Category Archives: Environmental Attitudes

cross cultural comparisons

Cross-cultural Comparisons of Huts: methodological notes

Cross-cultural Comparisons

as a Component of Country Studies of Huts: methodological notes

by Sam Demas

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

While learning basic facts about NZ huts (e.g. how they are organized, operated, funded, and used), I was quickly drawn to trying to understand the cultural context of huts and long-distance human-powered travel in NZ.  While I made progress in learning the facts, developing even a slightly nuanced understanding of the broader context for NZ huts will take more time, travel, tramping, talking and reading.

This “NZ country study” – still a work in progress — is one building block in a larger project to compare and contrast huts across 6 – 8 nations.  Tramping, traveling and talking in NZ informed my approach to country studies in part by stimulating many questions of cross-cultural comparison.  I found myself trying to compare what I was learning in NZ with what I knew about the topic in the USA.  Wow!  Confronting my incomplete and idiosyncratic understanding of my own culture was a useful, if humbling, experience!  Travel abroad can certainly help us understand ourselves and the place we call home, as well as a bit about other peoples and lands.

I’m just beginning to learn how to think about cross-cultural comparisons and have a long ways to go……. 

So what follows is not a cross cultural comparison of NZ huts with US or other nation(s); I simply don’t know enough yet to go there.  Rather these are thoughts and questions, using NZ as an example, towards a more intentional method of cross-cultural comparison as a lens for studying and comparing hut systems.

The hope is that these notes will stimulate useful comments and criticisms, and perhaps even lead to collaborations in exploring this arena of comparing hut systems around the world.

1. In beginning a country study, I focus on ascertaining the obvious facts about a hut system so I can begin to draw comparisons with huts in other nations.

2. This leads to identifying the unique features of each nation’s hut system, comparing and contrasting them. What makes this hut system different from others in the world?  For example, in NZ this includes:

  • Historical development of tramping and huts
  • Tramping culture and tramping clubs of New Zealand
  • The large DoC government-owned and operated hut system
  • Great Walks and other categories of tramps and huts
  • Hut architecture and design
  • Private walks and huts
  • Maori operated huts and tracks
  • And small but interesting topics such as: the innovative gear industry of NZ, car relocation services, the Kiwi bach as a related architectural type,
  • Overview of the relevant literature, including books, magazines and websites; and a sense of the state of relevant publishing, maps, libraries and archives.

3. Next, I try to drill deeper, looking at key attitudes, metrics and indicators of land use, environmental awareness, and recreational culture. Most nations do not have book like Shelter from the Storm, which provides a starting point for such analysis.  Among the topics in this arena are:

