Leave no trace???

[Hammock Hamster]

I stumbled across something when out for a wander this morning and am very much in two minds!

To my mind this seems very much the work of local youths and at first glance I felt my usual anger at such things. It’s a fairly well travelled path and unlikely to be the place any local bush rafters would choose as a camp site.

On reflection however I am feeling much less annoyance and here’s why, yes it’s a bit of a mess and there was clearly a larger than necessary fire.

Yes it there is a lot of timber piled up where the paths intersect and a seemingly useless ring of logs.

BUT... the site was entirely free of the usual beer cans/bottles, plastic bags, wrappers and other general detritus.

Now it may be that someone else cleared these things away but in an unusual display of optimism I’m choosing to believe the users of the camp did so.

This being the case how does everyone else feel about this?
Personally I prefer to abide by the leave no trace mentality, as I am sure many here do, but aside from scattering all of the logs and stumps I don’t think there was much more that could be done.

What’s your take?

Hamster


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[sunndog]

If that was kids then theres worse things they could be doing. Plus they have time to learn, not everyone has parents that teach them the way we;d like them to behave

Also when i was a kid building dens was the top pastime....hardly leave no trace!

 

[snappingturtle]

We used to have camps like that because it was a go back too camp, its like a marker but also a go ahead and use site, but ever thing else comes home.

 

[Broch]

I can understand why you are in two minds about it, I'm sure I would feel the same if it was on my patch, but, to be honest, it doesn't look like the most pristine of sites anyway. Everything there would disappear in time and, in the long distant past, nobody would be bothered; it's only because we live on an over-populated island where the same site is used by too many people that we are concerned. As you say, no trash so maybe a group open to learning?

 

[KenThis]

I'm very much leave no trace, but I'm thinking it could've been a lot worse too.
Plus it looks like they're probably coming back.
I'm much less bothered by a large fire than cans/bottles and other rubbish.
Where did all the wood come from?

 

[daveO]

Have a walk in my local woods. The kids are now stealing peoples recycling wheelie bins to use the cardboard and paper as kindling. They dump all the glass and metal then set fire to the rest, bin and all. On Friday they had a huge fire right under 2 beech trees that have TPOs on them. They'll burn anything even ripping up fence posts and chucking tyres on there. That fire ring looks positively civilised to my jaded eyes.

 

[Nice65]

I’m alright with that, as it is. It’s when the firesite starts to attract less caring people then the littering and abuse starts.

 

[Fadcode]

It looks like there has been a fire to the left of the ring of wood, so it looks like it is used regularly, and there is a lot of stacked wood in the distance, so it looks like they are at least using dead wood

 

[Hammock_man]

I would say the ring was laid down by one group and the logs moved by another. Could the burn marks also have been made by the team thinning out the area, burning stuff too small to harvest? Some one cut those logs with a chain saw!

 

[Hammock Hamster]

I'm very much leave no trace, but I'm thinking it could've been a lot worse too.
Plus it looks like they're probably coming back.
I'm much less bothered by a large fire than cans/bottles and other rubbish.
Where did all the wood come from?

Most of the wood was from nearby thinning out by council/forestry workers so no issues with the kids cutting it themselves and I guess a few points for recycling are in order too - you can just seen in the background some stacked timber from the Work site


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[mousey]

That looks pretty much like a site used by scouts round my way, although they have three smaller separate fire areas, have permission and always leave the place tidy. Maybe a group like that just going off on there own on spare evenings? - some of the older scouts are really quite responsible.

 

[Bishop]

As evidence of human presence goes I find it encouraging. No empty beer cans, broken glass. abandoned tent or grotty sleeping bag then again it is early in the season.

 

[Janne]

I do not understand the photo.
Is the whole bare area burnt ground? Looks very black-ish.

Or is just the fireplace area where the burn was?

 

[Nice65]

Much of Surrey is on acid soil, it’s often dark in colour due to the black sand.

 

[Janne]

Ok, so not a large fried area..

Imo not a to badly damaged place. The positive as I see it, they left some firewood for the next person.
Fire way, way to big, but if everybody keeps to the same fire place it is (kind of ) ok.
Wonder why they churned up the ground around the fireplace so much.
Looks like they had a massive Rave party there!

Would I be happy if it was my woodland?
No.

 

[Nice65]

Ok, so not a large fried area..

Imo not a to badly damaged place. The positive as I see it, they left some firewood for the next person.
Fire way, way to big, but if everybody keeps to the same fire place it is (kind of ) ok.
Wonder why they churned up the ground around the fireplace so much.
Looks like they had a massive Rave party there!

Would I be happy if it was my woodland?
No.

I think it’s because it’s been so wet here that the ground looks churned up. It’s a wet place anyway, I’m fairly sure those are Alder trees mixed with the Birch, Alder loves damp acid soils. Think sandy like a beach with just leaf litter on it, it doesn’t take much to scuff it up. Not a lot grows on it really, it’s quite a barren soil unless it’s had many years of forest on it, then it turns to a decent soil called sandy loam which supports more species.

Often, beneath the sandy layer is an iron pan, a layer of hard iron rich material that prevents proper drainage and leads to ponds and wet boggy areas. So though it’s sand, it doesn’t drain, and is black with iron. There are many old foundries in the area, hereabouts mostly for the production of cannonballs. Alder wood was cut and sent via train to Edinburgh where it made the best charcoal for gunpowder. I even know of a spot that produces wonderful ochre.

 

[Tiley]

It seems OK - as has been pointed out, there are no cans or plastic left there. There is a suggestion, too, that folk might return to it, perhaps to enjoy another evening around the fire. My concern is that, leaving it as it is might encourage other, far less scrupulous users to take advantage of the site and trash in a way with which we are all too familiar; that, and the fact that whoever set up this site has established a precedent for the locality, meaning that people may think that they have licence to do something similar nearby or elsewhere. With that comes all the attendant troubles of resource depletion and disturbance of a valuable 'wild', natural area, which is ultimately damaging. So, it gets a sort of heavily qualified 'thumbs up'-ish from me...