Bashing

I saw no sign of the birch bashers this week. I had wanted to get a photo of them  posing as happy loggers proudly displaying their chain saws and singing 'I'm a lumberjack..........'

Notices displayed at the car park about volunteering suggested they would be there. But no. Signs of the previous bout of self indulgent bashing though were all around. Crass, all of it.

It's somehow unreal and a symptom of our increasingly upside-down world that nature reserves are places where you're encouraged to join those who wish to destroy nature. Birch trees are one of our most amazingly valuable sources of biodiversity. Only oak rivals birch. There are more than 200 species of insect associated with birch and another 100 or so mites.That in itself makes it a wonderful attraction for birds. As for other forms of diversity try looking at the bark of birches wherever you find them. The range of appearance is quite staggering as if we are looking at many different species. This is an utterly vital part of its role in the landscape. In other parts of the planet rainforests bring hundreds of different species into very small areas. Here in temperate zones the range of species is more restricted. Birch makes up for this in its own brand of diversity beyond biodiversity, with scores of varieties of visual beauty. The kind of people who demolish trees don't see this. They see a word, a job to do, an idea; they don't, or can't, properly look. They're too busy dealing with what to them is an alien species. To a Martian all humans will look the same. You either have to be human or have excellent empathy to distinguish the variety of characters .