  • Land use and environmental attitudes:
    • What are the historical patterns of land use and how do they influence environmental attitudes today? It was invaluable to have a broad overview, such as that provided in Chapter 26 “Land under Pressure” in Michael King’s Penguin History of New Zealand.  This includes a sketch of the historical patterns of land use, the dawning of environmental awareness, the arc of environmental activism and legislation, and key environmental organizations.  This background informs questions I ask in interviews and casual conversations.  Geoff Park’s Theatre Country is another example of environmental history shedding light on present attitudes and challenges.
    • What percentage of land is in public ownership and how is it administered for recreation and conservation?
    • What is the role of private land and of land owners in recreation and conservation?
    • Extent, operations and changing attitudes towards wilderness, national parks, and other lands with conservation value? Wild Heart edited by Mick Abbott and Richard Reeve, for example, brings together differing perspectives, and points to areas where Kiwi attitudes converge and diverge from those in the USA, Australia and elsewhere, and specifically addresses ideas about huts and wilderness.
    • Key features of the culture’s attitudes about and engagement with environmental issues such as protection of natural resources, recycling and consumer habits, environmental education programs.
  • Recreational culture in general:
    • What is the historical arc of recreational culture over time? For example, in former British colonies, how were British attitudes to alpinism, rambling, outdoor clubs, and hunting absorbed, transformed and/or rejected. The prevalence and extent of elitist vs. egalitarian ethos of tramping and tramping clubs, and of alpinism, for example.  These evolved differently in New Zealand than in Ireland, Canada, and the USA.  These differences may shape and can help to understand cultural differences in recreation in these nations.
    • Roles of clubs and other mechanisms for promoting and supporting participation in tramping? Extent of permission and overlap with conservation organizations?
    • What are the recreational motivations and values of a culture (e.g. solitude, not seeing others, tolerance for crowding, etc.) and how do they shape huts, tramping and camping? How and why have the relationships of hunters and trampers evolved?
    • What is the history and culture of long distance, human-powered travel in a nation? Extent and nature of trails and of accommodations for skiers, walkers, and cyclists?  How are hospitality traditions of a nation reflected in modern recreational culture?
    • Miles/km of tracks/trails and nature of the trails? Nature and difficult of the terrain? Trends in trail maintenance?
    • General health and fitness of the populace, rates of participation in long-distance human-powered travel, preferences for terrain, accommodations,
    • Trends in camping, hiking, cycling, etc.? How do these affect interest in/use of huts and other accommodation systems?
    • Rights of access – NZ, USA and Ireland have similar laws around legal rights of access for walkers on private land; these are based largely on English laws that have long since been changed in the UK. Most other European nations seem to recognize traditional rights of way to a greater extent than the former British colonies.  Similarly rights of access to coastal lands (e.g. Queen’s chain in NZ) differs among nations and can affect the extent of tracks by rivers/seas/ocean.  The overall impact of these legal differences is of course affected by the extent of publicly owned lands, by other relevant legislation.  Is there a Walking Access Commission or other entity advocating for the rights of walkers?
    • Laws related to recreation – For example, in NZ the laws providing for health care for trampers injured in the backcountry, combined with laws prohibiting recreationists from suing a company or government for liability in case of death or injury create a more relaxed and creative approach to outdoor recreation than in the USA.
    • Tourism and impacts on nature
  • Attitudes toward, use, and role(s) of huts:
    • Societal attitudes towards and extent of knowledge of, huts as recreational infrastructure?
    • Hut etiquette varies among cultures, and differences can be sources of tension in the remarkable experience of communal living that huts provide.  It will be interesting to study differences among nations and how they relate to deeper cultural traits, preferences, and values. 
    • Level(s) of amenities and how this reflects cultural preferences and traditions? Nature of the terrain?  Demographics of use (age, gender, race, education, domestic, international).  Rates of participation compared with other recreational opportunities?
    • Use of huts for educational, conservation, therapeutic purposes?
    • Affordability of huts?
    • Categories of hut visitors catered to? For example, in NZ huts are categorized as catering to Backcountry Comfort Seekers, Backcountry Adventurers, Remoteness Seekers, and Thrill Seekers.  In the far less developed hut systems of the USA, there is no guidebook to hut systems (I’m working on one now!), and there are no equivalent categories signaling the comparative level of amenities/difficulty/challenge of a hut system.

4. Finally, I hope to understand some of the broad historical and socio-economic context, the key challenges of a nation that condition efforts to create its environmental future, and how these factors may influence the present and future roles of its huts. In the case of New Zealand, some of the fascinating broad features of Kiwi culture that resonated with me include a set of conflicts and conundrums that arise in part from its unique position as the last large land mass to be settled by Europeans.  In his Penguin History of New Zealand, Michael King opens the book with a quote from Geoff Park that summarizes a central conflict of the nation’s identity and future: 

New Zealand’s fertile plains were the last that Europeans found before the Earth’s supply revealed itself as finite.  Our relationship with them has been completely unsustainable…..[We] have exploited these islands’ richest ecosystems with all the violence that modern science and technology could summon….We must live with the rest of nature or die with the rest of nature.

While the environmental challenges faced by Kiwis are certainly not unique, they create a set of salient characteristics of NZ culture that influences attitudes to huts, tracks, tramping and outdoor culture.  This seems particularly so due to the rapidity of environmental degradation in this young nation, the broad awareness of the populace of the issues, the comparatively large amount of land in the conservation estate, broad popular support for DoC and its brief to protect and conserve natural resources, and the apparent strength of the environmental movement.

A few of the remarkable contradictions, conflicts and conundrums that struck me as central to NZ’s current challenges and environmental futures:

