Thank you again Ursula for bringing important issues to people's attention. The underlying intent is 'entrapment' of people's will. Restriction, compliance and obedience are words that come to mind - not- living a life full of promise and potential.
Not enough attention on this disgusting area of greenwashing and entrapment. Great story Ursula. Re permaculture - David Holmgren would find more holes than a pasta colander in this version of greening the city.
In the “water sensitive urban design” space I’ve heard people talk about urban wetlands as a good way to remediate pollutants and stop them reaching the stream BUT not good for habitat, biodiversity or consumption of species - because their function is to bioremediate the bad stuff so we don’t necessarily expect these wetland types would have amazing fish and birds we can eat.
The image of the 15min city didn’t show nearly the amount of landscape space and complexity needed to grow food for everyone , or even just to prove a real “in nature” experience. I know Danielle Shanahan, CE of Zealandia in Wellington, has written about the nature dose relationship although this study of hers didn’t find a link between human wellbeing outcomes and the complexity of nature (eg visiting a grassy park vs multi-storey bio diverse forest) - but I think there are other studies that do show this (referenced by Shanahan):
Zealandia is the epitome of synthetic nature aka 15-min city 'green spaces' in my mind. It's a contrived version of 'nature' that hijacks words like 'sanctuary' for abuse by the chemical industry and its propaganda-based 'war on pests'. But I get it that people won't agree with that. Our mountain here has fallen deathly silent again for the eighth time in 30 years - will it ever end?
Are they still doing mass chemical poisoning there?? I thought it was more just traps (which I’ve seen), the fence and weed-whacking beside it (to make sure cats etc can’t hop from a branch across the fence to other side - apparently a marathon runner likes to go up along the steep slope and whack it back lol) and probs some hangover from the 1080 poisoning (there’s a big grassy patch after the tuatara area where apparently 1000 possums are buried). I’ve seen tons of birds there including species I’ve never seen anywhere else in the wild so thought they must’ve stopped doing the mega-drops and stuff, but I don’t know for sure! Birds like hihi, toutouwai, saddleback, kākāriki are there - thought these would be more sensitive to mass poisoning. Plus maybe kārearea too as it’s a top predator?? There’s a humongous bushy/ forest area all the way down from Zealandia along that Ōtari Wilton gorge bit and through Ngaio and stuff that’s pretty cool to walk in too, but less of the more unique native birds around those parts.
But yeah, the fortress conservation and Jurassic park style fence aspect does worry me…is there a better way to get those super rare birdies to come back to all our bushy areas in town without all that? Because Welly is very hilly and there’s tons of bush around here, so plenty of habitat, and we are told the rarer species struggle too much with getting eaten by cats, dogs etc outside the fence. I dunno about stoats and possums, I’ve never seen one around town but who knows, maybe they are around…
Sorry to hear about your local mountain, that sounds scary!! One guy told me that in the 50’s when he went camping with his family as a kid, the dawn chorus was so loud that he had to clamp his ears shut with pillows or whatever he could find in the tent - it was painful…and now after 75 years of pest control we don’t hear that anymore in our forests…🤔
Thank you again Ursula for bringing important issues to people's attention. The underlying intent is 'entrapment' of people's will. Restriction, compliance and obedience are words that come to mind - not- living a life full of promise and potential.
Not enough attention on this disgusting area of greenwashing and entrapment. Great story Ursula. Re permaculture - David Holmgren would find more holes than a pasta colander in this version of greening the city.
Me on Oxford's attempt at a 15m city
https://plebeianresistance.substack.com/p/oxford-and-its-bicycle-bollards?utm_source=publication-search
In the “water sensitive urban design” space I’ve heard people talk about urban wetlands as a good way to remediate pollutants and stop them reaching the stream BUT not good for habitat, biodiversity or consumption of species - because their function is to bioremediate the bad stuff so we don’t necessarily expect these wetland types would have amazing fish and birds we can eat.
The image of the 15min city didn’t show nearly the amount of landscape space and complexity needed to grow food for everyone , or even just to prove a real “in nature” experience. I know Danielle Shanahan, CE of Zealandia in Wellington, has written about the nature dose relationship although this study of hers didn’t find a link between human wellbeing outcomes and the complexity of nature (eg visiting a grassy park vs multi-storey bio diverse forest) - but I think there are other studies that do show this (referenced by Shanahan):
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep28551.pdf
Zealandia is the epitome of synthetic nature aka 15-min city 'green spaces' in my mind. It's a contrived version of 'nature' that hijacks words like 'sanctuary' for abuse by the chemical industry and its propaganda-based 'war on pests'. But I get it that people won't agree with that. Our mountain here has fallen deathly silent again for the eighth time in 30 years - will it ever end?
Are they still doing mass chemical poisoning there?? I thought it was more just traps (which I’ve seen), the fence and weed-whacking beside it (to make sure cats etc can’t hop from a branch across the fence to other side - apparently a marathon runner likes to go up along the steep slope and whack it back lol) and probs some hangover from the 1080 poisoning (there’s a big grassy patch after the tuatara area where apparently 1000 possums are buried). I’ve seen tons of birds there including species I’ve never seen anywhere else in the wild so thought they must’ve stopped doing the mega-drops and stuff, but I don’t know for sure! Birds like hihi, toutouwai, saddleback, kākāriki are there - thought these would be more sensitive to mass poisoning. Plus maybe kārearea too as it’s a top predator?? There’s a humongous bushy/ forest area all the way down from Zealandia along that Ōtari Wilton gorge bit and through Ngaio and stuff that’s pretty cool to walk in too, but less of the more unique native birds around those parts.
But yeah, the fortress conservation and Jurassic park style fence aspect does worry me…is there a better way to get those super rare birdies to come back to all our bushy areas in town without all that? Because Welly is very hilly and there’s tons of bush around here, so plenty of habitat, and we are told the rarer species struggle too much with getting eaten by cats, dogs etc outside the fence. I dunno about stoats and possums, I’ve never seen one around town but who knows, maybe they are around…
Sorry to hear about your local mountain, that sounds scary!! One guy told me that in the 50’s when he went camping with his family as a kid, the dawn chorus was so loud that he had to clamp his ears shut with pillows or whatever he could find in the tent - it was painful…and now after 75 years of pest control we don’t hear that anymore in our forests…🤔
Hello Ursula!!! 💗
Like a zoo
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