Good morning everyone!
Hope you are enjoying the project and wonder how you see it.
The two stages in the project for me are not only bound up with the greater freedom of movement in the second part but also dramatic changes in human management of our urban and rural habitats.
Phase 1.
The council mowers were silent. The strimmers and leaf blowers off. Noisy street cleaning vehicles remained stationary.
Not everything was peace. In the grounds of the Scuola Calcio Don Bosco, just before the Lockdown 30+ poplars representing 600 metres of wood and leaves and life were cut down. 4 or 5 may have been diseased but most were healthy trees. A letter I sent to the Oratorio has not been answered.
That apart, grass and other plants grew freely, populated by ants, spiders, bugs, crenefly and the odd butterflies enjoying the cover and the nectar.
We all found wonderful places where the temperature, light and the condition of the vegetation were ideal and wildlife was in abundance. Scores of caterpillars crawled up lime trees. A patch of nettles and elder has a spider or a snipe fly or a weevil on every leaf. In the grounds of Rodari school a hoopoe lingered for 10 days and red backed shrikes , grounded by the rain, passed through on migration. A small park in Via Adige had ants tending their larvae in nests in fallen leaves and behind the bark of trees, Hedge garlic, moon daisies, white campion (Selene bianco), barren strawberry (fragola matta) and hairy vetch (Vicia were welcome .
Phase 2
Then came phase two when the cutting, trimming, flailing and blowing machines came to manic life in urban areas and in parts of the countryside.
Nectar sources were cut to ground level and disappeared overnight, depriving butterflies and pollinators of food and places to lay their eggs.. Existing larvae and eggs and also adult insects were blended. The multicoloured grounds of Primo Levy school became a uniform green and road verges yellow with strimmed soil and cut grass, stems and litter left on the ground,
In the countryside near Rivoli flail cutters destroyed elder (sambuco) and hawthorn (baincospina)and blackthorn (prugnolo) shrubs and seriously damaged larger trees on the verges, which were littered with broken branches and frayed twigs and leaves. Not one flowering plant remained for kilometres. Hunting with my application ready I found to my dismay that the council mown verges had become deserts. Only in sheltered lanes and protective stone walls near executive housing were there any plants to record. This anihilation had all occurred in the nesting season and at a critical time for mammal and invertebrate life.
Where the mowers had not yet wrought their universal destruction, wildlife still flourished. The unmown embankment opposite the Tetti Blu development, and its looming cedar trees were patrolled by a dozen bats just before dusk. In the lanes behind main roads fireflies lit the night sky in amazing numbers.
Then going home after a good walk I saw a 50m2 patch of grass and herbage more than a metre high in the grounds of Primo levi school. It was bounded by red and white tape. A notice asked the gardeners not to cut the grass.
Phase 3
The abundance of species I had seen in urban Cascine Vica had inspired me. That joy turned to grief when Phase2 started. But where long grass and flowering plants remained there was still wonderful wildlife to see. The progressive gesture at the school had made my wild heart beat again. That is why I am convinced it is worth our telling our comuni what we want from them. We must not assume that no one will listen. Things are changing, and we can be part of that change.
The comuni are under pressure to tidy up our towns and cities. and even the countryside. When the comuni delayed their cutting many local people complained, unaware of the dangers we face from such obsessions. As nature-lovers we have a voice and we must say what we want. Politely of course. Recognising the rich heritage of tree-lined avenues and parks and verges in our cities but pointing out how things could be much better for nature:
later and less frequentmowing
cutting a short strip along wide verges and leaving the rest to nature
when cutting for the sake of drivers to exercise caution and moderation (many rotonde are potential hotspots for nature)
leaving uncut blocks in larger parks (Castello di Rivoli, Della Chiesa , Pellerina, Collegno)
leaving nettles and scrub (terrible clearance opposite Natta school in Rivoli) for birds and otherwildlife
planting native species or allowing natural regeneration to occur
getting communities to sponsor indigenous hawthorn, blackthorn (good examples near Rivoli)
creating small wetlands where possible
Guglielmo Vacirca and I have written a letter to our local assessore dell'ambient . If you wish to write one like it to your comune and could use a modified version of ours please contact me on dmshaw_uk@yahoo.co.uk.
If you are interested in meeting physically or at a distance to discuss such issues, again, please contact me.
Best wishes
Dave Shaw
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