Tuning our astronomical telescopes and bird watching binoculars for migrations and celestial events like Norfolk’s Keeling Heath Star Camp, there’s no time like the present to brush up on a few countryside etiquette basics.
Take All Rubbish Home
We all share the responsibility to take good care of the countryside around us. Rubbish is a big, BIG problem in many of the UK’s much-loved nature reserves simply because of the massive number of seasonal visitors. Think of it this way – you drop a chewing gum wrapper… but so do the other five hundred people visiting the park that day. Within a week there are thousands tiny bits of debris littering the park. Most nature reserves provide bins, but it makes their job a little easier when visitors take their waste home. This also applies to biodegradable waste like partially eaten burgers and orange peel; ecosystems are fragile, and the introduction of any foreign substances can cause damage, as well as interrupting any scientific work being carried out on the area, as is often the case in most of the UK’s nature reserves.
Good Manners
Keeping dogs under control (including picking up their waste as you would on an urban street), leaving gates as you find them (this could mean leaving them open too), not kicking a few dry stone wall stones down to give your astronomical telescopes or bird watching binoculars a better rest etc. – it’s essential that we all do our best to maintain the lush greenery of the UK.