As an elementary teacher,…

As an elementary teacher, one of the strongest ideologies I implement into my classroom is the importance of being outdoors for mental health, physical health, and personal growth. As someone who has rock climbed, camped, and hiked for most of my life (18 years), there is value in harmony of the climbing, hiking, and camping communities. Causing separation between daily hikers, local communities, and climbers deters opportunities for education and environmental stewardship. Having restricted access to outdoor climbing can be frustrating as a lot of reported negative impacts can be concluded to daily hikers that don't realize some actions they make are harmful. I.e. loud/disruptive, throwing rocks over cliffs, safety awareness, alcohol consumption, littering are some examples. Every time I go to a conservation area to climb for the day, I bring a garbage bag to collect litter that has been often left behind by hikers. Climbers are not going to conservations to be destructive but to find respite from daily work/life to enjoy physical activity in nature. There are programs, seminars/workshops that are in place to educate climbers about the ethics of outdoor climbing to maintain respect for the space they are going to climb at. There needs to be a level of acceptance and community building for all people that go to conservation areas, not a select few. Everyone has the right to appreciate the outdoors granted that respect is maintained for the space.

Opening access with parameters of respect for the land and the local communities is more beneficial than harmful. The Ontario Alliance of Climbing is a wonderful organization that climbers refer to when reporting different issues to different conservations to maintain a clean and accessible space for everyone, not just climbers.

Thank you for your time to read through these ideas, and I urge you to consider all groups of people that belong respectively to different communities that come to conservation areas.