Wild Camping

[Twoflower]

Close to where I live, where I go for my walks (and get attacked by dogs in fact) is one of the nicest spots around here. It is at the top of a shallow valley overlooking rustling fields of either corn or wildflowers (there's a new farmer so it's all wildflower meadow at the moment). It's a point where the shallow valley gets a bit steeper and so the hill heads up into some woods.

Picture the scene ... sitting there with a cool drink on a summers evening watching the many rabbits playing just a few yards away, the birds are singing in the trees and there is a calmness that is hard to find around here.
I'd love to say that this was a frequent thing during the summer, but it's not. Unfortunately the local teenagers use this spot as a party area, they turn up en mass playing loud music and burning any wood they can get their hands on, even going so far as to drive a car along the field to push a tree over with it so they can burn the tree and then the car. Drink, drugs and debauchary all night long (ok, I admit I don't have a problem with the 3 Ds providing they are in the right setting).

If wild camping was made legal, these kids would be allowed to do this and there would be no consequences to their actions. As it is now, it's hard enough to discourage them and then try to get it into their drink/drug addled heads that what they are doing is wrong.
I can well believe that this scene is being played out in hundreds of places around the country all within a 10 minute walk of 'civilisation'.

Keep wild camping illegal, I say, but also lets find something for these bored teenagers to do because they only do this as there is nothing better to do.

 

[Twoflower]

incidentely, I know it's not just the teenagers that leave litter/firescars and make a mess .. this is just one example that I have around my way.

 

[Twoflower]

incidentely, I know it's not just the teenagers that leave litter/firescars and make a mess .. this is just one example that I have around my way.

 

[Twoflower]

Errrm, I think I broke the site.

 

[dommyracer]

If wild camping was made legal, these kids would be allowed to do this and there would be no consequences to their actions

I don't think it's as 'All or nothing' as you suggest - there's still a number of other laws they are breaking.

Just because you allow open access for camping, it doesn't mean you have to allow everything else.

Personally, I would be happy with the right to wild camp, without the right to a fire or anything else. Most of the time when I wild camp I just want somewhere to pitch my tent, sleep, brew up and then move on.

You could easily make the act of sleeping the night legal while still having penalties for fires, damage, littering etc etc etc

 

[Cawolf]

Thanks for all the relpys everyone, the area I was thinking was basically the remotest place around keilder forest I could find near a stream, etc... Isn't the right to wild camp similar to the right to roam, in scotland you can wild camp and there doesn't seem to be much of a problem there. As for the teenagers mentioned, they'd be commiting criminal damage. I'm a teenager, not all of us are like that.

 

[Twoflower]

I'm a teenager, not all of us are like that.

Thankfully not, there are lots of teenagers around this way that are doing something with themselves instead of causing a nuisance. But as we all know, a few bad apples will always give everyone else a bad name (or something along them lines).

As for allowing wild camping ... surely the people that make the mess would still make the mess if wild camping was legal/allowed and therefore less places would allow it or turn a blind eye to it (like they do now).

Oh and sorry about the multiple posts this morning .. i think i broke the site :theyareon

 

[andy_e]

... in scotland you can wild camp and there doesn't seem to be much of a problem there...

There is a problem up here, but thankfully most people are too lazy to travel more than 200 yards from the road so their mess is restricted and those that prefer a little more solitude can do so in cleaner surroundings if they are willing to go a bit further.

 

[Grooveski]

....in scotland you can wild camp and there doesn't seem to be much of a problem there.

I'm guessing(mainly from the word "there") that you're not from up here. You may be interested in this thread, the latest(but not only) discussion of the problems that have been occurring since wild camping was opened up.

[Edit - type too slow. Hi Andy!]