  • The rapid deforestation of over 50% of the land in pursuit of the goal of creating the Great Britain of the southern hemisphere, complete with a pastoral landscape aesthetic creates ongoing environmental challenges.
  • The designation of 40% of the nation’s land mass as part of the conservation estate sets up a stark dichotomy in land use: developed and conserved.
  • These islands with no native terrestrial mammals have established an economy based on animal husbandry.
    • An island of 3.5 million people, produces food (especially particular dairy and meat) to feed 40,000,000 people per year, which incurs internal environmental costs.
    • Kiwis have among the highest annual rate of consumption of meat per person in the world.
    • The growing export economy for dairy products is utilizing water resources at a stunning rate. A very wet nation appears to be facing issues of water quality and, in some areas, sufficiency.  Resolution of this issue may open a Pandora’s box of issues, including Maori water rights.
  • The role of Maori citizens in civil society in general, and in conservation and tourism issues in particular is a major challenge and an opportunity.
  • The legal personification of former national parks, such as Te Urewera, is a remarkable development, introducing a parallel system of land rights and management. It will be fascinating to see what the Maori do with the dozens of huts for which they are now responsible.
  • An island nation with a sense of isolation from the rest of the world, Kiwi’s are in fact very much tied into the rest of the world. They are: curious about and engaged with the larger world, while mindful of the fact they have created something special that they don’t want to spoil, and simultaneously always looking elsewhere for answers, affirmation and a sense of what is worth paying attention to.  This brings to mind the aphorism “be careful what you wish for”, and is encapsulated in Allen Curnow’s warning,

Always to islanders danger, 

Is what comes over the sea.

  • New Zealand is “Clean and Green” and “100% Pure”, and also competing in the international economy with nations that have no such aspirations.
  • An important part of NZ economy is international tourism, which inexorably veers into “mass tourism”, and
    • strains the patience of Kiwis and threatens the natural beauty and integrity of the very ecosystems that make the land so appealing; and
    • strains DoC’s ability to cater to a broad range of recreational uses of the conservation estate, while also pursuing its lofty conservation goals;
    • prompts the question: who benefits and what suffers from the seemingly inexorable growth in international tourism. Is it sustainable over time, and at what costs?
  • Conservation conundrums: for example, use of the pesticide 1080 as a divisive issue; viewed as “correcting a blunder with a crime”.

Most of the items on this short list of major challenges certainly have analogs in other cultures.  While I can’t get lost in the deep weeds of these issues, I am fascinated by discussing with colleagues:

  • How do these cultural particularities inform national environmental values and aspirations? and
  • How do they condition attitudes and programs in environmental education, recreational culture and in the roles of huts in a particular culture, and across cultures?

In the end, the real fun will come in trying to look across what I learn about Ireland, New Zealand, USA (and eventually other nations such as Switzerland, Austria, France, Norway and Japan), to see if I can detect patterns, anomalies, unique features, trends, and interesting ideas.  To the extent this comparison of hut systems might be grounded in some level of cross-cultural comparison and understanding, the work may have greater meaning.  Ideas travel far and wide and find new meanings as they go……

Mick Abbott

New Zealand Hut Heroes: Mick Abbott

New Zealand Hut Heroes: Mick Abbott

by Sam Demas, September 2018

(Note: this is part of the larger work New Zealand Huts: Notes towards a Country Study)

Towards the end of our time in New Zealand I realized I’d heard very little about the long range future of huts, and that I hadn’t found any academics studying the world’s largest hut system.  The many passionate Kiwis I spoke with were, understandably, focused on how to preserve the huts they have and ensure equitable access to them.  However my curiosity was finally satisfied when, of all places, I was at the Canterbury Art Museum.  Asking directions to my next destination, the Lincoln University Library.  Serendipitously, this lead to an interesting chat about baches and huts with museum staff member Janet Abbott.   She said I should talk with her brother-in-law Mick Abbott at Lincoln University.  What a fortuitous meeting! I have published some of Janet’s great work about baches in Canterbury on my web site, and just before leaving NZ, I had an inspirational conversation with Professor Abbott about the future of huts!

Mick is a hard-core tramper deeply involved in NZ conservation issues, a creative and provocative thinker, and a landscape architect.   He seems to relish asking questions, but insists on not getting stuck on finding immediate answers or mired in ideologies.  His thinking represents the kind of idealism and insistence on aspiration that I imagine makes many pragmatists impatient or dismissive, and/or seems hopelessly unrealistic.  My sense is that he is always striving to stretch our thinking towards the future, towards new, seemingly impossible, possibilities.  In my experience, folks who take this approach often make earnest folks feel defensive, uncomfortable or frustrated.  Nevertheless, we need people who help push us “use the future to imagine today”. Continue reading →

Hutmaster Profile: Michael Quist Kautz

Yurts rising on the Prairie: the American Prairie Reserve hut system

Preview: Yurts Rising on the Prairie!

