talking about a small percentage of the population that will independently (after an initial introduction) pursue a tree climbing \"practice\".

In urban area there are barriers to finding places to climb without going ninja. Experienced rec climbers become drawn to older growth, there isn't much left in the U.S. as a percentage of total forested landscape.
-moss

I have no doubt that there are a lot less treeclimbers. Moss said it best, one needs very little to geocache. That said, I'm suprised that more climbers haven't incorporated GPS into wilderness climbs. Once upon a time I introduced a GPS database on my site, which got a lot of talk, but very very few people participated. I'd still like to get a DB together of public areas available for climbing, and have a serious effort put into locating and marking decent climb areas at those sites.

It interesting to listen to you fellow tree climbers. I'm coming at tree climbing from a different angle. I've been geocaching for 3 years. It seems natural ( to me anyway) to start hiding geocaches in trees. I've used a gps all along and started to notice great trees to climb. My plan is to start using coordinates at these trees and hiding caches. I've also noticed using google earth, one can see some great trees. Groleau

moss wrote:
In urban area there are barriers to finding places to climb without going ninja.

We are vastly outnumbered by rock climbers and our numbers only seem substantial when we group ourselves loosely with the pro arborist community. If I did not own my own trees where would I climb legally? The closest national forest is sixty miles away.

Davej wrote:

We are vastly outnumbered by rock climbers and our numbers only seem substantial when we group ourselves loosely with the pro arborist community. If I did not own my own trees where would I climb legally? The closest national forest is sixty miles away.

And it's likely not legal to climb in your nearest national park. National parks are among the most restricted public lands, for good enough reason, they're heavily used and are usually unique habitat/ecotypes.

75% of my climbs are probably technically illegal in some way. For instance there are no explicit rules against tree climbing in most of the public land in my area but there are rules in some places for example against going off trail. I believe that rec tree climbing is now on the radar of many state land managers in my area, they just haven't made any moves to formalize rules. Probably waiting for some high visibility incident/situation to force the issue politically. My goal is to not provide that opportunity.

At the same time I'm pursuing a strategy to gradually introduce rec climbing into city parks by volunteering to run climbs for non-profits that serve city youth. The rewards are way beyond creating access for climbing.


-moss

As a fairly new tree climber. I also do alot of geochaching which gets me outdoors to some really great places that other poeple have found. i think it still is a great idea to share gps locations of great trees in various places. I thought of running an ad. Looking to climb a really great old tree on your Property.

Moss,

I liked your comment about the rewards, I think that one really dosen't know how much enjoyment there is in climbing till one helps another learn.

Everytime I've taught, or spoken with a media member I've said things to them that made me say to myself \"wow, that's pretty cool\" I didn't know I thought that way.

Share what you love.

All Right Moss!

I love hearing about getting kids, especially urban kids, up in trees. Will you keep us posted about your progress with these programs? I have often thought about getting something like that going but just don't have the funds to outfit such a thing. But teaching something one loves has got to be one of the most rewarding endeavors possible. That's inspiring. Thanks! And what a great bonus if a way gets paved to gain legit access to some great public park trees...

Eric