In these days when politicians habitually introduce the s word into almost everything they say it`s so sad to see that policies around management of green spaces still haven`t changed. Grass must be cut as short and frequently as possible to look “tidy” with little or no regard for nature. The excuse is, as a Bilbao councillor said last year, is that people don`t want to see “untidy”, long grass. But haven`t politicians got a duty to promote policies that protect nature? A good example of this is in Arangoiti, Bilbao, where there is the most beautiful botanical garden and it hasn`t cost a penny! According to Agurtzane Aguinaga, a friend and collaborator of BBT, there are well over 120 species of flowers to be seen there. How many are there in Doña Casilda park? But every year in Arangoiti these flowers are cut despite the fact that they are mostly inaccessible for people due to the fact that they are on a slope. Thanks to Agurtzane the local community association has started to take an interest in the need to maintain this floral treasure and she informs us that it will only be cut once a year from now on. But surely this area should be given more attention and panels put up to show what flowers can be seen and information provided so that schools that take part in the Agenda 2030 project can investigate this most interesting and beautiful part of Bilbao? How many generations of future teachers were taught how to be good primary school teachers but left Arangoitiu without knowing anything about the birds, insects, trees and flowers that can be seen around them. It’s little wonder that nature walks are just walks as the teachers have never been taught about nature. When will they start to learn about local flora and fauna so they can be confident to teach children about it?
One person who does teach us to appreciate urban flowers is J.Ramón Gómez whose monthly column in Quercus magazine praises the benefits of urban flowers and calls for a change in the way our municipal authorities manage our urban green spaces. And we have been fortunate enough for him to accept an invitation to talk about urban flower management, the topic of his latest book which will be published in autumn. The talk is organized by BBT and our friend in Haria Elkartea and will be in Bakio (venue to be decided) at 19:00 on Friday the 22nd April, a date to remember! We look forward to seeing you there!
And finally on the theme of urban green space management we will shortly be inviting local town-councils and the political parties to answer some questions on green space management policies. This will give us a better idea of what is being done and how to improve it to help biodiversity.