American Prairie Reserve building their first two huts

By Sam Demas

The first two yurts of American Prairie Reserve planned 10 hut system are now subtly nestled in a remarkable prairie landscape in Montana.  The interiors will be finished this fall, the interpretive program will be developed this winter, and the yurts will be open for adventurous environmental pilgrims in Spring 2018.  The amazing American Prairie Reserve’s hut system will be:

  • the first in the USA not located in the mountains;
  • the first located on the threatened, sublimely beautiful great American prairie;
  • the second largest in the USA (after the 10th Mountain Division Huts);
  • the largest in the USA located on privately owned land;
  • operated as part of a huge nature reserve as and integral part of a strong conservation and education mission;
  • open to travel by hiking, biking and/or canoeing/kayaking; and
  • offering spacious, comfortable quarters with excellent amenities, with minimal environmental impact in a remote and rugged environment.

What follows is a brief preview, based on a visit in early September 2017, of what is coming soon on the great American Prairie.  I hope to visit again next year and present a more complete report, based on the experience of staying in the huts, on this innovative, distinctly American hut system.  For now much of the content below is derived from the APR website, from visiting the huts under construction, and from stimulating discussions with Mike Quist Kautz, Visitation and Huts Manager, who is leading the APR hut system development.

Yurts rising on the Prairie, Courtesy APR

One of the APR Yurt Sites, near Judith River, Courtesy Mike Kautz (also the featured photo at the beginning of post)

Context: Mission of the American Prairie Reserve (APR)

Our mission is to create the largest nature reserve in the continental United States, a refuge for people and wildlife preserved forever as part of America’s heritage.

Operating since 2004 on the basis of an exemplary set of values, the APR is committed to a bioregional program of stitching together 3,000,000 acres of existing public lands (primarily BLM lands) using private land purchases.  As their web site states, “When these fragmented public and private lands are connected, the Reserve will provide a continuous land area collaboratively managed for wildlife and recreation, the largest of its kind in the Lower 48 states.”

So far the non-profit APR has completed 25 land acquisitions transactions to build a habitat base of 353,104 acres:

  • 86,586 acres are private lands owned by the Reserve
  • 266,518 acres are public lands (federal and state) and  leased by the Reserve

They operate on the basis of a rigorous scientific program and strive to foster strong working relationships with their neighbors — the current human occupants and users of large parts of this landscape.

This map gives a sense of the scale and nature of the challenge.  The brown background is BLM land and the white is privately owned.  The goal is to knit together 3,000,000 acres surrounding the Upper Missouri Breaks National Monument andCharles M. Russell National Wildlife Preserve to create the largest prairie reserve in the world.  All this to help preserve and restore the land as close as possible to the landscape and wildlife Lewis and Clark encountered in this place in 1806.

American Prairie Reserve

American Prairie Reserve Current Habitat Map 2017, courtesy APR

The huts will be built on private lands owned by the APR.  The purpose of the hut system is to advance the APR mission by providing affordable shelter and recreational opportunity for visitors interested in experiencing and learning about this unique ecosystem.  Knowing a landscape engenders commitment to preserve it, and the hut system is being designed to aid in getting people to visit and come to appreciate the subtleties of the prairie.

Aerial View of Judith River Site – Courtesy APR

Conceptual plan for the APR Hut System

The prairie ecosystem of Central Montana is a spare and subtle environment — most folks fly or drive over it as quickly as possible.   It is a rugged steppe-like environment with weather extremes, including low rainfall, intensely slippery muds and dangerous roads, and is remote from gas, cell reception, and life safety services.  It requires serious shelter and planning to visit, and a slow, thoughtful pace to truly appreciate.

The hut system is conceived as a means of giving a wide range of visitors the rare opportunity to safely, comfortably, and affordably experience one of America’s iconic — and disappearing — landscapes.  How do you provide public access to a privately owned nature reserve?  How do you direct people to he places you want them to visit and keep them away from ecologically fragile areas?  These are the essential challenges of designing this kind of hut system.

American Prairie Reserve Yurts

Mike Quist Kautz, Director of Visitation and clerk of the works

The idea of a hut system grew from multiple stimuli: the experiences folks have had through APR’s amazing annual “Transect” program and its Kestrel Camp program of trips for board members and donors, from precedents including the Appalachian Mountain Club huts, New Zealand DOC huts and Great Walks, and from the vision  of Mike Quist Kautz and others that huts are an ideal way to introduce people to this unique landscape. 

