one of the top five pressures on Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in England and includes anything from lighting fires to littering. Natural England is directly responsible for two-thirds of the UK’s SSSIs. Their Protected Site Strategies Team wants to understand the underlying issues and encourage people to enjoy these spaces in a responsible way, so they have set up the Countryside Access, Recreation, and Environmental Stewardship Partnership (CARE) with the Eden Project, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire City Council and the Ramblers to look at the issues on a national level. CARE will then trial solutions in Cornwall and Oxfordshire to promote more responsible behaviour at SSSIs and nature reserves. Two national surveys, one


for site managers and the other for visitors, were circulated by CARE. Litter, dogs off leads, and fouling by dogs were judged by both site managers and visitors to be the most common issues, and, in some cases, they caused the most damage and affected visitor enjoyment. Owning a dog can positively affect people’s health and well-being, of course, and is one of the reasons people are likely to access green spaces, but these results show the need for some dog owners to be more aware of their responsibilities. Site managers said lighting fires


and intentional damage by visitors were the costliest impacts. Understanding how widespread these actions are is important; are they caused by a small minority, and why? Is it possible that a general lack of access to nature compounds the problem by putting more pressure on those places that can be reached? According to the Right to Roam campaign, only around 8% of England is accessible to the public, and


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most of that is limited to ‘mountain, moor, heath and down’. Better education, better enforcement and ways to take part in green citizen action were seen by all surveyed as the best ways to protect natural spaces. The good news is that most visitors also said they were concerned about the damage to natural spaces and had a good understanding of the Countryside Code, the guidelines which help people enjoy the countryside while respecting and protecting it. Volunteers already play a crucial role


in helping to protect spaces through beach cleans and litter picks, habitat


Palace. As estates with hundreds of thousands of visitors a year but with differing landscapes, Eden and Blenheim Palace offer unique insights into how we can help people access and connect with the natural world. They’re places where we can explore and learn how we communicate the issues with visitors and help them be part of the solution. In one of our focus groups, a Head Horticulturalist suggested that the real time and energy invested in nurturing and growing spaces wasn’t understood and appreciated. At Blenheim Palace, they’re looking at issues relating to another iconic tree – the ‘Harry Potter Tree’. Visitors are keen to recreate a scene from one of the films in which a young Snape rests against the trunk. The tree is Blenheim’s most visited tree, a Google landmark in its own right, and encourages visitors to explore Blenheim’s wider parkland. Unfortunately, the resulting visitor footfall compresses the soil, which damages the tree’s roots and could ultimately destroy it. We’re told to leave nothing behind but footprints, but even these could topple a tree. Simply staying on a designated path can help. Blenheim is considering creating


surveys and water quality testing. With cuts to maintenance budgets, it’s sometimes these regular visitors who notice changes or issues. In Belfast, a kayaker helped wildlife teams to correlate the displacement of starlings in the city centre with new LED lights on the Albert Bridge. There’s certainly a desire to protect these spaces as well as use them, so how do we turn this into positive action? Alongside the national surveys


we’ve been investigating the issues here at the Eden Project and Blenheim


physical barriers to give the tree more space and signs to explain why. Understanding how to protect this tree can help protect other trees. They’re also keen to measure the value of this one natural asset to the whole site. The Eden Project has buddied up with local nature reserve and SSSI Golitha Falls in Cornwall to understand the pressures that the site faces. Golitha Falls is a part of the Draynes Wood Nature Reserve. A beautiful, wooded spot on the banks of the River Fowey, which tumbles over a series of falls, the


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