UKC

Heys guys and girls,Happy new year!! Anyone know where there is any long/good skree running in north/mid wales?
And does anyone know much about the enviromental impact of such activities!?
Thanks in advance!!

In reply to simonwhittle: try this for info

http://tinyurl.com/2a6eu5

from snowdonia nat park - describes the importance of scree (high!) and activities which will cause damage - scree running is specifically mentioned.

Scree is a vulnerable and important habitat. Species are slow growing and susceptible to erosion. Scree running will disrupt, damage or destroy these communities by moving the scree downslope at an unnaturally fast rate. You only have to look at areas like Great Gable where most of the loose scree / talus on the main paths has been eroded downslope by walkers and climbers leaving big, unsightly scarring

In reply to toad: I think people worry about habbitats too much. the sheep use the scree runs anyway.

In reply to Franco cookson:

Um, not a very intelligent comment. Scree is an important habitat. For instance, the large bouldery scree at the top of the Pass is home to some quite rare plants.

In reply to Franco cookson:
Too right. Sod the planet!

I think you'll find after careful observation that whilst sheep may well move daintily in a sheepish fashion across scree they dont do too much scree running.

In reply to Andy Say: u aint seen sheep round here then.

In reply to Touching Centauri: no, seriously. i Do recognise that its a serious issue, but there are greater threats than scree running to ecosystems. pollution and climate change are much more important issues, me thinks.

In reply to Franco cookson: Just for a minute, I'll take you seriously. Environmental damage is mostly caused by selfishness. Be that on a large scale - Co2 emissions, deforestation, or a smaller scale - dropping litter, unneccessary erosion in the uplands. The biggest threat to any environment isn't any one of these things by itself, it's the attitude of "It doesn't matter what I do". These things are related.

Lets take another upland example. Great damage was done to the uplands in the past through airborne industrial pollution and bad agricultural management. Your BIG issues, if you like. The biggest present threats to restoring this damage are from walkers, climbers, mountain bikes and the like - erosion, car transport, dropped ciggies, whatever. These are the little issues that you don't think are important. Individual actions might be trivial, but if you add them together...

To go back to your screes, the lichen and higher plant communities they are important for, are being stressed through airborne pollution and climate change. Additional erosion through careless scree running could perhaps be the tipping point. Little factors and big factors, working together. Ask your teacher on Monday.

To the OP: I'm most definately not having a go at you - I hope the link was of use / interest.

In reply to toad: I don't say it doesn't matter what i do. im just saying eroding a plant, or a small vole is a lesser problem than CO2 emmissions. I'd prefer to switch off a light, rather than not go scree running and turningoff a light helps more.

In reply to simonwhittle:

I think you will find that any decent scree (sp) runs in the UK were battered to death many years ago. My first contact with 'the Great Stone Shoot' on Skye was back in the 1960s and even then much of the central section was eroded back to bare earth.


Chris

In reply to Franco cookson: You can't consider CO2 without considering the biotic input. Small plants (like, for eg, sphagnum) and animals are potentially a much more important consideration than domestic energy conservation measures. What I'm saying is you cant consider the macro scale without considering your impact at a local level. It isn't an either/ or. You have to switch off the light AND consider your environmental impact when you are out and about.

In reply to toad: I agree. but i would be liing if i said i was going to stop climbing, walking and scree running.

In reply to simonwhittle: You would be hard pressed to find any scree to run, in popular areas it has long since been run out down to the bed rock!

In reply to Franco cookson:

What, precisely, does eroding voles involve??



Sick, sick, person..

In reply to Ridge: lol. tis a plesurable experience.

In reply to Chris Craggs:

In England and Wales perhaps. There are plenty left in Scotland. And no I'm not going to say where they are

In reply to Franco cookson: As Toad said, it isn't an either/or issue. But would you not rather treat your local environment with some respect? Would it not bother you if the mountains were bare of vegetation and completely eroded?

It's all part of the climbing/running/walking thing; nature is inevitably tied up with that and part of the enjoyment.

In reply to Touching Centauri: as far as i can see. englands wildlife is pretty screwed anyway and many mountains i go to are bare and i don't think its a bad thing. Its aparently about survival of the fitest- if we have to go out of our way to protect them aren't we damaging the natural order of things anyway?

In reply to Touching Centauri: I'm giving up. He has to go home for his tea soon.

In reply to toad:

I'll second that. No point arguing really. Franco, I'm never really sure if you're trolling or whether you actually believe what you say (or whether you just talk without thinking).

In reply to Franco cookson:
'Don't dig there, dig it elsewhere,
You're digging it round when it oughta be square.
It's much too deep, the shape's all wrong
and you can't dig a hole where a hole don't belong'.

With acknowledgements to Bernard Cribbins

In reply to Andy Say: lol

In reply to Andy Say:

youtube.com/watch?v=r78ZvQM-4D8&

In reply to sutty:
Class. (even though its proof I misquoted!)

In reply to Andy Say:

Don't care if you misquoted, it brought the memory back.

I like you tube for things like that.

In reply to Chris Craggs:

They can disappear at a frighteningly fast rate:

I "ran" the screes below An Stac in the mid-ninetees and it was beautifully graded with the smallest stones in the middle. I returned ten years later to discover the whole slope was bare earth apart from the last few metres.

In reply to O. C. Curmudgeon:

So did I. And yes, it was.

So it's our fault if it's now gone