Explain how the problems of visitor pressure are being coped with in the Lake District National Park

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Explain how the problems of visitor pressure are being coped with in the Lake District National Park. (8 marks)

In national parks such as the Lake District in Cumbria, visitor numbers can be a major problem, high visitor numbers can also help the area, higher numbers of visitors’ causes there to be more money in the area and therefore the area can be developed and protected further. It’s a kind of catch 22 situation where the visitors cause the problems but they also help to prevent the problems.

But what are these problems?

High numbers of walker’s cause’s soil erosion and mountain bikers worsen this effect this causes land loss to farmers and flooding can be made worse by these channels where paths run funnelling water like rivers and streams. There are many ways that the Lake District national park choose to deal with this, one example of this is the use of different paths, they run one path for a couple of weeks and then close it allowing grass to regrow and the path to become stronger, in the meantime another path is opened and walkers use this instead. Another way that path erosion is dealt with is by crating zones for different users. Mountain bikers running on a footpath causes it to be eroded in a much swifter and more damaging manner to combat this Lake District national park has created certain areas especially for these users with added protection to these tracks by lining them with stone and wooden boards, this helps to protect the environment and encourage extra visitors by having specialist mountain biking tracks.

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Increased visitor numbers means increased amounts of cars and other motor vehicles this causes the roads to become congested and locals to become frustrated by the increased traveling time they are forced to deal with. In order to fight this problem new larger roads have been built to enable faster traveling and therefore cut down journey times, this in itself also creates a problem in that parts of the area are lost to build roads. Another way that the Lake District national park combats this problem is by creating zones of use in the park, areas near main roads are ...

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