The Accidental Countryside by Stephen Moss

Author:Stephen Moss [Stephen Moss]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783351664
Publisher: Guardian Faber Publishing
Published: 2020-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

The reason why the Gunnersbury Triangle case matters is that this was the very first time, anywhere in Britain, that the need for people to have easy access to nature had trumped the juggernaut of development. Even more importantly, perhaps, it became a crucial test case for people trying to save such apparently worthless little scraps of land up and down the country.

It is hard to realise just how revolutionary this decision was. That a site should be saved so that people could enjoy such commonplace species as dandelions and bluebells, robins and wrens, foxes and frogs, was unthinkable. Now that we take for granted the value of local nature reserves, and the health-giving benefits of being outdoors in nature are more generally appreciated, we have at last come to realise the value of the common as well as the rare.

Fortunately, this was also understood by the far-sighted men and women who, back in 1982, compiled the original proposal to save Gunnersbury Triangle:

In the early years of the nature conservation movement in Britain, attention was focused almost entirely on the countryside. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing recognition of the importance, potential and diversity of urban wildlife habitats … [which] provide a vital refuge for a great variety of wildlife and offer local opportunities for education and amenity which would otherwise have to be sought many miles away, or might even not be available at all. Beside these practical considerations, there is the incalculable psychological value to city dwellers, especially children, of the presence of these green islands within our highly stressful and artificial city environment.

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