'Do we deny people access to great swathes of wilderness, risking that they may also care less about it, and leave it vulnerable to more destructive forces such as commercial development? Do we blunt the adventurous pioneer spirit?' - Matt Walker, editor of BBC Nature Online contemplate the balance between access and nature.
Apparently we're in the process of destroying the outdoors – according to a blog piece by Matt Walker, aka 'Wonder Monkey', on the BBC Nature Online web site, 'By exploring the great outdoors, we may be trashing the great outdoors' he says.
The start-point for, what, let's face it, is a deliberately controversial post, appears to be a piece of research showing that climbing in two German alpine areas is detrimental to the growth of a rare mountain plant called yellow whitlow grass.
Apparently there's less of it on regularly climbed crags than not and the same appears to be true of other 'typical central European cliff plants'. Not only that, says Matt, 'rock climbing has also been found to lead to an increase in more alien, invasive plants'.
Stressed Out Wildlife
Then there's snow sports, which again, says Matt, can – according to studies – 'stress out the surrounding wildlife'.
At this point I was close to banging my head against the screen, what about the positive aspects of getting outdoors, I was muttering. Bloody naturalists and conservationists with their wilderness apartheid. Tsssk...
But then, to be fair, Matt does confess that in fact 'little is known about whether outdoor pursuits have a positive or negative impact on the great outdoors – the science hasn’t been done, and there are complex factors involved'.
Which is true. Except that the whole thing is written from the point of view of a blinkered naturalist, in his eyes, the most important single factor appears to be whether great swathes of wilderness should be fenced off so that voles can frolic in peace and rare mosses bask in the sunshine.
Enriching People's Lives
But in the process, he mostly disregards two things. One is the positive impact of being outdoors on the people who go there – and let's face it, whatever you may say about the growing numbers involved, we're still a colossal minority, particularly once you remove car park picnic trippers from the equuation.
Going outdoors enriches people's lives, improves their physical and mental well-being and, I'd argue, means that they take a different, more positive, more naturally-aware mind-set back with them to our increasingly artificial cutlure. And that can only be a good thing, right?
And the other point, is that those very people he's considering fencing out of the wilderness are, in fact, those who are most likely to be sympathetic to the conservation of wildlife, flora and the landscape generally.
'Do we blunt the adventurous pioneer spirit?' He concludes. 'Or do we sharpen it? Do we go out and explore the great outdoors, absorb its majesty, potentially trampling it underfoot as we do so?'
Outdoors People Do Care
Thing is, Matt. The people you surmise may be trampling the great outdoors underfoot are also the people who are most likely to be sympathetic to intelligent and reasonable measures and education to minimise damage, which realistically is to some extent inevitable.
And in fact, climbers and walkers already do. The BMC has long been active in publicising bird bans, which close crags to climbers when rare species are nesting there. National Parks erect notices during nesting season telling walkers to keep to designated paths to avoid disturbing ground-nesting birds and there's an ongoing process of footpath restoration across the country, which is making good much of the damage inflicted on eroded trails by walkers, mountain bikers and horse riders.
And that's without even starting to talk about organisations like the John Muir Trust.
Of course, in an ideal world, we'd tread lightly enough to cause no damage or disturbance whatsoever. Walkers would hover six inches above the trail and move with SAS-like stealth across the landscape, while climbers would carry small watering cans and nourish plant life as they climbed, but it's not an ideal world.
And, I'd argue that fencing off the outdoors would make it an awful lot less ideal in the very biggest sense.
