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If I didn't know you better, I would think that I had read a response by an environmentalist who has never owned an acre of land, and who probably never will, but who pictures himself as an arm chair expert on land stewardship, while viewing all of the farmers and ranchers engaged in production agriculture, (who feed this nation and half the world), as can-tossin', river-pollutin', soil-comtaminatin' fiends, hellbent on trying to destroy the world, before anyone else can.
Trust me, when you own agricultural land, you develop a respect for it that non-landowners can never truly understand, and you take better care of it than any armchair expert is ever likely to, (despite his or her convoluted way of thinking). You have to, because it is not only the source of your livelihood, but it is also a vital part of your heart and soul.
Why would you be concerned about me defecating behind the barn, when there are probably 300 head of cattle on the other side of the fence, doin' what comes naturally? When I was a kid, whenever we cleaned out the lot, (corral), we dumped it in a manure spreader, and spread it on the garden. That's a fact of life with organic gardening, as I'm sure you are well aware.
FWIW, though, I have it from a reliable source, that bears defecate in the woods, (and occasionally in rivers, for that matter). In fact, so do the elk, deer, and every other living creature that walks, runs, crawls, flies, slithers, swims, etc., etc. Why would you feel that human feces is so much worse? Just like any other manure, nature will automatically decompose it, usually in less than a year. (It may take a long time in the desert, but most of us don't live in the desert).
That said, sure, when I'm in a pristine wilderness area, I treat it the same way that you do. I never leave anything but tracks, but that has nothing to do with what Linda and I were talking about. You're talking about recreational uses for land, while we're talking about country living, and production agriculture. City dwellers who are generations away from the land, will probably never understand that, because they live in a different world, so they view our world from an entirely different perspective. You are fortunate to have such wild and rugged scenery so close by, available for your enjoyment. Where I live, I'm surrounded by farm and ranch land, and such rugged country is more than a day's drive away.
Trust me, if you start your day by wading around in ankle-deep to knee-deep manure, as a normal part of your share of the chore of feeding half the world, you have a somewhat more casual outlook about feces. It doesn't seem so out of place.
Of course, these days, a lot of kids growing up in the big cities, probably think that the meat they consume is produced in the back of the local supermarket. Thank goodness everyone here knows better. 
Tex
