BMC Launches Green Guide To Uplands

The BMC has published a new Green Guide to the Uplands, a booklet aimed at climbers, walkers and mountaineers giving essential information on how best to care for the fragile upland landscape.

The guide contains general information on access, conservation, hill walking, climbing, scrambling and winter mountaineering alongside specific advice on sanitation, transport, camping and sustainable crag use.

For example, there's advice on taking dogs into the outdoors, restrictions on climbing because of nesting birds, and even cairns. For what it's worth, the BMC 'does not support the use of waymarks, cairns or other intrusive features other than those traditionally established on summits and path junctions'.

Many OMers will be interested in the Wild camping section, which lists some basic common sense precautions you can take to minimise your impact on the environment. And there's also a useful section on sanitation and the best way to minmise toilet impact on the outdoors.

The BMC's hope is that the booklet will be used as a basis for best practice by everyone using the outdoors and, in the process, by affecting the behaviour of each of us, reduce our impact on the upland environment.

Well worth reading and you can download the booklet in pdf form for free from www.thebmc.co.uk