South Bruce Peninsular - Communing with nature less and less - Comments

Density=Mass/Volume Cost=Demand/Supply

garym — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:15:00 -0500

As per the rule in our young son's science-fair project, we have to remember that the Density of people per nature spot is not only dependent on the number of people out to partake of it, but also increases as the available space shrinks, and as you say, there used to be a lot more campgrounds, parklands and nature reserves.

We're probably not a good litmus test up here in the Bruce; we could be seeing the results of the paucity of natural spaces elsewhere inducing those fewer and fewer real-nature people to drive farther and farther so as to get something more than they can get from the now already-developed once-upon-a-time spaces down south.

The study in question started their inquiry after noticing the drop in attendence at the US National Parks, and what I can say about our National Parks is that the price keeps going up and up, and that suggests the per-camper costs of maintenance are piled thicker and thicker -- if it were the converse, if there were more and more people braving Algonquin or even the Upper Bruce, wouldn't the per-user share in it go down?

garym: ict evangelist - musician - whatever

the great outdoors...

theboyk — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 13:55:29 -0500

Well, not that this is "solid research" by any means, but I've been an active camper (backwoods & car, summer & winter) my entire life. I'm now 33 (as of Monday — happy birthday to me!) and I've been camping since before I was a year old (with my parents, back then, obviously ). I've also been going to the same park (Grundy Lake Provincial Park) at least once a summer for these 33 years — so, I'll focus on my experience with that park.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, from what I recall, the parks were very busy with people. Then, as the 80s went on, the amount of people dropped drastically. I remember this because out of the 7-9 camping areas in the park, only 3-4 were now open with the rest being closed as there just weren't enough people to justify the cost of keeping them open. This went on a for a long time. But, then, recently, I'd say within the last 5 years or so, the park has fully opened again and there's been more people than I ever remember. I mean, sometimes your hard pressed to even get a reservation during holidays and such. And it's great to see 'cause that means a lot of money is going back into the park to improve it etc.

Now again, this is a single park and just my experience over the last 30+ years, but I can also say that I'm seeing this in a lot of other places that had died off in the 80s and 90s as well. Every summer my wife and I drive up HWY 69 to Sudbury then across to Manitoulin, then down taking the ferry to Tobermory and eventually to Sauble. We camp along the way and the parks are packed, remote or close to cities/towns.

And if you've ever gone into any of the backwoods spots or car camping spots that are open in Algonquin in the winter, I think you'd be surprised how many people are out there camping, braving the cold! And the same with MacGregor Point Provincial Park (near Port Elgin) — that place is packed (yurts and tents) all winter long (never been there in the summer).

So, in my opinion, I'd say people are starting to enjoy the outdoors again!

Communing with nature less and less

garym — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 11:00:02 -0500

Not that I expect it is any great surprise, but research published today out of UI-Chicago Biology Dept is fingering videophilia and the general shift to a sedentary home-based digital lifestyle for the downward trend in both our use and interest in natural spaces, and in our general public health:

The biologists examined figures on backpacking, fishing, hiking, hunting, visits to national and state parks and forests. They found comparable statistics from Japan and, to a lesser extent, Spain. They found that from 1981 to 1991, per-capita nature recreation declined at rates from 1 percent to 1.3 percent per year, depending on the activity studied. The typical drop in nature use since then has been 18-25 percent