A CCESS & CONSERV ATION
I’m not sure,
but there’s every chance you are a lover of the outdoors. Perhaps
like me you found it at some point in the past – ‘it’ being the mountains, walking, climbing, wilderness, solitude or the camaraderie that came from enjoying wild places with others – and since that point it’s been in your soul and in your blood as well as in your planner for free weekends, summer evenings and whatever holidays the world throws at you.
How do you feel about these places? Again, let me guess. You
love them. You have seen them in the first rays of dawn, in the heat of summer, in foul weathers and in the dark of night. And through all that you have grown to understand them and through that and through what these places have given to you, you have come to cherish them. And that feeling, of cherishing, has led you to care for them. This
care can manifest in many forms: it can be the time allowed to sit and stare at a tiny green plant; it can be sticking to the Country Code so as not to disturb wildlife, not to further erosion, not to upset landowners; it can be taking other peoples’ litter home that you find; it can be volunteering to help out on conservation projects that keep your special place special. Now look to your left, to your right, over there. Who do you see?
There’s somebody else in the same place, doing the same thing. But they weren’t there last week. Who are they? Last week it was only you and me but now there’s a lot of us. Last week I could park easily but now there’s two cars up on the verge; last week you were wild camping here in utter solitude and now the best spot is already taken; last week this piece of rock was pristine and now there’s chalk on the footholds; last week we stood alone on the summit and now there’s a punch-up for the top spot. We always felt the love. We knew what wilderness did for the soul and how it made us come to life; knew what a long walk on a wet and windy day across the mountaintops did for our state of mind; knew how after a spring evening bouldering on the grit the way everything else slotted into place. We told everyone who would listen how special it was and how they should do it too if only they would listen.
28 | CLIMB. WALK. JOIN.
Well they’ve listened now, or so it would seem. We used to be a fringe minority, a tribe, now everyone’s at it. Are they like us, these newcomers? Do they share our knowledge and our ways? Do they cherish what we cherish? Care for what we care for? Perhaps it makes little difference. Perhaps as far as the mountain is concerned it still heaves and erodes under the weight of footsteps whether these are new boots or old; perhaps our car is just one of the 40 that has trashed the roadside in the once-quiet valley; perhaps our chalk is adding to the profusion on that starting holds of the once-obscure problem; perhaps it is our crampons which have destroyed that summer classic. The genie is out of the bottle, as they say. The number of people in the UK who have, over the past two years, come to our countryside, has erupted. People have realised that our UK countryside is an incredible resource that gives physical nourishment better than any Pure Gym, that can do as much for our state of mind as a therapy session, that is a place of holidays as good as any Balearic, that has views and sights as breathtaking as any Grand Canyon. And good for them; the countryside belongs to us all. But
this huge change has put our wild landscape under a pressure that it has never felt before. Disposable BBQs are starting wild fires, walkers spreading away from paths are accelerating erosion and double yellows are emerging in response to bad parking. People new to the outdoors are not understanding the delicate interaction of many parties who all use the same small spot of our earth. This is a crucial time. At this time we must all step back
and look at the picture around us. It is a time to think beyond ourselves to the world we move through, to think not only of ourselves but others and also about the land and the rocks and the trees. It is a time to educate ourselves and to be an example to the people new to our world. Here are 11 examples of how our outdoor world is under
threat from me, you and the person beside you. Think about them. Now is the time to go back to the thing that brought us here in the first place, a true deep love for the outdoors. Let us stop and think, and let that love guide us.
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