Eventually 10 huts — ideally placed a days hike, bike or river trip apart — will provide a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in this rich ecosystem.   Each hut will feature a different facet of the Reserve and have its own interpretive theme.  In combination, the total experience of these 10 huts will cultivate appreciation of the the range of biodiversity, the threats, and special thrills of this subtle and vast landscape.  At one time xx % of the America was dominated by prairie.

The map below presents the conceptual plan for a 10 hut system, and the following picture is an artist’s representation of the hut designs.

American Prairie Reserve Hut System

American Prairie Reserve Hut System Plan

American Prairie Reserve Hut System Design Scheme

American Prairie Reserve Yurt Design Scheme, courtesy APR

The first two yurts: design, amenities and operation

Viewed from a distance on this grassland system, these two structures evoke a Mongolian steppe settlement or, in some ways, a spaceship landing in the outback.  The two yurts, designed and built by Shelter Designs (shelterdesigns.net) of Missoula, MT, are grand embodiments of the yurt/hut genre. They comprise three modules each: a 30′ diameter common area, a 30′ diameter sleeping yurt (with the space divided into four sleeping rooms, each accommodating two twin beds, and one also including a bunk bed), and a commodious bathroom yurt. These are unusually commodious spaces for a hut system.

One yurt is located by the rushing Judith River sheltered by a beautiful and increasingly scarce Cottonwood Gallery of majestic old trees. The other is higher in elevation and a nice hike away from the bench providing a dramatic Missouri River overlook (in the Missouri Breaks), featuring views of the historic confluence of the Missouri and Judith Rivers (see also featured photo for this post).

The entire yurt will be rented to a single party, on the model of the US Forest Service cabins common in the Western US. Prices are not yet set, but the intent is to make them affordable.

Yurts will have an unusually high level of amenities for a hut system.  Full kitchen facilities will include propane stove, refrigerator, pots and pans and eating utensils, and sink.   The huts will be available as self-serve (bring your own food and cook on site) or “catered” (food provided and you cook it yourself).  Provision of guided trips is under consideration.  Both huts are on ranch roads that allow for provisioning. Drinking water and food will be trucked in.  Solar collectors will provide power for lights, heat, refrigerator, air conditioning (!), and charging of personal devices.  Description from their website of toilets by Toilet Tech Solutions:

Toilet Tech offers a low-cost and low-hazard solution for waterless human waste management at high use sites.  Toilet Tech’s urine diverting toilets are superior to: expensive barrel fly out toilets, hazardous and ineffective conventional composting toilets, and water polluting pit toilets.  100% of urine is diverted and treated onsite by native or engineered soil.  Fecal matter and toilet paper are consumed by invertebrates (TTS-Decompose), or dried and burned onsite (TTS-Waste Away) leaving little residue.  No bulking agent is required.  Stabilized waste extraction is very infrequent.  Odor is very low.

Graywater will be collected in buckets in the kitchen area and hauled to the septic system behind the bathroom for disposal.

Biking will be on existing ranch roads.  Other recreational pathways are still under consideration. In addition to using existing trails (human and wildlife), walking routes will be created de novo by users in some areas as part of a grand vision with conservation, recreation and educational dimensions intertwined.  APR promotes a form of walking they call “snorkeling” (making ones way slowly across the trackless landscape and becoming attuned to its subtle pleasures). Canoeing and kayaking routes are under consideration.

The initial target audience will be native Montanans who are familiar with the great plains environment, experienced in traveling rough terrain and harsh climate, and overall have the outdoor skill set for this adventure experience.  Doubtless the demographic will evolve over time, and I predict many Europeans will eventually find and treasure this hut system.

This hut system is off to a fabulous start in developing infrastructure to give the user an experience of the larger meaning of prairies by recalling the American prairie as it existed when Lewis and Clark and Sacagawea came through in 1805 and 1806.

Next Steps:

APR hopes to continue development of its hut system by opening one or two more huts in 2019.  As the first American hut system not located in the mountains, they have an incredible opportunity to experiment with a wide range of hut designs appropriate to the weather and terrain. The inclusion of Indigenous architectural traditions, such as cabins and shelters dug into the hillsides (and perhaps some contemporary architectural riffs on these and other building traditions) might result in an architectural showcase of shelter types as well as demonstrating a high level of environmentally sustainable amenities.  And the potential for the huts as infrastructure for innovative environmental education by APR is incredibly exciting!

Stay tuned and get ready to book a trip next year!

