I have posted before but it has been a few years and under another screen name.
Last month I was at Roosevelt National Park(Southern Unit) and was told by a woman at the campground that I could not use my hammock in the campground because hammocks are "killing trees".
There is a National Park Service campground at Alley Spring on The Jacks Fork River in Missouri that has banned hammocks from hanging off trees but you can use a hammock frame instead.
Last September at the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness I was cautioned that it was okay to use my hammock but it was not okay to remove low branches from trees. Ironically,every campsite we came to many of the trees were damaged from axes. No mention of that.
I wrote 2 emails to The ONSR in Missouri asking for clarification and have yet to receive a reply and the same at Theodore Roosevelt N.P.,no response. I have written to one hammock manufacturer and no response.
There are steps that can be taken to mitigate any problems that may or may not be happening to trees in campgrounds but to outright ban hammocks is ham fisted and not well thought out. It is ironic that the National Parks are bending over backwards to accommodate 30+ft land yachts while marginalizing tent campers and kicking out hammock campers.
Anyone else finding these problems? I would like to stop these efforts to ban hammocks before we lose out on access to OUR campgrounds.
Is there anyone who might be on top of this problem already? I have ideas and would like to help.