There I was at my son's swimming lesson and I get chatting to my mate Jim about this new program idea, for which i've started this blog. And straight away Jim comes up with his idea for "accidental nature" - Army training grounds. Genius. Of course! The MOD own hundreds of thousands of acres of land which they set up for rifle ranges, assault courses, tank training, camping etc etc etc. In doing so they shelter off huge areas of the UK from urban development and daily general public disturbance, which in turn gives nature a place to breath. If you add into that all the areas owned by the MOD which just aren't used at all anymore - like old bunkers and the like, and you've got even more wildlife habitat accidentally made secure for nature. I've heard stories about orchids thriving in the tank tracks left up on Salisbury Plain as orchids love disturbed ground, and I am sure there must be hundreds more examples like that across MOD land.
It's because Jim was in the forces that this sprang to his mind, and it re-inforces my idea that everyone has a link to Accidental Nature. It's not nature for the scientist and researchers, its nature for everyday people like you and me. What ever walk of life we're in, we will have a story about accidental nature. It could be something as simple as the spider making a web in the spare room you never dust or it could be the railway embankment you see everyday on your commute to work, passing by the squirrels, the butterflies and the foxes as you go. We all have somewhere to see accidental nature, and that nature all has a story involving us humans behind it. So, if we do all have accidental nature around us, where's yours, whats it's story? I'd love to know.
2 comments:
Apparently there is a small copse in the middle of Salibury live fire range - that contains owls
what about the artificial reefs that are being created due to the wind farms around Kent, that has to be accidental in that it was never their intention that this would occur.
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