Sam Demas, September 2017

 

 

What is the Environmental Impact of Huts? Lets find out!

by Sam Demas, July 2017

Dear readers,

I seek advice! How do we best advance research to assess the environmental impact of huts in comparison with other forms of overnight visitations in the front and back country?  This is the research gap we need to fill to help determine what, if any, environmental protection role huts might play in the nation’s recreational opportunity spectrum.  

The common wisdom is that huts/yurts limit the environmental impact of overnight visitations in the wild by concentrating use in a limited footprint and in a structure carefully sited and designed to minimize environmental impacts. Is this truism true?  Are huts effective in managing environmental impacts in areas of high density overnight use?  

Surprisingly, there is no recreational ecology research in USA to prove or disprove this assertion in relation to huts.   With the growth of hut systems in the USA and increasing pressure for overnight visitations, and with growth of hut systems in the USA, we need additional empirical data to guide us in conducting evidence-based evaluation of proposals for new hut systems.    

Appalachian Trail Shelter. It’s not uncommon for a shelter to have an area of disturbance in front of it that’s equivalent to a single medium to large campsite. Photo courtesy Dr. Jeff Marion

Research around the periphery of this fundamental question has  already been done.  In particular, Dr. Jeffrey Marion (USGS and Virginia Tech Field Station), a leading recreational ecologist, has studied the factors involved in designing and managing campsites to minimize environmental damage. He has also assessed the environmental impact of dispersed and designated camping by backpackers.  His findings show that a containment strategy effectively minimizes aggregate impact by restricting camping to a small number of designated expansion-resistant campsites.  Marion and his colleagues are currently gauging visitor impacts on the Appalachian Trail to enhance sustainability and improve visitor experiences.  This includes assessment of the condition of shelter and campground sites, many of which are heavily overused on the AT.  A prior study in Great Smoky Mountains National Park showed that camping shelters accommodated greater numbers of campers with substantially less resource impact than campers using traditional campsites.

Tent platform. The construction of tent platforms at many major alpine campsites in the Eastern Arthur Range in Tasmania has successfully focused camping pressure and so constrained or limited impacts – Photo Courtesy Dr. Grant Dixon, Tasmania

 The missing piece is research to extend this analysis to study the environmental impact of huts and yurts, and then to compare these with data from other options for overnight accommodations, e.g. dispersed and designated camping, and shelters.

To this end, I’ve written two grant proposals.  The first ($35,000) is with Dr. Marion and Dr. Robert Manning (Professor Emeritus, U of Vermont) to federal land management agencies for a two-year study. This would provide a comparative assessment of environmental impacts and user experience of back-country and front-country camping, shelters, and huts/yurts.   The methodology will include an international literature review, recreational ecology field studies, and assessing the experience of land managers and hut operators.  The second proposal ($4,000), submitted collaboratively with hut folks in the Northeast ,sought to identify best practices in environmental management for hut systems.

Neither proposal was funded.  The federal land management agencies are under siege, facing myriad challenges.  I need help identifying a foundation or other funding entity that might support this research.

Feeling stuck, but not discouraged, I appeal to you for assistance and/or suggestions:

  • who should we be partnering with?
  • what philanthropists, foundations and granting agencies should we approach?
  • should we undertake a crowdfunding campaign?  Anyone willing to help with this?
  • should we be taking a fundamentally different approach?

Please contact me or leave comments below.

With faith in science,

Sam Demas

July 2017

 

Adirondack Hamlets to Huts: a founders’ profile

Adirondack Hamlets to Huts

Duane Gould, Joe Dadey, and Jack Drury – The Adirondacks Hamlets to Huts Team

Joe and Jack: pioneers in a culture awakening to the environmental benefits of huts

In 2013 Joe Dadey and Jack Drury came up with the idea of a lodging and trails system connecting Adirondack hamlets to huts.  I’ve been following their quest as something of a model planning process for hut systems.

Continue reading →

Harry Jeuken — A Farmer & his Lough Avalla Trail

Profile of a Traditional Farmer and Host of the Lough Avalla Trail

By Sam Demas

As I approached the Lough Avalla trailhead on Green Farm Road, Harry stopped his truck and greeted me with a friendly smile.  We chatted a bit, and I explained that I hoped to talk with him after walking the trail.  I was interested in his approach to farming, and about how hosting a National Looped Trail and being part of Ireland’s Walks Scheme fit into his vision of farming.  We hit it off immediately and quickly arranged to meet the next day when he had a little spare time.  Before driving on, he told me to be sure to check out the Fairy Ring, and pointed out the direction.

