I read about how the DMZ, the border between North and South Korea has become an amazing nature reserve because for the last half century this quarter million acre zone has been virtually untouched by humans… not many other places on the planet can say that. I’ve read that to some extent the area around Chernobyl has similar characteristics.
But in the city? The closest we come in the core of the city are the small strips of land surrounding the railroad tracks, which like Chernobyl, are a little polluted, but go through wonderful bursts of growth as their maintenance is neglected for long periods. For the many warehouses that dot the tracks, this also provides good cover for artists who choose to improve property values.
19 Comments
that piece with the bunnies are way cool.
all i can think of is the ‘justice department’ (a branch of the ALF-movement that supports violence).
Some of the greatest works of art I’ve ever seen live on the backs of mills and abandoned buildings along the train tracks.
very nice
Those bunnies look like they should be on a Threadless t-shirt!
I have hopes for those pockets of wildlife.
Their safety is rather precarious; WTSHTF they will be quickly depleted of edible wildlife by hungry zombified former-city-dwellers. OTOH, many suburbs will eventually be abandoned leaving more wild lands.
dunno if my email will end up in your spam folder or not so just sending birthday well wishes from Kaira and modfrogg.
I love when nature takes things back. There are a lot of buildings like that in my area. I really enjoy art like this. Besides tattooing it is my fav. form of art. I have had so many good ideas, but none have come to fruition because I am limited on time.
The land alongside railway tracks (and canals) is also really important as a wildlife corridoor between larger green spaces – I work in a small inner-city nature reserve (Camley St Natural Park, behind King’s Cross station in London – https://www.wildlondon.org.uk/reserve.php?reserve_id=70 ) which is right next to Regent’s Canal. More and more of the green space next to railway lines is getting developed in London though – generally in a very underhand manner – there has to be consultations before it’s developed, so they’ll send the bulldozers in and flatten all the trees, then there’s nothing worth saving when it comes to consulation time. Somehow this isn’t actually illegal :(
the area around Chernobyl is insane. citizens are told it is deadly, but the remaining people that live amazingly abundant lives growing their own food (in abundance) and living pretty much off the grid. the health risks have not seemed to materialized as predicted…an amazing thing to what for sure.
“I love when nature takes things back.”
these kind of thoughts always remind me of that one quote from “Fight Club” about putting meat out to cure on old highways and kudzu growing as thick as wrists. nature within urban environments.
however the first thing that came to mind about untouched areas was centralia in pennsylvania with the underground fires and pretty much uninhabited town. how creepy and fairly amazing would it be to visit there? maybe a field trip is in order.
good stuff.
Shannon, did you just read the book called The World Without Us? Your mention of the DMZ in the Koreas and Chernobyl are both heavily discussed in that book.
Happy Birthday!
I frankly and thinking of packing in city life for something a little more radically traditionalist. By that I mean a complete rejection of modernist values for something along the lines of a ‘clan’ community…where the extended family [as opposed to the nuclear family] is of more import, artisanship and bartering take precedence over mass production and finance and so forth. It is achievable.
I have neighbors who are immigrants from South Korea. I also was fortunate enough to move out of the city into the suburbs where I live next door to open space and hear the coyotes howling in the middle of the night.
I can’t be the only one that noticed the Shannon snake!
North Korea itself is amazingly undeveloped too, there’s beautiful bush and reserves. They have such strict control over who goes there and what they can do that it’s pristine. I have photos from North Korea if you’re interested, but none from the DMZ ’cause that gets you kicked out of the area :)
I wish laptop had better res, are those hearts on the snake? Nice. Glad Brodie pointed it out.
Post a Comment