From 'Our Heritage of Wild Nature' part of CHAPTER
2
The claims of wild and semi-wild vegetation to a place
in our plans for
the future are many and fundamental. First of all the existing beauty
of England depends largely upon it, as we saw in the first chapter.
That is perhaps the most important reason why we should preserve it as
far as we can. The oakwoods and beechwoods of the south, the heaths
with their pine and birch, gorse and bracken, the short smooth turf of
the downs, the ashwoods of limestone regions, the hill pastures and
moorlands, with the remains of oakwoods in the valleys of the north and
west, the birch and pine of the few wooded Highland glens which are
still unspoiled, the cliffs and salt marshes and sand dunes of the
coasts—all these are integral parts of our incomparable landscapes.
Together they form a great deal of the essential background of our
national life, though they are sometimes too little considered, or are
even ignored altogether, by people whose interests and thoughts are
mainly political and economic.
Secondly, all this natural and semi-natural vegetation,
together with
the animals which live among it, forms a subject of study which is of
the first importance—an importance only now beginning to be fully
realised. Ecology, the science of living beings as they exist in their
natural homes, and of the natural aggregates which they form, is not
only a fascinating study in itself but a subject with many practical
bearings because it lies at the foundation of all the industries which
depend on the management and use of vegetation. Foresters and
pastoralists are increasingly recognising this fact and looking to
ecologists to help them in the solution of the practical problems with
which they have to deal. It is essential to the work of ecologists that
large samples of the natural and semi-natural vegetation of the country
should be maintained in order that they may study what nature does
under given conditions of climate and soil and the influence of man.
Only when that knowledge is secured can the right decisions be made on
how best to use the land, whether through directly exploiting the
natural vegetation itself or replacing it by sown crops or plantations.
Natural and semi-natural vegetation must in the first
place be studied
for its own sake. But it is also the necessary home of wild animal
life. If we want to preserve our native animals we must keep intact
extensive woods and heaths and moors for them to live in. The great
majority of animals depend upon vegetation —often particular kinds of
vegetation—for their food and shelter. Those which are preyed upon by
others often require the ' cover ' of vegetation to escape the
predators, and if they are deprived of their natural cover they may
disappear completely, and the predators also when their food supply has
vanished. Every kind of vegetation has its own kinds of animals, and
the plant and animal `communities', as they are called, are closely
interdependent in a great variety of ways. The great complex of plant
and animal life must be studied as a whole.
The third reason why extensive conservation of nature
should form an
integral part of our post-war plans is its relation to education.
Nature study
6 WHY SHOULD WILD LIFE BE PRESERVED?
already has a well-recognised place in our schools.
It is generally
agreed that children ought to have some real first- hand knowledge of
the natural objects they see around them. Our national education needs
reform on the lines of much more concentration on things rather than
subjects. Chemistry and physics, botany, zoology and physiology, must
of course be taught as subjects to those who will need them for their
future careers, but, for the general education of all, what is wanted
is teaching about the essential elements of their surroundings, such as
air, water, soil, and plants and animals : to this teaching about '
things ' specialised branches of science will naturally contribute.
Among the ' things ' of which knowledge should be acquired living
beings are certainly not the least important. To the teaching now
generally given about common plants and animals there should be added
an acquaintance with the conditions of their life in nature, where they
are to be found and why they live in particular places, and this leads
straight to an elementary knowledge of the nature and significance of
different kinds of vegetation and the animals which live in them.
It is probably quite unnecessary to teach ecology as
a separate subject
and thus add another burden to what we are constantly and no doubt
rightly told is an already overloaded curriculum. All that is required
is some development of existing nature study by ecologically instructed
teachers. Such a development would lead on to an understanding of what
can best be done with the land, whether it should be used—where it is
not required for new building—for agriculture or tree planting or
whether it should be preserved in a wild or semi-wild condition.
Education on these lines would greatly widen the new citizen's
intelligent outlook on the world, would quicken his feeling for the
Britain he has inherited, and help to fit him to take a proper part in
wise and balanced planning of the homeland of a democratic community.
The three main motives for nature conservation which
have been
indicated act and react on one another. Knowledge of our wild nature,
of which the foundations should be laid at school, increases attachment
to its interest and beauty and a desire for the preservation of as much
of it as is possible under modern conditions of life in a predominantly
industrial community. The stronger and more widespread this sentiment
becomes, the greater the urge to increase our knowledge of nature, both
for its own sake and for its practical applications.
