Issue #13 Miscellaneous Adventures Digest

On standing up for nature, Gathering Moss and briefly, slime moulds

We hope you are all well and have been enjoying noticing all the little seasonal changes that are happening right now. A few new ones since last week: buds are starting to thicken and swell in anticipation of bud burst and we also noticed that the branches of birch trees seem a brighter shade of purple. Oh and also, dog’s mercury is starting to pop up in the woods. Thank you so much to those that shared their findings with us too.

A funny thing I saw this week made me think about our responsibility to confront those who are inflicting harm upon nature and how best to go about changing attitudes towards the human relationship with the natural world. On our way to Wastwater, driving along the narrow, winding roads flanked with woods and lined by drystone walls, we passed a house outside which the presumed owner was ripping away all the moss and picking all the ferns out of a large section of walling. Perhaps I’m overreacting, but my heart sank to see such disregard for nature and the willingness to wipe out an entire mini-ecosystem in pursuit of tidiness. To me, this is akin to ripping up a wildflower meadow and replacing it with astroturf, or felling an ancient woodland to replant with sitka spruce.

As we drove past, I wanted to stop and ask what the problem was with moss. Didn’t they know it was one of the oldest life forms on earth, that it was home to countless tiny creatures and provided nesting material for others, that it produces oxygen in the same way as trees and that without it, life as we know it may not have ever occurred? Were they aware of the biodiversity crisis and that small acts of environmental vandalism such as this contribute to the catastrophic decline in insect and bird life? Plus, rocky walls festooned with luxuriant, rich green mosses, dripping with ferns also happen to look quite beautiful; to me they are part of the visual language of the north. But we didn’t stop. We drove on, quietly outraged.

On our way back home an hour or so later, the whole wall had been stripped of all life.

The owner was still there, admiring the fresh devastation. We continued on our way, holding our tongues. But what else could we do? I’m probably not going to get out of the car and launch into a sermon extolling the virtues of bryophytes. But maybe I should have? Nature has its back to the wall right now and it needs people to stand up for it. But how to do so in a non-confrontational way? It’s unlikely this person is attacking mosses and ferns maliciously and I have no desire to make people feel bad. But I also feel a sense of responsibility to defend what is right and to be part of the fight to end nature’s decline; by abdicating that responsibility am I as guilty as the perpetrator of the crime? How to educate without preaching? As you can tell, I have a lot more questions than answers…

Mossy cushions on a walk this weekend

This incident in isolation is probably not a big deal, but it seems symbolic and representative of the human attitude towards the rest of nature on the whole. The quest for tidiness trumps biodiversity. Blandness wins over life. We have removed ourselves (or we think we have) from nature so much that we fail to realise that every time we hurt the natural world we also hurt ourselves. This saddens me greatly, not just because I wish to live on a habitable planet but also for the joy that we deny ourselves by seeing nature as a problem to overcome rather than something full of wonder that enriches our existence, that we are wholly part of and not separate to. It is a devious trick of capitalism that has us scraping moss from walls and cutting down wildflowers at the weekends when we could simply be enjoying them instead.

A lovely mossy, ferny limestone wall

This actually wasn’t the only time I bit my tongue instead of confronting environmental injustices this week. Attacks on nature abound in the countryside and I wish knew how to handle the situation better for it will inevitably occur again. For a long time, we have considered our role with Miscellaneous Adventures to inspire by sharing our own experiences with nature and to encourage deeper connections by passing on knowledge but now I’m not sure that’s enough.

So the big question is, if you had the chance to stand up for nature, would you do it and how?

I’m no moss expert, so I recommend reading Gathering Moss by the brilliant Robin Wall Kimmerer for some incredible insights and beautiful writing. Perhaps I should post a copy to my moss destroying friend…

Lastly, we enjoyed this piece from Emergence Magazine by Lucy Jones on the non-conformity of slime moulds with beautiful photos by Barry Webb.

Well, until next week, warm wishes from the three of us.

Andrew, Emma and Benji

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