Introduction

In the past few years serious footpath erosion has occurred in a small number of popular hill and mountain areas of Britain. Proportionately, the amount of eroded ground is quite small, but where it occurs it is often acute. Walkers' boots are quite clearly a major factor - but they are by no means the only one. If a footpath has been worn away by path users, it does not necessarily mean that the blame lies solely at the feet of walkers. Fragile slopes are rapidly damaged by the continual braking and skidding of mountain bikes, and the heavy footfall of fellrunners can also break up the ground. However, overgrazing by livestock, and sheep in particular, has been the primary cause of some of the most serious surface erosion in mountain and moorland areas, with generous subsidies encouraging farmers to graze animals to such an extent that the carrying capacity of the land is exceeded.

Coordinated attempts have been made to repair damaged footpaths in areas such as the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District using a variety of methods; and the Ramblers' Association helped to set up the British Upland Footpath Trust, a charity formed in 1994 to offer assistance with footpath maintenance and counter-erosion schemes.

At the same time the subject must be placed in context. The problem of upland footpath erosion is dramatically overshadowed when compared to the environmental damage caused by conifer afforestation, mineral extraction, the development of tourism complexes, industrial pollution in the form of acid rain, and so on. In addition, there are still large areas of wild land where landowners either do not guarantee public access or deny it altogether. The argument that erosion is a result of too much ease of access is entirely fallacious.

The scale of the problem

"The day we nearly lost Gordon remains firmly etched on (my) memory," wrote Stan Abbott in the RA's magazine in 1989. He was referring to a walk in the Three Peaks area of North Yorkshire along a path so eroded that one of his companions sank deep into the "murky quagmire" of exposed peat. Not long after, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority embarked on the Three Peaks Project, a counter-erosion scheme that variously included laying duckboards across the mud, replacing the peat with hardcore, and laying geotextile fabrics across the damaged surface.

Ingleborough and the Three Peaks area is one of several places in the Pennines that have suffered from acute footpath erosion. Much of it is inevitably concentrated on popular sections of the Pennine Way, Britain's oldest and most famous long-distance footpath, which a 1990 study found attracts over 12,000 long-distance walkers and as many as 250,000 day walkers every year (Pennine Way Survey, 1990 by the Countryside Commission). Kinder Scout, Bleaklow, Black Hill, Upper Teesdale and the Cheviot have all suffered. Yet the disruption of the fragile ecosystem of acid moorland and peat bog is largely due to the overgrazing of sheep, which prevents new plant shoots from developing and so thins out the cover of vegetation, a destructive process abetted by the harsh climate of the hills.

In Scotland, considerable pressure has been felt in upland areas such as the Cairngorms and on Ben Lomond (where the main path to the summit has spread up to 20 metres wide in places). However, this problem pales when compared to the general, environmental threat from mass conifer planting, ski developments, and superquarries. The problem of footpath erosion is also felt in some of the most popular mountain areas of Wales, such as on the paths up to the summit of Snowdon. The National Park Authority estimate that well over 350,000 people walk up to the summit of Snowdon every year - an average of 850 a day.

Meanwhile, in the Lake District the National Trust has employed four, full-time footpath gangs to work on some of the worst affected paths. But at least 90 footpaths in central Cumbria remain 'seriously eroded', according to a recent survey carried out by a working group that consisted of the National Trust, the Lake District National Park Authority and English Nature.

Erosion also afflicts many coastal paths (such as the South West Coast Path and Norfolk Coast Path), although much of this has to do with natural landslips and cliff disintegration. Nevertheless, no-one has a statutory duty to replace a footpath lost by coastal erosion.

Solutions to footpath erosion

s Accessibility

How should the problem of footpath erosion be approached? An obvious first step is simply to discourage walking on the severely damaged, over-popular paths - in particular, by large groups who visit on a regular basis. Perhaps these, and the organisers of challenge and competitive walking events, should follow in the footsteps of the Harrogate Rambling Club, who took the decision to re- route all their walks away from the most seriously eroded footpaths in the Three Peaks area for the time being.

However, paths cannot simply be closed, or a charge for access levied, for this would be both practically unenforceable and ethically undesirable. Long-distance trails such as the Pennine Way are well-established and have had considerable resources poured into them, and nowadays they provide considerable economic benefits to what are often remote rural communities (the thousands of Pennine Way walkers spend as much as £2 million every year on local accommodation, food and drink, and so on - see Pennine Way Survey, 1990). Similarly, the notion of charging for access, apart from being costly and difficult to enforce, does not take into account the fact that most popular upland paths are public highways in law, and people already pay for their upkeep through taxes.

In places such as the Yorkshire Dales and the Peak National Park, where footpath erosion is evident, there are plenty of other paths that can and should be explored, and areas of access land that offer the chance for walkers to roam freely. It should be remembered that there are 140,000 miles (225,000 km) of rights of way in England and Wales alone - including over 300 long-distance footpaths - but it is absolutely essential that these paths are all made accessible, and then kept open and unobstructed. Local authorities should also offer more information about alternative footpath routes, and try to relieve the pressure on the well-known and over-used trails. Over the last few years the North York Moors National Park Authority has produced more information on new walking routes across the Moors, such as the Esk Valley Way and the Link Through the Tabular Hills, which has gradually eased the pressure on the heavily eroded Lyke Wake Walk and Cleveland Way.

