Hi Pete
Responses to your interesting "philosophical piece" interwoven below:-
PETE wrote: Should we not be concentrating on retaining larger areas of
'natural' habitat rather than piecemeal pockets of wildspace with a
man-made diversity of habitats within?
JJD: It would be nice. The Woodland trust are concentrating on large
areas now and not so much teeny woods near towns. Trouble is there is not
that much room in UK for big unbroken wildspace. More profitable perhaps
to encourage everyone to accept some wild untidiness in their gardens,
streets, parks and open spaces so that we can live with the natural world
and not separate from it. Far too much mown grass and clipped hedges
around.
PETE: After all, no-one suggests
'managing' the Amazon rainforest - quite the opposite in fact, it's more
about protecting it as it is.
JJD: Isn't there some theory that the Amazon forest may not be as old as
we all thought?
PETE: > To a certain extent, I also wonder to what extent 'biodiversity'
is an
artificial concept. Left to it's own devices, nature seems to favour
less biodiversity:
JJD: We are part of nature and left to it's own devices the human race
will soon obliterate either itself or the whole planet. Perhaps we can
slow the process a little.
PETE: the climax type of vegetation for much of this
country at least is high forest and historically that is how much of the
British Isles appeared for millenia.
JJD: Vera and Rackham suggest that it was more like a savannah with large
predators and grazing animals, reminiscent of parts of present day Africa
-but a bit cooler.
PETE: > However, coming back on topic, I tend to agree with Gilbert that the
negative connotations of defining woodland as 'unmanaged'/'neglected' is
unfair.
JJD: I agree about "derelict" and "neglected", and also "scrub" which
always sounds so derogatory when what we are talking about is natural
colonisation of grassland by native trees and shrubs.
PETE: to prevent deterioration/damage from local kids on motorbikes.
JJD: Yeah but you COULD say they fulfil a similar ground churning function
to the wild boar and elephant in other parts of the world. Perhaps even
the bikers could be viewed as a force of nature.
Jerry D
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