Environment.

[Chris]

Your thread had nothing to do with fell running and mine does.

Chris rather tan type my thoughts and others all over again i have raised the old thread

Supply of Clean Air To Breath

[JohnK]

Your thread had nothing to do with fell running and mine does.

Wasn`t my thread but i posted my thoughts on it, and if the air we breath has nothing to do with Fell running then something is wrong.


The Damned great concrete bases that a wind turbine stands on seriously affects the water courses from the hill, quite apart from tthe already mentioned negatives.

[daz h]

Fell running and the environment.

I have a couple of thoughts to post. I would be interested to know about other peoples thoughts. For example wind farms, walkers, mountain bikes motorbikes and cars. I think we as fell runners beat ourselves up too much about the environment.

1. Most fell races aren't oversubscribed. A lot of fell races would like to have to have more runners.

2. I reckon there are a lot of races which don't do any damage to the hills.

chris i would be interested on your views regarding which races cause more erosion or damage than others
i know in the handbook there are guidelines for organisers to follow to try and keep a good balance but ive done some races in the calender that i dont class as true fell races and the erosion is minimal because most of the route is a hard compacted path but once on the fell its a differnt matter, its much harder to not do any damage

[daz h]

didnt quite address that correctly chris , i just cany think of a fell race that doesnt do any damage at all

[JohnK]

didnt quite address that correctly chris , i just cany think of a fell race that doesnt do any damage at all

A very astute observation Daz

[Chris]

The last few fell races I have done caused a fairly acceptable level of damage in so far as it was pretty minimal.

didnt quite address that correctly chris , i just cany think of a fell race that doesnt do any damage at all

[Stick]

A very astute observation Daz

Perhaps so...but then it depends on what we mean by "damage". A set of stud marks in a muddy bog damages the bog for a few seconds till gravity restores the surface waiting for the next soul ( ) to fall into it... I don't think many of us would say such a short-lived impact could realistically be termed damage...

Then again the ruts left by moutain-bikes (a pet irritation of mine) last longer but are still only relatively temporary. The tracks ruined by 4x4's take years...

I reckon there are fell races which inflict damage to routes which can take several months to recover. But these tend to be the bigger events. The less popular races...you'd be very hard pushed to detect any sign of a race having been there a couple of weeks afterwards...

[daz h]

The last few fell races I have done caused a fairly acceptable level of damage in so far as it was pretty minimal.

thats a fair point chris
i was wondering what your view was on say race numbers entry wise
ive taken part in races with 30 odd in and 600odd in
must admit i like the low key back of a car boot races which although do damage like you say its minimal
i personally think 100 runners is just right, some course routes can take a lot more but i think once you start to get more than say 150 on the open fell , and i dont mean paths thats when you cause problems.
i think this is were reports from walkers and the joe public about us tearing up the ground come from

[daz h]

Perhaps so...but then it depends on what we mean by "damage". A set of stud marks in a muddy bog damages the bog for a few seconds till gravity restores the surface waiting for the next soul ( ) to fall into it... I don't think many of us would say such a short-lived impact could realistically be termed damage...

Then again the ruts left by moutain-bikes (a pet irritation of mine) last longer but are still only relatively temporary. The tracks ruined by 4x4's take years...

I reckon there are fell races which inflict damage to routes which can take several months to recover. But these tend to be the bigger events. The less popular races...you'd be very hard pushed to detect any sign of a race having been there a couple of weeks afterwards...

i think morally as fell runners we cannot accept damage to the fell that lasts several months

[Chris]

Perhaps so...but then it depends on what we mean by "damage". A set of stud marks in a muddy bog damages the bog for a few seconds till gravity restores the surface waiting for the next soul ( ) to fall into it... I don't think many of us would say such a short-lived impact could realistically be termed damage...

Then again the ruts left by moutain-bikes (a pet irritation of mine) last longer but are still only relatively temporary. The tracks ruined by 4x4's take years...

I reckon there are fell races which inflict damage to routes which can take several months to recover. But these tend to be the bigger events. The less popular races...you'd be very hard pushed to detect any sign of a race having been there a couple of weeks afterwards...

I totally agree, Stick. Generally we do our best to consider the impact our sport has on the hills.

I don't like the recent 'supply of clean air to breath' thread because other activities are a whole lot worse than fell running -there is an agenda behind it which is opposed to any human activity. It is idiotic.