There are further, long-term measures that can ease the pressure on some key footpath routes and honeypot sites. For example, restrictions on car parking and general vehicular access to the start of some popular paths may have to be introduced, and indeed this is already taking place in parts of the Peak National Park during the summer months.

s Resources

Since public expenditure on sport and recreation is for the good of the nation's health (a worthwhile long-term investment), and since walking is the most popular outdoor recreation as well as one of the most healthy and beneficial to every age group, there is a strong argument for greater investment in the proper maintenance of public paths, including popular upland footpaths. But if these paths are to be kept in a stable and walkable condition it is necessary for the correct repair work to be carried out. The great diversity of rock type, soils and vegetation within Great Britain means that footpath erosion can vary in nature and scale, and there is no universal remedy (see below).

Above all, it would be a step in the right direction if some of the huge sums of public money that have been spent in support of intensive farming were channelled towards protecting and not destroying the environment. Instead of farmers being subsidised to unreasonable levels, financial rewards could be offered for, in particular, the sensitive management of upland footpaths and open country.

s Measures and materials

However, the worst-affected paths still need to be repaired - they cannot be left to get worse in the forlorn hope that the numbers of visitors will decline. At the same time, the actual counter-erosion measures need careful consideration. Restoration techniques employed in scenic and remote hillcountry should be carefully harmonised with the physical setting. Some early remedies, such as elevated boardwalks and huge rock staircases, can be totally out of place in wild or open landscapes. In the early 1980s the Snowdonia National Park Authority used 'gabions' (rock-filled wire cages) and artificial culverts to drain the slopes of Snowdon, a scheme which involved the clearance of large boulder fields. This drew accusations of heavy-handedness, and that the authority were improperly altering the whole landscape. In the Three Peaks Project, early counter-erosion measures included the laying of chestnut paling to support the footpath surface, and the spraying of a chemical in use in the Alps to turn a soft surface rigid. Unfortunately neither worked.

Other methods that have been employed in counter-erosion programmes have included hydraseeding (practised along the Cleveland Way on the North York Moors). This involves power-spraying a slurry of grass seed, slow-release fertiliser, bitumen and organic material like peat and wood pulp, in an effort to re-establish a protective grass covering on vulnerable slopes and alongside the main track. In addition, geotextile matting has been used to hold the soil in place until the grass seed has germinated, at which point the matting slowly rots away.

It is essential that local materials are used whenever possible, in order to maintain the natural balance and harmony of the land. In recent years the traditional technique of stone pitching has been reintroduced, involving the laying of intricate, interwoven stone tracks. As part of the repair work on the Pennine Way, almost 600 tonnes of flagstone from former Lancashire cotton mills were dropped at a number of locations along the route in order to create traditional 'causey paths'. But this was just one aspect of a whole programme of work on the Pennine Way, which for 1992-93 was estimated to cost £700,000.

s Minimal impact

There is also the question of 'minimal impact' - which means walking in the countryside (particularly in the most sensitive outdoor areas) in a manner which causes the least possible damage to the environment. Adopting an approach of 'sustainable use' means, for example, sticking rigidly to the main footpath and not walking on the softer grassy edges, which of course will aggravate any erosion; treading lightly and carefully every step of the way; and avoiding short cuts and scree running which quickly accentuate erosion.

British Upland Footpath Trust

BUFT is a registered charity (established June 1994) which was set up by the Ramblers' Association, the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, the British Mountaineering Council and the Camping and Outdoor Leisure Association.

The Trust's charitable objectives are "to improve the quality and standard of footpath works and maintenance in the uplands by raising funds and grant aiding footpath schemes which observe and satisfy the terms of the Upland Footpath Policy".

BUFT aims to bring benefit to upland path repair programmes by:

• tapping new sources of funding for upland path repair, in particular, private trusts, outdoor equipment manufacturers and the hill walking public
• raising the profile of upland path repair work through promotional and media work and in particular a biennial award for excellence in path repair work
• helping to improve and maintain standards through the provision of training and opportunities for information exchange and the development of new ideas.

The BUFT trustees have established the Upland Path Award Scheme as a biennial event to help meet these objectives.

With the financial support of the founder organisations, Countryside Commission and the Countryside Council for Wales BUFT employs a Project Worker for 2 days a week.

BUFT can be contacted at: Susannah Perkins, BUFT, PO Box 96, Manchester M20 2FU.
Tel. 0161-445 4747, Fax 0161-445 4500.

BUFT has endorsed as "the Upland Footpath Policy" the following principles for repair and maintenance of paths in open country set out in Repairing Upland Path Erosion - a best practice guide (1996):

The repair and maintenance of paths in open country are subject to the following considerations that:

• Repairs are necessary to prevent or ameliorate visual intrusion and environmental damage;
• Works should be of a high standard of design and implementation using indigenous materials, sympathetic in colour and texture to the immediate surrounding area. Uniformity of construction should be avoided, eg. steps.
• Techniques used should protect existing vegetation and, normally, only locally occurring plant species should be used in restoration. Non local species will be acceptable only where necessary as a nurse crop and where natural succession will rapidly result in their desappearance.
• The more remote the path, the more stringently the criteria for path repairs should be applied. This will be a matter of judgement but in general, the more remote or wild the location the less acceptable an obviously engineered path will be.
• Repaired paths should be suitable to the routes use and constructed on a scale appropriate for the intended use as a footpath, bridleway or byway.
• Before any repair work is agreed the question should be asked "is there a better solution?"
• The use of waymarks, cairns or other intrusive features, other than those traditionally established on summits and path junctions, will be discouraged. A sustained commitment of resources to path management will be sought, so that small scale continuous maintenance can replace infrequent major repairs as the normal method of path management.

The RA has also endorsed these principles.