A nation of laws doesn’t fit that description because there’s a cop on every corner, gun on hip and handcuffs at the ready.

A nation of laws is one that honors the concept of civil order voluntarily – willingly obeying society’s agreed-upon rules. Most of the time, at least.

A tiny minority of people do try their hand at robberies, rapes, murders and the like. But they are few enough that society can afford to maintain enough of a law enforcement structure to keep most scofflaws in check. For most people, though, it’s not the deterrent of getting thrown in jail that keeps them from holding up a convenience store, it’s the knowledge that it’s wrong.

Still, there is a certain underclass of citizens, who practice a different kind of lawlessness, knowing they’re unlikely to get caught and lacking the civic responsibility to resist temptation. Among them are the litterers and vandals who abuse the region’s spectacular outdoors for their own amusement and convenience and to the disgust and dismay of everybody else.

An infestation of them is taking its toll on the forests of North Idaho, and the U.S. Forest Service has decided it’s time for action. Forest Service officials have concluded that they can’t count on voluntary obedience of the law from the renegades who shoot holes in no-shooting signs, tear up the terrain with motorcycles and ATVs, and use remote areas for garbage dumps. So two former police officers from Spokane have been hired to patrol the woods, keeping an eye out for misbehavior.

The officers won’t tote weapons, just citations, which they’ll hand out to violators they find engaging in unlawful activity, from dumping yard waste and junk to operating vehicles without state registration stickers.

In a Spokesman-Review story last week, reporter James Hagengruber described a trailhead on Canfield Mountain strewn with trash from deer carcasses to condoms.

Encouragingly, as Hagengruber noted, the longstanding problem has eased somewhat in recent years, possibly because of the trails’ popularity with responsible enthusiasts. Their presence may deter some of the misuse and if it doesn’t their cell phones make it easier for them to report violations to authorities.

No doubt those trail users accounted for some of the people who spent their Earth Day over the weekend helping to clean up on Canfield. Their civic pride and sense of personal accountability are critical to the nation-of-laws concept.

If a more traditional enforcement drive can apply a few hefty fines to discourage those who still haven’t gotten the point, so much the better.