Trail Runner NZ Magazine Article
Within the last 18 months there have been some significant challenges to the environment that we as trail runners and people who enjoy other active pursuits have long considered our playground. Large swathes of the Waitakere Ranges have been closed by the Auckland Council after the mana whenua placed a rahui on the area in an attempt to combat Kauri Dieback. The Taupo IRONMAN 70.3 swim was cancelled in December 2017 due to water pollution, which in itself is shocking in a lake as ubiquitous as Taupo. As we head into another summer of spending a lot of time outdoors in wild spaces I’ve been thinking how athletes need to get active on conserving the spaces we play in. We need to be the Kaitiaki, or guardians, of our wild spaces, if we are to have any hope of continued use and enjoyment.
Within the last 18 months there have been some significant challenges to the environment that we as trail runners and people who enjoy other active pursuits have long considered our playground. Large swathes of the Waitakere Ranges have been closed by the Auckland Council after the mana whenua placed a rahui on the area in an attempt to combat Kauri Dieback. The Taupo IRONMAN 70.3 swim was cancelled in December 2017 due to water pollution, which in itself is shocking in a lake as ubiquitous as Taupo. As we head into another summer of spending a lot of time outdoors in wild spaces I’ve been thinking how athletes need to get active on conserving the spaces we play in. We need to be the Kaitiaki, or guardians, of our wild spaces, if we are to have any hope of continued use and enjoyment.
I would strongly suggest that luck has a tragic tendency to breed complacency-. A postponed deadline, an over ambitious event we somehow got through, the classic “she’ll be right” attitude that has long been held up as a paragon of kiwi virtue and ethic. That attitude, further enhanced by our surfeit of wild open spaces makes us more likely to push our luck next time, rather than do the work that would avoid the risk of damaging our environment for ourselves and those who will come after us.
Who can blame us though? We have on our doorsteps more that our fair global share of beautiful open spaces. For a country the size of ours, with only 4.7 million people, we have traditionally had it good in terms of both access to our wild spaces and the relatively limited impact that we’ve had on the bush. Perhaps not realising what we’ve had we’ve become increasingly lazy. This attitude needs to stop.
It may sound parsimonious, but we can all think about times when we have been less than environmentally minded; Maybe we bypass the odd Kauri Dieback wash station because, hey we run this trail all the time. We ‘don’t get involved in politics’, and hey, the time at the station will wreck my attempt on the Strava segment for this trail. We fumble our sticky fingers trying to get the detritus of a used gel packet back into our vest and drop it and keep going, I mean, it’s only one, right? And, whilst maintaining the curtain of decency, who amongst us has never been “caught short” on a run in the bush and not buried our leavings properly or, if we have been fortunate enough to have it, packed out our toilet paper with us? We can all rationalise that isolated things happen, however throughout history we have seen that lots and lots of ones soon add up to many, and this can have a massive impact on the spaces that we value so highly.
As a group we are no worse than any other. In fact, if we look at trail running specifical, the impact we do have on the environment is perhaps less than other pursuits. We are not especially to blame for these problems. But we do have a very direct personal interest in maintaining our environment. We claim our enjoyment of it as one of the trophies of our sport, and as trail runners, we are perhaps the most intimately linked to the environment we use- we feel the ground under our feet with each stride, we feel the bush on our skin, we gulp lungfuls of clean air. I would suggest that as a sport, trail running in New Zealand has had it too good for too long, if we look forward I would suggest that some sort of environmental issue is coming to all the trails near you sooner or later.
So what to do? I could continue on in this vein, ranting about our environment, but as I’m prone to say, maximum growth happens on the border of support and challenge, Sure, we could just switch from the Waitakere ranges to the Hunua ranges- promising ourselves to be more careful, or run in an area with less kauri, like Riverhead forest. Heck, if we are inclined to such things we could enter an ocean swim instead. But just like all big ticket, big publicity issues (mental health, anyone?) instead of talking about it, there are lots of ways to practically engage and contribute meaningfully.
Why not choose a race that actively gives back to the environment that they use? For instance, you get a Kauri planted when you run the Kauri Run in the Coromandel. Total Sport has been in partnership with the Motutapu restoration trust for the past ten years and has contributed over 100 thousand dollars to help restore Motutapu Island by running The DUAL. We should all support races like these that make a positive and direct contribution. Taking it one step further, actively question race directors about their environmental policy, and if they do not have one, why not? This is start. But why not take it one step further and become involved in your local conservation- write your MP about environmental issues you see happening in your area, donating to Forest and Bird, Department of Conservation, or any of the other organisations that work for our environment, or just get out for an afternoon planting trees or helping to regenerate wetlands with the numerous community groups who are actively engaged promoting local conservation. We spend a lot of time and money (let’s not kid ourselves about the money) playing in the domain of Tane, even a fraction of that given back will make a difference. Engagement breeds ownership, ownership breeds engagement, so let’s get on board.
