Park Conflicts

I saw no graffiti or vandalism at all during the trip at the park.

The place with the most wildlife was at the edge of the woods. The place with the least wildlife was in the car park.

There are many problems in the country park. They include: dog foul, horse poaching (making holes in the ground), smell, litter, dogs eroding banks of pond, noise, vandalism, footpath erosion, joy riding and many many more.

Dogs erode the banks of ponds when they scratch the banks getting in and out. This is a problem as this will eventually lead to foot path erosion as the pond widens.

Many people erode the footpaths, cyclists, horse riders as well as walkers. This becomes a problem as eventually there become potholes in the path. Then the path gets eroded further until there is no longer a path there and when it rains the mud gets churned up so it is impossible to walk on.

Dogs fouling is obviously a problem as you might stand on it. It is, however, even worse if you pick it up in a bag and throw it in a bush, as this is littering as well as dog foul.

The dog walkers are responsible for two of these problems:

It is their fault that the dogs are eroding the banks of the ponds and that there is dog foul on the path and in bags in the bushes.

All people who use the park are responsible for footpath erosion.

Most of these people are against the rangers or against each other:

• Horse riders VS rangers Cyclists VS rangers
• Walkers VS rangers rangers VS wildlife
• Walkers VS wildlife dog walkers VS rangers
• Dog walkers VS everyone everyone VS rangers

The dog walkers are against everyone as no one wants to stand or have to smell dog foul.

The dog walkers are against the rangers as the dogs erode the banks of the ponds which is bad.

Everyone is against the rangers as the paths are being eroded as everyone uses them.

Chris, Scott, James and I were in a group. We all worked together to get to collect the data on the trip. This could have been organized better as we all did what we thought was right, rather than one person doing each thing.

We worked quite well together and we stuck to the deadlines. Next time I think we should get certain people to do each thing.

I think that we could of given names for all the places, so we could recall them easier. We could have also used equipment to get better and more reliable information. I also think that I could have made the data sheet a bit neater. We went during the winter; it had been raining, so the ground was really muddy. We went during school time on a week day; it would have been much busier on the weekend. It would have been better to have gone on the weekend to find out more of the conflicts. If we had had more time we could have done the data collection around the entire park, instead of just in one place. We could also have done it more times so we could get an average for the results.

I think that the problems in the park will continue to get worse, as more people will start coming as the population rises. Also, there are only a few rangers working in the park, and they are already finding it hard.