Any hunter or farmer or even pet owner knows what carrying capacity is. It's the ability of the resource to support the number of creatures which depend upon it. Maintaining a good carrying capacity, neither too few, nor too many, is the reason for changes in hunting and fishing limits. It's the reason you can't put 100 cattle on one acre of ground, and expect them to eat only the grass. It's why, when some crazy lady keeps 75 cats in her house, and the stench gets so bad that neighbors can smell it, the authorities are called in.

There's a famous essay on carrying capacity called The Tragedy of the Commons, written by Garrett Hardin in 1968. Wikipedia sums it up this way: "The article describes a dilemma in which multiple individuals acting independently in their own self-interest can ultimately destroy a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long term interest for this to happen."

This seems to be the battle now being waged over the Current and Jacks Fork Rivers.

The Ozark Riverways is unusual for a federal park in that it doesn't have just a few access points, say, like Yellowstone. There are many activities permitted under lax enforcement conditions, simply because of the nature of the access and the preferences of the Ozark people. There are some activities, like hunting and trapping, which are generally not permitted at all on other national parks. And there are some restrictions, like the original boat horsepower designations, which seemed prudent at the time. You cannot float a 24-foot Lake Ozark style party barge on the Current River above Akers. There isn't enough water.

I started coming to the Riverways in 1969, just before title to Alley Spring State Park was transferred to federal control. I remember when there still were johnboats on the river, when a huge horse ride was 50 horses, there were food concessions in the park, and I can sympathize with people who want things put back the way it was back then. It was easier, simpler, more innocent.

But I'm not sure we can go back to the future. There are too many people wanting to all use the Riverways at the same time: Friday and Saturday between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Although I love horses, and sympathize with the trail ride operations, 1000-3000 people and horses is just too many together for the stony-soiled hills and the once low-nutrient stream. I've paddled upstream on the Current enough to make me wish for a motor, at the same time I've gagged on the blue smoke when some irresponsible motorboat owner guns the engine alongside novice canoeists or tubers just because he or she can (that's already illegal, by the way.) I've been disgusted at foul-mouthed, stone-stupid ill-prepared drunks careening downstream in a raft, at the same time I know they bring more money to a poor area like Shannon County than someone as frugal as I do. And then I have a beer that evening at camp.

And over the years, the people have changed. Maybe it's just the rise of bad manners and self-centeredness in general, but the good people of Dent, Shannon and Carter Counties have been played for fools by city folk so often that they are now even more wary of outsiders. As they should be. Too many of the vacationers leave their manners at home. Eager to cut loose, they jump the bounds not only of good taste but also of reason. The rivers can accommodate a whole lot more people "leaving no trace" than it can "leaving their trash." You might be able to put four heifers on an acre with fences that won't hold one bull.

As someone who's been coming to the Riverways for 40 years, I don't have the moral authority of a native Ozarker who found a way to make a living on this tough land, and stayed. However, as a native Missourian, raised on rock in the Ozark foothills, I greatly admire those people. They have to have a say in the future of the rivers. On the other hand, I've seen enough of the changes over those years that I know what I like, and what I don't -- and what I don't like is the tendency for "progress" to make South Central Missouri just like anyplace else. Sure, modern amenities are appreciated --a warm bathroom beats a scratchy, cold wooden privy in January. But I've seen over that time what too much progress has done to Branson. It's made it a place I avoid whenever possible. It's lost its "Ozarkness" if there is such a word.

Back to carrying capacity. I wish the Park Service well, and I'm glad it's not my decision what to propose. Because if it were, I'd just send this verse from John Denver's song Rocky Mountain High: "Now his life is full of wonder but his heart still knows some fear/ Of a simple thing he cannot comprehend/ Why they try to tear the mountains down to bring in a couple more/ More people, more scars upon the land/" -- In then end, if we civilize and destroy the wildness and freedom we set out to preserve, (and this means both the resources, and the emotional affinity people feel for the area) everyone will have lost.