14 reasons why we can't ignore footpath erosion

Mend Our Mountains Articles
27 Medi
5 min read

Did you know that the 140,000 miles of footpaths and bridleways we have access to in England and Wales are under serious threat? The footpaths you love the walk on are disappearing fast before our eyes due to erosion from increased footfall and more extreme weather conditions. Here are 14 reasons why we can't ignore footpath erosion.

With 22.8 million people walking twice a month* and climate change-related hazards like storms, high winds, heavy rainfall, flooding, drought and freeze-thaw action ever worsening**, 140,000 miles of UK path are under unprecedented strain, especially the most popular ones.

The good news is that paths are eminently fixable, but long-lasting, sustainable repair comes at a price. Just 1m of footpath can cost a whopping £250 to restore and £1,000 to helicopter in one bag of stone.

It then takes thousands of hours of physically gruelling toil in remote locations in adverse weather conditions by rangers and volunteers to halt the devastating impacts of path erosion. For example, over the past two years the BMC's Get Stuck In project events have seen 60 volunteer members repair 580m of path in the Lake District alone in a grand total of 840 hours work.

Safe, easily accessible and enjoyable paths are vital for you to keep doing the outdoorsy things you love, so now it's time to show them a bit of love in return - will you donate to help us fix these paths in our Mend Our Mountains campaign?

* Sport England Active Lives survey Nov 2022/23
** Climate Change Adaptation Guidance: Paths, National Trust 2022

Support the BMC ACT Mend Our Mountains campaign

Path repair is a surprisingly costly business. Working in remote locations with complex equipment and adverse weather conditions makes rebuilding trails an enormous and expensive challenge.

What’s Mend Our Mountains?

Mend Our Mountains (MOM) is an award-winning, headline-grabbing campaign, which has raised a total of £1.4 million since its creation in 2016, to repair Britain’s hills and mountains. Since then, over 50 miles of fragile footpath has been restored for future generations and 1,000 miles of upland has been repaired - the equivalent length of over 130,000 double decker buses!

Mend Our Mountains has seven incredible access and conservation projects across England and Wales for 2024. This project is funded by the BMC’s Access and Conservation Trust charity (ACT) and we would like to thank all our members, supporters and volunteers for making vital work like this possible. Here’s what is happening this year as a result of your funding, including volunteering events you can get involved with. Please donate to this cause now!

Erosion near Haytor Rocks, Dartmoor, a Mend Our Mountains project for 2024

With your support:

  • £5 buys a pair of work gloves
  • £10 buys a replacement handle for a mattock
  • £25 buys a shovel or sun cream & midge repellent for a ranger team
  • £50 buys five garden skips for moving soil
  • £150 buys protective clothing for path repairers
  • £250 fixes approximately one metre of footpath
  • £1000 flies ten bags of stone to an inaccessible mountain location

You don't get a cuddly toy or a fancy welcome pack, but what you do get is the satisfaction of being able to walk on your donation, and secure these paths for future generations to enjoy for many years to come.

BMC Get Stuck In volunteers have repaired 580m of Lake District path over the last two years, funded by Mend Our Mountains

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