Forest walk

It’s a beautiful, mild sunny day, perfect for a wander through the forest. I stop briefly and park my bum on a bench to soak up some sunshine before entering the shaded forest. Next to me and opposite to where I live a sign has been erected explaining the need for wildflowers and why they must be mowed down up to three times a year. 

Now, I have in the past on occasions complained on my blog about how the local council cuts down all the wildflowers, usually in the middle of summer. Last time I visited the local Rathaus (town hall) I was even tempted to bring up the matter with them directly but in the end I felt my views would just be ignored.

The crux of the German text roughly translated states that: The grass verge has to be mowed between once and three times a year to ensure insect bio diversity.

I was a little surprised to read that as usually nature has a way of handling itself naturally without the intervention of humans. It also states that the flowers are important for insect pollination from Spring to Autumn. Yet last year both up here and down in the valley vast areas of wild flowers were mowed down during the height of summer. I am talking July-August, I know that for a fact as I was not here from the end of August till October and had hoped to photograph the wildflowers before leaving but they had already been cut down.

The wildflowers are usually cut down with a strimmer or other noisy device that consumes energy, usually in the form of petrol or diesel and then produces noise and air pollution but this is considered to be the solution to an environmental problem. I would also add that as for bio diversity I have noticed a steep decline here since 2006 when I first moved here. Last year there were hardly any insects or butterflies compared to previous years, which may in part have been due to the very long, wet and cold spring we had but I think blaming the weather alone is too simplistic.

My view is that cutting down the wildflowers to ensure bio diversity is complete BS. But then I am no scientist so what do I know. 

Walking through the forest today the only sound that I could hear was that of a leaf blower being used somewhere far away. As I approach the village and forest outskirts someone was blowing leaves off a forest dirt track used by bikers. Maybe it is preparation for the weekend as the weather does look fairly stable. However it won't be long before the leaves have been blown back. Do these hardy bikers with their 3000 euro plus mountain bikes really need to have the leaves blown away so that they can ride through. Maybe on some downhill sections it might be a good idea but this was in an area that was totally flat. I just rode 2500km through Europe on a relatively cheap gravel bike and riding over leaves would have been the last problem I thought about! Noise pollution is one of the worst forms of pollution, sadly people have become so used to a noisy environment they have forgotten what nature sounds like.

 

A lone llama in the morning mist the other day.

 Fungi today