National Parks: Looking Back

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National parks have been described, with some justification, as “the best idea that America ever had.” Actually, the person who first came up with that far-sighted and world-shaping idea was an Englishman.

It was the celebrated Lakeland poet William Wordsworth who was the first to put the national park idea into words. In his Guide through the District of the Lakes, first published in 1810, he famously came up with the suggestion that his beloved Lake District might one day be: “a sort of national property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy.”

Lady Sylvia Sayer, long-time chair of the Dartmoor Preservation Society, once said: “National parks are not just a nice but slightly unnecessary and expendable luxury for a fortunate few. They are…a vital provision for a very real human need.”

But as the parks celebrate the 60th anniversary of the legislation which set them up this week, have they lived up to the ideals of their pioneers, like William Wordworth and Sylvia Sayer? Have they provided, as Malcolm MacEwen, Sylvia Sayer’s counterpart across the country in Exmoor, hoped: “Greenprints for the countryside?”

Or are they, to the vast majority of the general public (including most ramblers), still something of an unknown quantity, eternally condemned to be confused with the National Trust? In short, have they become part of the nation’s collective consciousness as the original national parks in the USA undoubtedly have?

The short answer to this question is no. But before we all become depressed by the failure of the Parks to engender public awareness, let’s stop for a minute and consider. Sixty years is not a long time – a couple of generations in fact. There weren’t any national parks when I, and the vast majority of the British population, were born.

The world’s first national park, Yellowstone, was designated in the US as early as 1872. National parks in America are an important part of the nation’s culture and they form a part of most children’s upbringing – cartoon characters like Yogi Bear and Ranger Smith at ‘Jellystone’ have undoubtedly played their part in this.

The 60th anniversary of the 1949 Act is another golden opportunity to get the parks noticed again and I hope this National Parks Week, and the special events organised to coincide with it, will really enncourage the public to embrace them like many Americans do. Perhaps what we need is a British Yogi Bear, or even a Roy of the Rangers, to really put our parks on the map.

Roly Smith was Head of Information Services for the Peak District National Park between 1984 and 1997, and played a leading part in the National Parks Awareness Campaign between 1984-87. He is now a freelance outdoor writer and editor.

Click here to read our twin feature, Looking Forward

Britain’s network of National Parks (click to visit each site)

Your passport to the great outdoors

To mark the 60th anniversary of the creation of our National Parks, organisers are challenging the British public to visit all 14 of them over the coming year. You can download a special National Parks Passport or collect one from a National Park visitor centre, then start collecting a stamp and signature in each National Park you visit. There are more than 60 million visitors a year to the UK’s National Parks but some are better known than others… the Passport aims to encourage us all to try somewhere new.

A map of our National Parks and Areas of Oustanding Natural Beauty