In practical terms as runners, having clean gear (shoes, packs, etc) when going to different places to run in is one practical way we can reduce potential cross contamination of areas. Kauri dieback can be spread with as little as a pin head of soil, so every effort counts. Be impeccable with your rubbish, pack it out. If you see someone else’s rubbish, pick it up too. Heck, why not organise a rubbish run for your local space.. A trail run with a bin bag to pick up trailside detritus like the Scandinavians do in the unfortunately named “Plogging”. In terms of your business, and by business I mean personal business.. effectively and properly bury any human waste away from trail and pack out TP or any wipes you take with you. It’s as simple as another zip lock bag and saves the environment from struggling with potentially non biodegradable waste, this is especially true with wet wipes.
Lastly, be responsible in your use of trails, if it’s been raining heavily, consider staying off them to give the trails a chance to dry ably. Whilst it’s fun splashing around in the mud, heavy use of wet trails leads to erosion, trail damage and more impact on the surrounding bush areas. Not to be the proverbial stick in the mud, but a little bit of forethought can go a long way to reducing our impact on the places we love. We must be guardians for the wild places we love. We’ve had it too good for too long, my hope is that we realise this and start taking care of our native bush and conservation areas, otherwise we may find ourselves shut out of them for good.
Who can blame us though? We have on our doorsteps more that our fair global share of beautiful open spaces. For a country the size of ours, with only 4.7 million people, we have traditionally had it good in terms of both access to our wild spaces and the relatively limited impact that we’ve had on the bush. Perhaps not realising what we’ve had we’ve become increasingly lazy. This attitude needs to stop.
It may sound parsimonious, but we can all think about times when we have been less than environmentally minded; Maybe we bypass the odd Kauri Dieback wash station because, hey we run this trail all the time. We ‘don’t get involved in politics’, and hey, the time at the station will wreck my attempt on the Strava segment for this trail. We fumble our sticky fingers trying to get the detritus of a used gel packet back into our vest and drop it and keep going, I mean, it’s only one, right? And, whilst maintaining the curtain of decency, who amongst us has never been “caught short” on a run in the bush and not buried our leavings properly or, if we have been fortunate enough to have it, packed out our toilet paper with us? We can all rationalise that isolated things happen, however throughout history we have seen that lots and lots of ones soon add up to many, and this can have a massive impact on the spaces that we value so highly.
As a group we are no worse than any other. In fact, if we look at trail running specifical, the impact we do have on the environment is perhaps less than other pursuits. We are not especially to blame for these problems. But we do have a very direct personal interest in maintaining our environment. We claim our enjoyment of it as one of the trophies of our sport, and as trail runners, we are perhaps the most intimately linked to the environment we use- we feel the ground under our feet with each stride, we feel the bush on our skin, we gulp lungfuls of clean air. I would suggest that as a sport, trail running in New Zealand has had it too good for too long, if we look forward I would suggest that some sort of environmental issue is coming to all the trails near you sooner or later.
So what to do? I could continue on in this vein, ranting about our environment, but as I’m prone to say, maximum growth happens on the border of support and challenge, Sure, we could just switch from the Waitakere ranges to the Hunua ranges- promising ourselves to be more careful, or run in an area with less kauri, like Riverhead forest. Heck, if we are inclined to such things we could enter an ocean swim instead. But just like all big ticket, big publicity issues (mental health, anyone?) instead of talking about it, there are lots of ways to practically engage and contribute meaningfully.
Why not choose a race that actively gives back to the environment that they use? For instance, you get a Kauri planted when you run the Kauri Run in the Coromandel. Total Sport has been in partnership with the Motutapu restoration trust for the past ten years and has contributed over 100 thousand dollars to help restore Motutapu Island by running The DUAL. We should all support races like these that make a positive and direct contribution. Taking it one step further, actively question race directors about their environmental policy, and if they do not have one, why not? This is start. But why not take it one step further and become involved in your local conservation- write your MP about environmental issues you see happening in your area, donating to Forest and Bird, Department of Conservation, or any of the other organisations that work for our environment, or just get out for an afternoon planting trees or helping to regenerate wetlands with the numerous community groups who are actively engaged promoting local conservation. We spend a lot of time and money (let’s not kid ourselves about the money) playing in the domain of Tane, even a fraction of that given back will make a difference. Engagement breeds ownership, ownership breeds engagement, so let’s get on board.
In practical terms as runners, having clean gear (shoes, packs, etc) when going to different places to run in is one practical way we can reduce potential cross contamination of areas. Kauri dieback can be spread with as little as a pin head of soil, so every effort counts. Be impeccable with your rubbish, pack it out. If you see someone else’s rubbish, pick it up too. Heck, why not organise a rubbish run for your local space.. A trail run with a bin bag to pick up trailside detritus like the Scandinavians do in the unfortunately named “Plogging”. In terms of your business, and by business I mean personal business.. effectively and properly bury any human waste away from trail and pack out TP or any wipes you take with you. It’s as simple as another zip lock bag and saves the environment from struggling with potentially non biodegradable waste, this is especially true with wet wipes.
Lastly, be responsible in your use of trails, if it’s been raining heavily, consider staying off them to give the trails a chance to dry ably. Whilst it’s fun splashing around in the mud, heavy use of wet trails leads to erosion, trail damage and more impact on the surrounding bush areas. Not to be the proverbial stick in the mud, but a little bit of forethought can go a long way to reducing our impact on the places we love. We must be guardians for the wild places we love. We’ve had it too good for too long, my hope is that we realise this and start taking care of our native bush and conservation areas, otherwise we may find ourselves shut out of them for good.