OPPORTUNTIES FOR PUBLIC ACCESS TO THE COUNTRYSIDE: BRITAIN AND CANADA COMPARED

Abstract

THIS ARTICLE COMPARES AND CONTRASTS the arrangements for public access to the countryside. Since access legislation and government bodies vary enormously in the different parts of Britain and Canada as a whole, there is a need to narrow down the scope of the comparison. This article limits itself in Britain to a discussion of England and Wales, since they are treated similarly in legislation and they include the author's field of experience. In Canada, the provinces of Quebec supplemented with Ontario were chosen because of the thought-provoking contrast they provide and because of personal contacts. This article begins by giving an overview to the access opportunities available and a brief geographical background. Access differences in each area are then examined in depth, including national parks. The article moves on to discuss some of the historical and political factors that collude to produce such an interconnecting web; idiosyncratic to and characteristic of each place. Access opportunities On both sides of the Atlantic, the countryside attracts a huge number of visitors. In 1998, rural tourism represented around £11.5 billion, supporting 340,000 jobs.1 Day visits to the English countryside totalled 1.25 million, a third of which were to go walking. Walking is almost universally popular; nearly half of British adults enjoy a walk of two miles or more every month (1996 General Household Survey, in Riddall and Trevelyan 2001: 1). The Ramblers Association, a body with 134,000 members, exists to encourage walking, protect footpaths, defend the countryside and to campaign for open access. Other means of accessing the countryside are on horseback, by mountain bike, climbing and occasionally trail bikes or four-wheel-drive vehicles. In Quebec, the statistics are collected somewhat differently. Trekking as an activity is not statistically distinct from open-air activities in general, including hiking, cycling, canoeing, fishing and hunting, and snow sports, to name a few. Quebeckers, 'typically extract their out-of doors pleasures through a general feeling of well-being derived simply from being amidst the natural world' (Henderson 1992: 398), there is a greater flexibility of recreational patterns - for example, hiking trails in winter are instead used by cross-country skiers or snowshoers. Eighty per cent of Quebeckers take part in open-air activities (Pronovost 2002: 575). The differences in distances and population statistics are worth considering at this stage and bearing in mind throughout the article before access opportunities are examined in depth. Quebec, Canada's largest province, has a population the same as London but in an area twelve times larger than England. The data in Table 1 emphasises the contrast: Walking at a pace of 16km a day, a journey from the northern tip of Quebec (Peninsule D'Ungava) to the south (us border) would take four months, assuming no obstacles. A similar journey in England could be completed in just over six weeks. One long-distance route called the Coast to Coast Walk, which runs for 305km west-east across northern England, is walkable in a fortnight, although the whole route has been done as a run in thirty-nine hours! A Canadian traveller recently summed up the differences between concepts of distances and time for British and Canadians: 'For a Canadian, 100 years is a long time. For the British, 100 miles is a long way!' [pers. comm]. It is also worth bearing in mind throughout the article the differences in climate between Britain and Canada. Although on the same latitude, the British weather is famously mild and wet, thanks to the Gulf Stream, making the land accessible on foot throughout the year. By contrast, Quebeckers joke that the four seasons consist of June, July, August and winter; even in the temperate, populated south winter can be five months long and over two metres of snow can fall. The wide seasonal variations in weather in Quebec and Ontario partly contribute to the flexibility in recreational activities mentioned above. …