[For more articles on rambling in Ireland, see my Country Study: Long Distance Walking in Ireland]

I’d been eagerly anticipating this classic Burren hike for weeks, and was delighted to have met this legendary farmer in my first few minutes on his farm.  And was thrilled to have found him so warm and welcoming!

The Lough Avalla trail is known as one of the most beautiful in Ireland, and he and his family run a lovely tea room for the many walkers who visit.  The next day we walked around the farm, sipped tea and talked until he had to get back to work on the farm.  Harry is a hard-working, wise and humane farmer who cares about the land and about people.  I found his approach to the trail, and to life and farming, inspirational and exemplary in every way.  Here is a bit of what I learned in our conversation.

Traditional Family Livestock Farming in the Burren

Growing up on a farm in the Netherlands, Harry spent a year on livestock farms in the USA as a youth.  He always wanted to be a “traditional farmer”, but soon learned that was very hard to do in his home country.  In 1971 he moved to Ireland, where old-fashioned farming still survived in some areas.  In about 1998 he and his wife Maria bought Lough Avalla Farm, in a spectacular location in the middle of the Burren National Park.

Harry’s approach to farming is to first understand the traditional farming techniques of the area.  He gradually comes to understand how and why they came to be and to honor the common sense in them.  He also to engages daily with the soils, plants, animals and natural world of his farm.  Through these practices of deep learning and observation, he evolves a set of farming practices finely tuned to the land, the crops and the livestock.  He sees carrying on with the ancient transhumance practice of uplands winter grazing (aka winterage, the reverse of normal transhumance) on the rough limestone grasslands as a key to maintaining the unique biodiversity of his farm and the region.  Not surprisingly, he is a member of the remarkable Burren Life Programme, which works with farmers to support high nature-value farming and conservation practices.

Thoughtfully managed permanent grasslands and grazing are a very efficient method of food production.  Harry points out that on a small percentage of the earth’s surface is tillable; not enough to feed the planet.  He believes livestock are an essential component of the food system.  Livestock can utilize much of the non-tillable land, such as is prevalent in the Burren.

The whole Jeuken family is involved in this diversified farming enterprise.  They raise white-belted Galloway cows, goats, donkeys and sheep.  And they make and sell milk, yogurt, meat and cheese (one of the few farms in Ireland producing sheep cheeses).  The neatly tended kitchen garden is productive, and the tea room features a range of delicious home-baked goods.

The five grown children, aged 18 – 26, are all involved in the farm.  I only met one: Melissa, who tends the goats (80 kids were born on the farm this year!) and sheep and makes cheeses.  Most of the kids are now at university.  The next generation is bringing to the farm the knowledge they are gaining — at school and on the farm — in animal husbandry, dairy science, soil science, horticulture, ecology, forestry, horticulture, and baking.  Wow, what a wealth of knowledge, and love, is being poured into this family farm!

Farming as a Way of Life

Harry’s philosophy is based on the view that farming is a way of life, not a “profession”.  With so much information available and so many new agricultural technologies, the main thing is to know what you value and what you will cherish and nurture.  And to know what to let go of.  He doesn’t have sheep dogs, choosing instead to walk and run and stay physically strong by herding the sheep without them.  He minimizes the use of machinery.  For Harry, its all about integrating farming into how you live your life, living in tune with nature and with natural processes, and about the four “riches”:

  • a place to call home;
  • a job which makes you feel good and provides meaningful work;
  • a healthy lifestyle, good food for our brains and bodies;
  • and believing in something bigger than yourself.  For Harry this involves religion and nature.

As we talked, Harry added to the list of riches: human connection. Meaningful interaction with people is another of his keys to the good life.

The Trail as a Way of Sharing

The trail adds a social dimension to the farm enterprise.  For Harry, the trail is a way of sharing the blessing the family has in living in this magical landscape.  It connects people to the land.  The experience of walking on this spectacular landscape awakens a sense of beauty and good in visitors, and Harry believes that this can affect their behavior.  He believes in the goodness of people.  While there are occasional problems with walkers bring dogs (not allowed!) and worrying sheep, overall opening their land to visitors has been a very positive experience and they have met many wonderful, down-to-earth people.  The tea room has become a gathering place for walkers from all over the world, a way of bringing the world to this remote farm!

