I can never decide which is the more remarkable fact: that you still have so much lovely countryside in this country of yours or that hardly anyone seems to find that surprising. I come from an American state, Iowa, that has never been anything but a large unit of agricultural production. It’s spacious, fresh-aired and altogether pleasant – some of us think it has a kind of understated beauty – but no one has ever regarded it as a walkable amenity. If you announced that you intended to amble across Iowa cornfields for pleasure, people would think you were out of your mind. You wouldn’t be able to do it anyway because there are no footpaths or stiles to help you on your way, no maps of sufficient scale to guide you, no tradition of public access. You would spend most of your time gingerly freeing yourself from barbed wire and wondering how far it could possibly be to the next town. (Answer: very far.)

Now compare this to your own dear and busy land, where there is scarcely a millimetre of soil that hasn’t been used since time immemorial for farms, towns, factories, quarries, roads, railways and all the other things necessary to maintain a thriving civilization on a small and crowded island. Yet it is here that you find some of the loveliest land on earth. Within 10 miles of wherever you are sitting now there is almost certainly countryside to take your breath away – landscape of green and timeless beauty, strewn with pubs and farms and rolling hills, through which you can roam for the sheer pleasure of it. If that is not a miracle, I really don’t know what is. And, of course, the Ramblers should be hugely proud of its role in opening up these magnificent landscapes so that we all have the right to roam through them.

Walking through this landscape still gives me as much pleasure as it did when I first came here. What has become painful is the increasing amounts of pizza boxes, drinks containers, carrier bags and other forms of fluttery detritus that despoil it. At the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), we think it’s time we all did something about it. Not long ago I was out for a walk on the Ridgeway near the famous White Horse at Uffington. It’s a popular route and this was a particularly busy Sunday. Along one stretch I encountered perhaps 70 people going in the other direction. When they had all passed I noticed that lying in the middle of the path was an empty crisp packet. I have no idea which, if any, of those people dropped it. But I do know this: not one of them picked it up. That’s a shame because if we all retrieved the odd crisp packet or cigarette box, there would be a lot fewer of them about. This is particularly vital in remote locations, where no council employee will ever venture. If we all made a collective vow to pick up, say, three items on every walk, it would really make a difference.

Of course, if you were feeling especially heroic, you could organise a litter pick along a favourite footpath or beauty spot. LitterAction (www.litteraction.org.uk), a website CPRE runs as part of its Stop the Drop campaign, gives practical advice on how to achieve this, and will help you find people in your area who might wish to join you. So far, LitterAction’s collective efforts have gathered up over 32,000 bags of rubbish – stuff that would still be lying around blighting the countryside if unsung souls hadn’t made the effort to clean them up. It’s hard to think of anything you can do for the countryside that makes a quicker difference or feels more gratifying when it’s done. There is one other simple thing you can do: complain. Every square inch of open space is someone’s responsibility and providing a litter-free environment is actually a legal obligation. Anyone who allows litter to accumulate in a public place – whether it is Network Rail, the Highways Agency or a local authority – is breaking the law. Insist that they do better. The more of us who make it clear to people in authority that litter is something we are not happy about, the more likely it is they will take action. Of course, solving the problem in the long term means a plan of action that involves a lot of education. But, in the meantime, we could all pick up a little and demand of those in authority that they pick up a good deal more. After all, no one wants to live in a country that’s only lovely from the ankles up.

Sign up to Bill’s enewsletter at www.cpre.org.uk/stopthedropenews

The Ramblers - as part of the South Downs Campaign group - is celebrating the news that the Government has confirmed the go ahead for a South Downs National Park in Sussex and Hampshire.

Stretching westwards for more than 144km/90 miles from the spectacular white cliffs of Beachy Head across Sussex and Hampshire to Winchester, the South Downs contains some of the best-known and most admired hill country in the United Kingdom.

The Park will be established broadly along the lines proposed by the then Countryside Agency almost seven years ago and will bring greater protection and funding to the area. It also includes the ‘hotly contested’ Western Weald – an area of sandstone woodland and farmland the size of the Isle of Wight - and the settlements of Ditchling and Lewes.

The news comes just days after the campaign, supported by Ramblers president Floella Benjamin, Ben Fogle (Campaign for National Parks) and Bill Bryson (CPRE), delivered over 20,000 postcards to Defra highlighting the public support for this new National Park.

Ramblers South Downs Campaigner, David Murray, said of the announcement: “The government should be congratulated for providing such a great gift to the nation. National Parks are a huge walking asset, offering a myriad of walking opportunities. The South Downs in on the doorstep of millions of people and this decision will safeguard it for future generations”.

Look out for a special extended feature on the South Downs in the next edition of Walk magazine (out 3 July).

Bill Bryson, best-selling author and President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), is urging the 11 million people who use the nation’s canals and rivers to tackle the problem of litter on their local waterway. Volunteers are needed to put on their boots and take part in British Waterways’ Towpath Tidy 2009 – a series of locally coordinated activity days along targeted stretches of more than 2,000 miles of canals and rivers between Thursday 26th and Sunday 29th March 2009.

The volunteer effort, ahead of the main summer visitor and boating season, will bring wildlife and environmental benefits as well as provide a welcome boost to the year-round work carried out by British Waterways.  Everyone is welcome, with activities ranging from litter picking, painting and graffiti removal, to cutting back towpath vegetation.

As part of its Stop the Drop campaign, CPRE is supporting Towpath Tidy by involving its local branches and other litter picking groups registered on Litteraction. Bill Bryson comments: “Britain’s waterways are of vital importance, providing everyone with the opportunity to experience their cities, towns and countryside from a unique and tranquil perspective.  It’s a disgrace that some people choose to treat their waterways as an open litter bin or as a place to dump their discarded waste.  I urge everyone who wants to get this country clean to join in and tidy a towpath.” 

For more information, including details of all the Towpath Tidy 2009 events, visit www.waterscape.com/towpathtidy or call 0845 671 5530.