Park Life (and death).

Two years into my Park Life project: this summer ( 2017) saw the Lake District National Park in the NW of England gain UNESCO World Heritage status. My project seeks to illustrate how the landscape and man can feed each other, both literally in body and soul, when those who care passionately for the land do so for the good of all, both the 45,000 who live and work within the park but for the 16++ million or so visitors the park receives annually, "a ... relationship between people and landscape built around an emotional response to it". This text is quoted from the UNESCO document which explains why the Lake District is now a World Heritage listed site. “..the recognition of harmonious landscape beauty through the Picturesque Movement; a new relationship between people and landscape built around an emotional response to it, derived initially from Romantic engagement; the idea that landscape has a value and that everyone has a right to appreciate and enjoy it; and the need to protect and manage landscape … ideas that have derived from the interaction between people and landscape are manifest in the English Lake District today and many of them have left their physical mark, contributing to the harmonious beauty of a natural landscape….the stimulus of the Lake District for artistic creativity and globally influential ideas about landscape; the early origins and ongoing influence of the tourism industry and outdoor movement; and the physical legacy of the conservation movement that developed to protect the Lake District. The English Lake District and its current land use and management exemplify the practical application of the powerful ideas about the value of landscape which originated here and which directly stimulated a landscape conservation movement of global importance.”