National Parks can offer a lot to rural areas
The spectacular landscape of the Ox Mountain region would be ideal for a National Park. Picture: Pat McCarrick
At a time when authorities are looking at alternative ways for rural people to continue to make a living on the land, and at a time when achieving this seems to be getting more and more conditional, maybe it is time to embrace such demands as a friend rather than reject them as a foe. A concept that might be worth looking at is that of the National Park.
National Parks are not isolated out-of-reach tracts of wilderness; in many places, they are vibrant life-giving rural regions that continue to support farming families while preserving the surrounding landscape. There are many such parks throughout the world; there are some in Ireland and my bet is that, in the future, we will see more of them. One day, we may even see an Ox Mountain National Park.
Yellowstone National Park, which was established in 1872, is generally considered the first national park in the world. However, some have argued that there is evidence that the creation of Yellowstone was predated by the creation of Bogd Khan Mountain National Park in Mongolia, which may date from the late 1700s.
Yellowstone Park, in their own information, paint a picture of inclusiveness and respect. Their National Park Service recognises 27 individual native American tribes with historic and modern-day ties to Yellowstone.
Yellowstone is located at the convergence of the Great Plains, Great Basin, and Columbia Plateau. For more than 10,000 years before Yellowstone’s designation as a park, Native American people lived, hunted, fished, gathered plants, quarried obsidian, and used thermal water for religious and medicinal purposes. The first people that called Yellowstone home throughout history were the land’s first conservationists, protecting it for its important resources and cultural significance.
Today, Yellowstone is one of the largest nearly intact temperate-zone ecosystems on Earth and preserves over 10,000 hydrothermal features - more than the rest of the world combined. It is home to the largest concentration of wildlife in the lower 48 states and is the only place in the United States where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times.
It can be difficult to compare the history and the grandeur of Yellowstone to our Irish landscape or our modern-day demands. There is however a National Park that bridges that gap: the Yorkshire Dales National Park in northern England. This is a region of small villages, hill farms and rural community living. It is a region of tradition and great farming expertise, and yet farming families there have the same basic need that farming families have everywhere: how to survive in a modern world.
The Yorkshire Dales National Park was designated in 1954. This was in recognition of its extraordinary natural beauty, the diversity of its wildlife habitats, its rich cultural heritage and its fantastic opportunities for outdoor recreation.
Unlike the National Parks in the United States, the Yorkshire Dales is not a wilderness area. It is a living, working environment, home to 24,000 people. Here we begin to see a different kind of National Park, one that preserves, values and nurtures what it has for the benefit of those who live there and the for the benefit of those who come visit. The Yorkshire Dales provide the following overview.
Ireland is home to six national parks. Wilderness Ireland gives a picture postcard view but the reality is that these parks are simply regions where people and place become one in an organised and structured way for the increased benefit of both.
Among Ireland’s best-known National Parks are Wicklow National Park, The Burren National Park and more locally, Ballycroy National Park. Presently, a new National Park is being proposed for the Dingle Peninsula in Kerry - Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara, Ciarraí. This park will be unusual in that some of it will incorporate a sizable portion of the surrounding ocean as well as the renowned local hills and mountains.
Could it be, at some time in the future, that we might see an Ox Mountain National Park? A park that will extol the virtues of our region while preserving, protecting and improving farming traditions and farm livelihoods? A place of huge natural beauty incorporating the river Moy where the best practices of planet protection and biodiversity are on display for all the world to come and enjoy. A place where village shops are once again vibrant and thriving, a place where communities are firmly based and fully supported in their efforts to stay and make a living.
How far do we have to stretch our imaginations to make this suggestion more real? Much of the structures, incentives and subsidies are already in place through various Irish and EU policies. Certainly, additional terms and conditions would be applied but maybe not as many as we might think.
We have the natural beauty of the Ox Mountains and the river Moy. We have the threats and demands caused by climate change but we also have a duty to maintain our place so that we can pass it on to our children and our grandchildren. We also have the need; the need to protect farm income, the need to keep life in our rural communities, the need to rejuvenate our small towns and villages. Why not make ourselves the centre of attention, an attraction for the whole world to come and enjoy? In years to come, an Ox Mountain National Park may well exist.
