Clearing the wilderness Humanity

[Guest guest]

There was an interesting discussion at the last Local Agenda 21

meeting I went to on Tuesday evening- we were discussing allotments-

one gentleman voiced his view that if the currently unused plots were

all strimmed and cleared, more people might be inclined to take up

allotment gardening- I countered that this would cause major loss of

habitat- some years ago I had an allotment on the edge of town, most

of the site to the north of my plot (several acres) was overgrown, in

fact my plot was the last cultivated one. So the north end of the

allotments was a great wildlife refuge, foxes, rabbits, mice, voles,

all kind of birds, including kestrels... One day the council came

along and totally leveled all of the wilderness flat... guess what-

within days the wild animals that no longer had a habitat or food

source were moving onto the cultivated plots and totally decimating

people's crops- I did not harvest one single thing that year, not

even 0nions, which I've never otherwise had any trouble with from

marauding 'pests'... I gave up that particular plot after that (it

was too far from home anyway)

 

Fortunately things have got better- that particular allotment site

now has the north end designated as a wildlife sanctuary, and where I

have one of my other allotments (where I am creating a low input

forest garden) also has many vacant plots which is actually returning

to woodland with lots of ash and oak establishing itself- a couple of

years ago talk was also of clearing these plots, but the thoughts are

far more towards letting it be a natural environment where urban

woodland can flourish- It was also quite refreshing to hear a town

councilor use the word 'holistic' when talking about these allotments

should be managed!

 

Cheers graham

www.landandliberty.co.uk

 

Fortuna, " Jo " <Heartwork@b...> wrote:

> Good points Fraggle.

>

> I find it funny that even supposedly unused places are 'mown'. Why

can't

> the local councils just let wild places be wild?

>

> Jo