It is our collective and individual responsibility to preserve and tend to the world in which we all live (and run). [The Dalai Lama]
This sentiment of collective guardianship united a group of two dozen Carnethy members in February to assist the Holyrood Park rangers in removing the gorse that dominated the North-facing hillside beneath the summit of Arthur’s Seat. While the rangers provided the tools, the assembled volunteers provided enthusiasm in abundance, pulling, cutting, and sawing away at every trunk and branch of gorse in sight. Had former local resident Adam Smith been present, he would have been proud of our division of labour as volunteers apportioned tasks and created an efficient conveyor belt of gorse removal with some cutting, others carrying, and others ensuring steady maintenance of conversation and morale.
Volunteering endeavours such as this and the afternoon spent with the Friends of the Pentlands in 2023 have tremendous benefits for the areas that we enjoy so frequently. The more lasting benefit is arguably for the club members themselves. As a desk-bound professional, the closest I usually get to manual labour at work is moving chairs around before and after meetings. There are few things more grounding and satisfying, though, than taking on a project and having to deploy some physical effort to get it done. When chopping down gorse bushes or digging drainage culverts, I felt not only a deeper sense of satisfaction and connection to the land but also a sense of connection with my fellow volunteers. Within a club whose membership has grown so handsomely in recent years, it is too easy to settle into our cliques and usual conversations; indeed, even with an implicit common ground of hill running, it can be difficult to approach new faces sometimes. I found this all to be stripped away by the requirements of the volunteering tasks at hand. There’s nothing to introduce yourself to a new face like landing unceremoniously on your backside on a pile of gorse. Even the furthest removed of strangers can appreciate the discomfort involved there!
As the sun warmed our backs, conversations began to flow between all those involved, and before too long our task for the day was done. Many areas of the park require further work and additional volunteering may be required later in the year to support the rangers with the maintenance of paths and management of undergrowth. More pertinently, the afternoon was a dual reminder of the collective and individual responsibility we have to preserve and tend to both the physical and social environments in which the club exists.
James Taylor