Ode to our wastelands

Losing small patches of scrubby land to new houses might not seem significant, but these little Edens are vital for Nature, contends Mary Colwell

- Mary Colwell

THE American naturalist and author Robert Pyle’s book The Thunder Tree describes the loss of his childhood playground, a disused section of the Highline Canal in Colorado. It was an accidental wilderness, forgotten by the world until the pressure to develop meant any land was worth turning into buildings. Over the decades, Dr Pyle watched in dismay as towns and industry claimed the ‘wasteland’ he so loved. One day, as excavators moved in, a fox shot from cover. ‘We watch, entranced, then appalled, as the fox dashes from place to place, pursued everywhere by the roar of construction and the blind light of day, unable to find its customary coverts.’ He paints a picture of a wild creature caught in the headlights of the modern world—startled and unable to find a home.