 

[Nelis]

Hello everyone,

Having been a a teenager myself (some of you seem to have forgotten), I would like to say the following;

For what I've seen, mostly the wild camping isn't the problem. The problem starts when the group gets to big, especially when alcohol gets a role to play. I've very seldom seen someone making a mess in nature on there own. If someone is alone it doesn't seem very important to leave a lot of rubbish as it will become to impress others. When I was young, others always seemed to find me bit odd, just because I thought it was strange trying to impress someone with the amount of damage I could cause. This of course not being restricted to the wild places. When we used to go out for instance there were always some characters who would find it "cool" to damage cars on the way back..... off course they would never do this when there would be nobody to impress.

In regard to this I think someone (can't remember who) once said: "a person can be smart, people are dumb"

unfortunatly i don't have a solution for this problem that I think has existed since people started to live in community's. To me this is one of the most important reasons to leave society and go to woods every now and then.

Having said all this I think the best solution would be to keep wildcamping illegal, unless ... (fill in the blancs) then making it legal if.... (fill in the blanks). As the latter would be impossible to keep.

Well it has been a long post, but I hope I have made my point.

 

[Cawolf]

I'm guessing(mainly from the word "there") that you're not from up here. You may be interested in this thread, the latest(but not only) discussion of the problems that have been occurring since wild camping was opened up.

[Edit - type too slow. Hi Andy!]

Hi, you're right i'm not from scotland. Sorry for my naivity, I can see the problems now. I'm used to seeing the land reform act from the perspective of a water user (who under normal circumstances wouldn't leave litter, ect..) as I'm a kayaker.
Nelius - I often pick up my friends litter because I don't see why they can't be bothered to find the nearest bin often within 10metres at school. They think i'm weird too.
The type of wild camping i was thinking about was using a gas stove and leaving as little trace as possible. The gas stove would be because I don't really think it's responsible to light a fire in a massive area of forest in the summer months. People should be educated and taken out into the country as part of the school curriclium.(sp?)
Thanks everyone.

 

[demographic]

When it's all said and done you have to think about what is the worst that could happen if you got caught...
Asked to move on, shucks thats a biggie

Basically don't damage anything and leave no trace and theres not much anyone can whine about.
Well, apart from the ones who whine like a jet turbine about everything anyway.

Go around with an axe looking for trees to hack down setting fires all over the place and you're going to cheese people off though.

 

[durulz]

Demographic - exactly! Have a pint on me.

 

[Cawolf]

Thanks everyone,
Demographic - thats the best approach, as long as we dont make a mess.

 

[grimstead]

What's illegal about presuring an interest/way of life, which has been lost as a result of the so called legal systum .

beacuse the goverment dose not want use to be self efficent

 

[headrox_inc]

And you know why dont you, it all to do with Tax, people who have the opertunity to do so should if i had the resorses i would most definatly cook, grow and hunt my own food, build my own home and live in green space, with the added bonus of resuable energy by solar or wind turbine it is quite easy if you have the backbone to live off the grid and totaly indepentant.
In dom jollies show he visited a group of people who did that and lived in mongolian stye tents and to be fair it looked really well though jolly was taking the **** in a sly way.
The thing is though it can be done and can be done easily people though are now adays to stuck in there ways of having food and clothing done for them, im only 22 but I have plans of taking myslef off the grid hopefully by the time im 30, that might seem ages away but if im going to do it im going to do it right and not come crawling back to grimy city life. Off the grid is clean and it takes a real man / woman to get back in touch with nature and someone who is strong of mind to take the rough with the smooth.

Later and peace out, i love the bush

 

[Bob_about]

See this link for a formal response from No10 to the petition submitted on behalf of 2021 signatories

http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page15826.asp

Thanks Gordon!

 

[headrox_inc]

That what i like to hear, just let us wild camp now!!!

 

[Paddywacker]

Here in Ireland we can wild camp in the national parks in the Wicklow mountains.The rules are fair enough. I wont copy and paste them all but here's a link.
http://www.wicklownationalpark.ie/pages/wildcamping.php

 

[CRAZY FROG]

As far as I can remember I think we may have a right to camp on common land under common law. It may be worth looking into and could be used as a president for ferther and future campains on the issue of Wild Camping.There maybe other common law right which may relate to Bushcraft that are hiden within common law that could be used.