Simon Lee
insect overlord #1
Sir Chris Bonington, Doug Scott CBE and Julia Bradbury are supporting a major new British Mountaineering Council (BMC) crowdfunding campaign launched today (14 March) to raise money for environmental projects on some of Britain’s most iconic peaks: Mend Our Mountains www.crowdfunder.co.uk/mendourmountains
Booming visitor numbers and smaller budgets, compounded by the extensive damage of recent flooding, means that national park authorities and conservation bodies are struggling to keep up.
Working with eight national parks, the BMC aims to raise more than £100,000 to repair damaged paths on some of Britain’s most popular peaks, including the respective highest mountains of England and Wales – Scafell Pike and Snowdon.
The campaign will also feature Ingleborough (Yorkshire Dales), Kinder Scout (Peak District) and part of the Brecon Beacons Horseshoe, as well as vital repairs to moorland on Dartmoor, Exmoor and the North York Moors.
The campaign has been generously backed by top outdoor retailer Cotswold Outdoor, clothing company Alpkit and adventure film website Steep Edge, along with many other smaller sponsors for individual projects.
Carey Davies, BMC hill walking officer, said “We want to provide a financial lifeline for national parks at a time of need. To make this happen, everyone who loves the outdoors needs to come together. If the same number of people who walked up Snowdon in a year alone gave just 20p, we would hit our target.”
“More people experiencing the outdoors is great news, improving our collective health, enriching our culture, encouraging engagement with nature, and keeping rural economies alive. But it puts pressure on the landscape.
“Over time, the steady pounding of feet can blight the mountains, causing erosion scars that harm the local ecology and ruin people’s enjoyment. Erosion is one of the biggest and most expensive problems to manage. In the past, in popular places like the Yorkshire Dales, some of these scars caused by countless feet have grown to up to 30 metres, motorways of damage as wide as parts of the M1.
“To manage this problem needs effective intervention, usually through the construction of paths, which help to heal the mountain landscape and protect habitats and wildlife. But they are not cheap to construct. And in these straitened times, where austerity is the mantra, money is in increasingly short supply.”
The Mend Our Mountains campaign will run for two months, until 16 May, at www.crowdfunder.co.uk/mendourmountains. This is a fundraising appeal with a difference. It will be powered by crowdfunding, so donors will receive a reward in return, including personal experiences donated by outdoor personalities, mountaineers, national parks and the outdoor industry.
Personal experiences include:
• A walk in Borrowdale in the Lake District and pub lunch with Sir Chris Bonington – pledge £1000 (only 1 available)
• A place on a full day’s walk in the Lake District with filmmaker Terry Abraham – pledge £100 (4 available)
• A day out for 3 people in the Cairngorms with long-distance walker Chris Townsend – pledge £250 (1 available)
• A day of trad climbing tuition for two people in Snowdonia with top climber James McHaffie – pledge £250 (1 available)
• A day of sport climbing tuition for two people in the Peak District with top climber Steve McClure – pledge £300 (1 available)
Other rewards include:
• Helicopter ride in The Yorkshire Dales in a helicopter which lifts stone for path repair for four people – pledge £200 (1 available)
• Handcrafted and personalised Yorkshire Three Peaks sign post with Three Peaks Waymark – pledge £75 (10 available)
• VIP tickets to the finish of the Devon stage of the Tour of Britain – pledge £200 (1 available)
• 15% discount* at Cotswold Outdoor, in store and online, for every donation above £10
Everyone who makes a donation will have a choice of either giving their money to an individual project featured in the campaign or to an overall total which will be split between the eight projects. Many of the projects, like Snowdon’s Watkin Path and Kinder Scout’s Ringing Roger, will not go ahead if they do not reach their Mend Our Mountains target. The money raised will be channelled to the different projects through the BMC’s Access & Conservation Trust.
BMC Mend our Mountains image. Erosion in the Peak
The individual projects are:
• Watkin Path on Snowdon, North Wales
• Ringing Roger on Kinder, Peak District
• Waun Rydd in central Brecon Beacons
• High Moor on Dartmoor
• Swine Tail, Ingleborough in the Yorkshire Dales,
• Scafell Pike in the Lake District
• Lyke Wake Walk in the North York Moors
• Long Chains Combe in Exmoor Forest
Please support the Mend our Mountains www.crowdfunder.co.uk/mendourmountains
#mendourmountains
Featured projects
Snowdonia
Snowdon
The highest mountain in Wales is the most popular mountain in Britain, attracting almost half a million visitors a year. The section at the top of the Watkin Path just below the summit is notoriously eroded, but without the success of the Mend Our Mountains campaign it will not get repaired.
Emyr Williams, Chief Executive of Snowdonia National Park Authority:
“One of our aims as a National Park Authority is to ensure that walking in the mountains of Snowdonia is an inspiring experience for visitors and residents, and that walkers will return, again and again. However, the 14% reduction in our budget over the past two years means that in future, elements of our every-day work of protecting and enhancing the landscape, will be difficult, if not impossible at times, to achieve.
“Nevertheless, due to the importance of maintaining footpaths in the uplands and the priority this section of path takes, as a National Park Authority, together with the National Trust, we will contribute significantly to the cost of repairing this particular section of the Watkin Path. Unfortunately, due to the extent of work required, without the extra contribution from the Mend Our Mountains campaign it will be almost impossible to carry out the necessary work on one of Britain's most popular mountains.”