It was in 2011 that the Clare County Council, through its Rural Recreation Officer, asked the Jeuken family if they would be willing to have a looped walk on their land.  They agreed and signed up with the Walks Scheme, which pays farmers for maintaining trails that go through their land.  The County provided materials and modest funding for trail work, and the family set to work laying out a fabulous, well-marked, well-maintained trail.  No surprise: the loving care that characterizes the work on their farm is evident in the trail work as well.  The fences and stiles are carefully hand-made of hazel and well maintained.  The fences and stone walls are in excellent repair.  The ingenious systems for gathering water for livestock are on full view.  Harry has hazel walking sticks available for folks to use.

One of the many National Looped Walks in Ireland, this trail offers both glimpses of some of the best views in the Burren and of traditional farm practices.

Lough Avalla Looped Trail

“Magical” is the word often used to describe this 6 km trail that goes around the farm.  It takes most people 2.5 – 3.5 hours to walk with enjoyment.  Following are some brief observations; but its an experience for which words cannot do justice.  To begin, I recommend proceeding a bit beyond the trailhead gate to a second hazel gate, which opens onto a short path up a hill to an amazing, fairy ring, or fort, with trees and rocks draped in gleaming green moss.  This is a good place to sit and meditate on all that is good in the world, and to reflect on the hundreds of generations of folk who lived on and cared for this land from the Celtic and early Christian times to the present.

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Lough Avalla Fairy Ring

Returning to the trailhead, the path quickly leads to a holy well, equipped with drinking glasses and festooned with offerings.  The path proceeds through hazel woods up to a classic limestone (karst) heavily fissured pavement characteristic of the Burren. This leads up to a plateau with wonderful views in all directions, from the steep cliffs, to Mullaghmore, and to Lough Gealain in the National Park, which is partly a turlough.  Walking beneath the cliffs and above the farm one takes in the Burren landscape, then circles back down to the delightful Lough Avalla, equipped with a lovely dock that tempts the swimmer.  At the end of the circuit the trail can be taken to the tea house, or back to the Green Road that leads to Mullaghmore crossing, where people with cars park them.

The Burren is lucky to have such a wonderful farm family sharing its bounty with walkers in the form of an outstanding trail.  A magical place preserved by a wise farmer and good citizen lovingly tending this house, livestock and land!

Sean Byrne: Wicklow Way farmer, host, & advocate

The Byrne family has farmed in the Wicklow hills, along the Wicklow Way, for five generations. As a teen Sean helped out just down the road at a guest-house catering to hunters and fishermen on the beautiful Lough Dan. He also worked for his neighbors, the Guinness family, on their estate on the sublime Lough Tay. This farm boy gradually developed a gracious ease in working with people of all walks of life, a strong sense of the traditions of rural hospitality, deep knowledge of the land and the region, and a guiding commitment to preservation of the mountain uplands and way of life.  Photo above of Sean and Theresa Byrne.

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How the Methow Valley became a lodging and trails hub

How the Methow Valley become a world-class lodging and trails hub

By Sam Demas

With fabulous ski terrain and a great climate, Winthrop, WA on the east slope of the North Cascades, became a mecca for winter sports enthusiasts in the 1970’s.   Attracted by the consistent snow cover, great climate, and stunning natural beauty, young people began to move into the area. So did people representing big alpine ski resorts, with ambitions to create a destination alpine ski resort and to profit from an attendant real estate boom.   One could view the modern history of the Methow Valley as a tale of big alpine ski interests vs. environmentalists, with x-country ski enthusiasts, or “soft path” recreationists, as the “middle-path” saviors. While that’s part of it, it oversimplifies the story by painting a black and white picture of conflict and reaction. Instead, it seems that the values and visions of Methow Valley residents — old and new — gradually cohered and prevailed through a parallel effort to create a recreation hub and economic driver without turning Methow Valley into another Aspen.

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“Wilderness 2.0: what does wilderness mean to the Millenials?”

Authors Kim Smith and Matt Kirby published the results of their investigation of what the concept of wilderness means to people born after 1980.  They were interested to learn how factors such as anthropogenic climate change and a decline in exposure to the outdoors may have changed the meaning of wilderness for 21st century Americans.  They wanted to know: does the wilderness tradition still speak to Millenials?  Their paper “Wilderness 2.0: what does wilderness mean to the Millenials?” was published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, April 2015.

Click here to read the article: Wilderness 2.0