Northern Ireland Outdoors Forum - Hiking, camping and more
General => General Chat => Topic started by: spartan00117 on May 04, 2011
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Interesting article on BBC website, or maybe not!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wondermonkey/2011/05/trampling-the-great-outdoors.shtml
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I think general sensitivity, lack of littering, etc is the main issue. Much of our 'natural' landscape was long since eradicated into these new forms we enjoy today. When I go off-trail I tend to follow an animal trail... left by a sheep, introduced to the area by man once he had cleared all the trees; which I would otherwise be wandering through, following a trail made by a wild boar or badger.
We are of nature and our outdoor pursuits are a more natural expression than our outdoor industries like forestry (and even farming)... the trouble is there are too many of us, so we are becoming more and more unnatural in order to survive... which leads to greater demand to experience true nature (of which we now have less understanding and sensitivity when we come into contact with it)...
Trail erosion on a hill is nothing compared to a 6 lane motorway across the country. It is a little blemish on these last bastions of 'wild' that 'we' value, but if we're serious there are plenty of other areas to work on that would make a greater overall difference to the environment as a whole.
That's my tuppence worth on the matter ;)
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but if we're serious there are plenty of other areas to work on that would make a greater overall difference to the environment as a whole.
Think that's an extremely important point. For example, the demise of whitlowgrass on popular climbing routes is but a drop in the ocean compared to the damage caused by our "advances" as a human race. What concerns me even more is that supposed environmental schemes, such as windfarms in the Monadhliath (http://alansloman.blogspot.com/2011/01/kiss-monadhliath-goodbye.html), are doing some of the greatest damage to our true wild lands.