Media contact: Llinos Angharad, 07766 255509 / [email protected]
Lake District
Scafell Pike
The most direct route to the summit of England’s highest mountain, around 100,000 people walk this heavily scarred path ever year, many of them taking part in the famous national Three Peaks Challenge. Keeping the Lake District’s paths in good shape is a constant challenge, especially after the devastating winter floods.
Media contact:
Sarah Calderbank 01539 724 555 / [email protected]
Tanya Oliver, 07813 855820 / [email protected]
Peak District
Kinder Scout
A heavily damaged path below Ringing Roger on the mountain famous for the 1932 Kinder Scout Mass Trespass, which helped create the access freedoms we enjoy today.
Mike Rhodes, Peak District National Park Authority Access and Rights of Way Manager:
“We’re very happy to be involved in this exciting initiative. Without this crowdfunding the repairs we have identified on this path would simply not get done, it would continue to deteriorate, diminishing the landscape and ecology and spoiling the enjoyment of the hills for walkers and climbers.
“The BMC has recognised the importance of our upland paths and the lack of resources for tackling erosion and has come up with an exciting way of raising the necessary funds whilst involving the very people who are walking the paths and enjoying the Peak District hills. We are delighted to support it!”
Media contact: Maureen Eastgate, 01629 816 356 / [email protected]
Yorkshire Dales
Ingleborough
A path below the summit of Ingleborough known as the Swine Tail. It is on the route of the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge, which is conservatively estimated to raise 5 million pounds annually for charity, but this path must withstand 60,000 pairs of feet a year to support all those efforts. It costs £28 per metre to maintain the 42 kilometres of the Three Peaks.
David Butterworth, Chief Executive, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority:
“We are delighted that our project to repair the badly eroded Swine Tail route on Ingleborough is part of the BMC’s fantastic ‘Mend our Mountains campaign. With 120,000 walkers making it to the summit of Ingleborough every year and the Swine Tail also forming part of the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge, every pound donated to this work will be very well spent.”
Steve Hastie, Three Peaks Manager, Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority:
“The BMC campaign recognises that everyone had a responsibility to help in the management of some of the busiest paths in the country. This is a fantastic chance for anyone and everyone who has walked to the top of Ingleborough or who just loves the area to generate vital funds to help keep the paths in A1 shape for the hundreds of thousands of people who use them ever year. We hope people will support our bid and pick us – and we’ve got some excellent and unusual rewards for the different levels of donations they make.”
Media contact: Nick Oldham, 01756 751616 / [email protected]
or Steve Hastie, 07818 048767
Brecon Beacons
Brecon Beacons Horseshoe
The path above the Neuadd Reservoir is part of a magnificent circular walk that takes in the highest peak in southern Britain, Pen y Fan, but the path has deteriorated badly over the last 20 years. Path repair in the most remote parts of the Brecon Beacons can cost up to £170 per metre.
John Cook, Chief Executive, Brecon Beacons National Park Authority:
“Uplands are immensely important to the National Parks’ visitors and residents for both adventurous and quiet recreation but they offer some serious challenges in terms of managing the land -not only for conservation of the delicate but vitally important peat bogs but also the network of paths that cross them. This scheme presents an excellent opportunity for those that love the hills to put something back so that future generations can enjoy them.”
Media contact: Joanna Maurice, 01874 624437 / [email protected]
North York Moors
Lyke Wake Walk
As well as damaging the sensitive surrounding moorland, the erosion on this section of path near the Yorkshire coast at Burn Howe Rigg threatens to undermine ancient monuments, including possibly the oldest stone cross in northern England.
Karl Gerhardsen, Head of Recreation and Park Management, North York Moors National Park: “Mend our Mountains is a fantastic initiative for us at the National Park. The donations received from the campaign will help to keep one of our most cherished and popular paths open by allowing us to carry out vital repairs to the Lyke Wake Walk. Crowdfunding is a very exciting and innovative approach to protect our beautiful landscapes for future generations and it’s great to be part of it.”
Media contact: Alison Harris, 01439 772700 / [email protected]
Dartmoor
High Moor
A spectacular ancient path in the high reaches of Dartmoor used by 18,000 walkers 6,000 mountain bikers, but with erosion that threatens the precious peat bog surrounding it. This is a 4km long project which will cost about £40 – £50 per metre.
Andrew Watson, Head of Recreation & Access, Dartmoor National Park Authority:
“Dartmoor National Park Authority is delighted to be working with the BMC on the Mend our Mountains campaign. This provides a fantastic opportunity for everyone who has a passion for our most spectacular landscapes to contribute to our work and help us to look after these special places.
The BMC’s Campaign will enable people to put something back into Dartmoor. Without public support we will not be able to carry out urgently needed repairs to one of our most popular trails across the high moorland, used by many thousands of walkers and cyclists every year.”
Media contact: Mike Nendick on 01626 831045 / 07518 842734 /
[email protected]
Exmoor
Long Chains Combe, an ancient trading route through one of the most remote parts of Exmoor, has become badly eroded through a combination of high usage and recent heavy rainfall.
Dr Nigel Stone, Chief Executive, Exmoor National Park Authority:
“We are very pleased to be working with the British Mountaineering Council in this innovative way of encouraging people to help maintain some of the most important walking routes in the National Park.
“The project we have put forward is one of Exmoor’s most remote and rugged tracks – an ancient route over the moor which is part of the Two Moors Way. 2016 is the 40th anniversary of this famous trail and we hope that people will support the work that is needed as part of the year’s celebrations.”
