Some areas of urban green space are of exceptionally high wildlife value, which would be damaged by increased use. However, on most sites it is the amount and type of use which is the best indicator of its overall value to the community. With careful planning, many sites can have their wildlife value enhanced as community use increases.
Practical work
The best urban sites for volunteer involvement in practical conservation are those that require some intervention for their wildlife and amenity value to be maintained. Some sites require regular small-scale management. Conversely, tree planting, pond creation and other projects initially require a large input of resources and people-power, followed by several years of lower levels of activity. This may also fit in with patterns of funding and volunteer enthusiasm. Other sites, especially where linked with volunteer centres and workshops, retain a high level of interest and activity through a range of practical work.
Hollybush Farm, Leeds
Hollybush Farm is the West Yorkshire office for TCV, and despite its name, is in an urban area near the centre of Leeds. A long narrow plot of land of about a hectare, hemmed in by roads and buildings, has been turned into a nature garden with a wide variety of habitats. The garden has been developed over a number of years, and requires a fairly high level of management to maintain the habitat variety. The garden is used regularly by local schools and casual visitors, and guided tours and training sessions are held, tailored to the needs of any group who wants to visit. The popularity of the garden has created a demand for similar plants and materials. A successful venture has now been started growing wild flowers for resale, housed in two polytunnels on the site. Other accessories are sold, including compost, woodchips, bird, bat and hedgehog boxes, pond and tree planting requirements. Hollybush Farm is the base for volunteer activity in the area, and includes a toolstore, workshop and training facilities. This small urban site not only provides a haven for wildlife, but supports a disproportionately large number of people in a wide range of practical conservation activities.
Multi-use
In the days before mass car ownership and the increase of leisure pursuits, the urban park was very popular for strolling, picnics, informal recreation and meeting friends, as well as formal games, band concerts and other activities. Parks still retain many of these uses, as well as new ones such as jogging and roller-blading, and still have their visual importance as an open and green contrast to the streets. But many parks are underused and undervalued, and the challenge is to find new ways of managing them which are aesthetically attractive, retain the value for recreation, but also allow new ways of community involvement. Areas can be enclosed for community use such as for allotments, permaculture gardens and city farms. Grass, scrub and woodland can be used for dens and tree climbing. All sorts of imaginative play structures can be incorporated into parks and woodland.
Wildlife value follows naturally from a landscape which has a varied structure, a variety of habitats, where pesticide use is avoided, and where some ‘untidiness’ in the form of dead wood, long grass, undergrowth and damp ground is encouraged. With careful site design and layout of paths, together with a sympathetic management policy, such areas can be extremely attractive, enhancing the urban surroundings.
Urban parks can follow the formula used in many popular rural or urban fringe country parks, with imaginative play structures and play trails, fishing, cycle tracks, narrow- gauge railways, golf and other activities, together with cafes and other indoor amenities, all set in wooded and varied landscapes which retain the feeling of being ‘natural’. These types of multi-use sites bring many interests together, with skills that can complement each other, and have the potential for attracting investment, raising revenue and providing employment.Although highly managed and subject in parts to high levels of human disturbance, these sites can support valuable habitats and wildlife populations.
Parks have considerable potential for temporary festivals, music and sporting events, although large-scale events may cause localised problems of soil compaction, which can be particularly damaging around trees. Permanent facilities such as leisure centres and supervised outdoor play and sports areas are being developed in some urban parks. Pallister Park in Middlesbrough was a little used and run down Victorian park, now rejuvenated with many sports and social facilities, run by a full-time management team.
Further reading: Greenhalgh, Liz and Worpole, Ken (1995).
Education
Another important use of natural green space in urban areas is for education. A wide variety of subjects from the national curriculum can be linked with outdoor study. Many schools either have wildlife areas within their grounds, or are working towards a holistic approach of enhancing all their property for wildlife value.
Sites outside school grounds but within easy reach of schools can be used for outings and various types of field study. For the schools, using local sites saves transport costs, and encourages interest in the local environment and community. Any site which has potential for this use is likely to be popular with schools and youth groups, especially where combined with any ‘hands-on’ facility and a lively interpreter.
Play
Children are major users of green spaces of all types, from formal parks with play equipment, to tiny patches of rough ground, bushes and trees. Mown grass is valued for kickabout games, but water and woodland are irresistible magnets. Most adults will prefer the exercise of walking, especially where there are open views, but all children prefer to ‘mess about’ in a place where there are sticks, leaves, water, bushes to hide in and banks to slide down. Even tiny places, like a clump of bushes or a damp ditch have play potential, providing a physical challenge and something to excite the imagination.
For such places to be used, the most important thing is not the size of the sites, but their accessibility and perceived safety from crime. Children’s range behaviour is the term used to describe the distances from home that children are allowed to wander when playing and socialising. These distances have decreased markedly in the last decade or so, due to parents’ fear of crime and increased dangers from traffic, and ‘severance factors’, such as new roads which cut through previously accessible walking routes. Underpasses may be avoided through fear of crime. Far fewer children walk or cycle to school than was common a generation ago.
Distance from home criteria are used in various planning and wildlife strategies for urban areas. ‘Areas of Open Space Deficiency’ and ‘Areas of Wildlife Deficiency’ are defined as those areas which are more than 400 metres, straight-line distance, from a local park or site of wildlife importance. The national Playing Fields Association recommend Local Areas for Play at 100 metres straight- line distance, Local Equipped Areas for Play at 400 metres distance, and neighbourhood Equipped Areas for Play at 1000 metres distance. However, with the factors noted above decreasing children’s home range, these criteria may need revising. A recommendation has been made that the minimum straight-line distance suggested for identifying natural spaces which can be accessed on foot by able-bodied adults and children and by children with carers, needs to be revised downwards from 500 metres to 280 metres. The need for natural green spaces for play has never been greater. For further details see Accessible natural greenspace in towns and cities, English Nature (1995).
Dog walking
Dog owners in the urban environment are often seen only in negative terms, but their daily use of green spaces in towns means they are often well-informed about these areas, and have a strong interest in preserving or improving them. Dog walkers represent a significant proportion of the total users of parks and other informal green spaces, and their presence helps to keep these areas safe for other users. In places where dog walkers are discouraged by fear of crime, small groups of compatible dogs and walkers can meet on a daily or weekly basis for a joint dog walk. Most owners are responsible about using dog bins where these are provided.
Woodscape was started by a few dog walkers who walked the woods daily and wanted to do something initially to remove the rubbish and burnt out cars which disfigured the woods.
