The Lake District National Park has been ravaged by 'wild campers'
according to an unfortunately titled press release issued by the Park
Authority today.
During July, says the release, headed Wild Camping, 'weekend tent
revellers have broken up farm gates and stiles for bonfires, left
rubbish and beer cans, scorched the earth and used hedgerows and wall
sides as toilets'.
Park Rangers are understandably disgusted by what they describe as
'wanton damage and the disregard for one of England's loveliest
landscapes' though they acknowledge that the problem is caused by a
minority.
Dig deeper and it seems that the main culprits are young,
single-sex groups who, banned from official campsites, are instead
using car parks and beauty spots where they tear down gates and
stiles and vandalise trees to use as firewood.
The release catalogues a series of incidents including one where
"A wooden footbridge at Carrock Beck, near Haltclffe, was chainsawed
and burned, which is bad, even by wild campers' standards."
It also stresses the danger of fire in the current dry
conditions.
An Unfortunate Choice Of Words
It's obviously a real problem, but it's extremely unfortunate that
the LDNPA has chosen to use the term 'wild campers' to describe
people who are clearly irresponsible and unaware at best and drunken
vandals at worst.
As we explained in a recent OM feature, Wild
Camping - The Basics, minimum impact and empathy for the
environment are at the very heart of wild camping.
We don't for a minute think that anyone who regularly uses this
site will believe that genuine wild campers have anything to do with
the damage in the Lakes, but once the term becomes associated with
acts of wanton vandalism, there's a danger that we'll all be tarred
with the same brush.
Clearly these people aren't wild campers at all but partiers,
revellers, ravers or whatever you want to call them. It's a shame
that the LDNPA has dragged the term into the affair at all.
Paddy Dillon
