Destroying nature in order to enjoy it

Some bits of the MTB track in the woods have been topped up with gravel this week. I’ve spotted the grader and the piles of tiny rocks. Some of the piles have subsequently been spread out and stamped out flat. I guess this will happen occasionally as the track is used and tyres spread furrows along it.

I’m running hot and cold about the MTB track. I can see how the original plan was to get kids away from their screens and into nature, though I can also see that kids do this anyway while at school. I often see groups of them exploring the woods with their teachers.

I have seen a few people using the MTB track and once there was a large group of riders gathered in the big open space. They didn’t look like kids.

Now I look at the track and wonder how much nature has been displaced because of its construction. I wonder what this bike highway has done in cutting off either side of its meandering course. Not to mention the destruction of homes in the trees that were felled.

Is it a good thing to get kids to get into nature if in the process some of the nature was destroyed in order to achieve it?

Then, of course, I look at the track that runs through the woods; the track I use to go to the shops. The track that’s wide and strong enough to withstand the rigours and weight of the grader. And my Nemesis, the moped rider. This track is certainly not natural.

If I’m honest, I rather like the natural tracks through woods. The kind made by wild life like elk and deer, wild pigs and small children. These tracks are part of nature, given they were created by natural processes rather than displacement of material from other places.

Imagine your house being destroyed because someone else wanted to build a house in its place. No warning, no thought, just a bulldozer going straight through it. Now, imagine you’re a small rodent that’s just been out foraging, only to return to discover a huge gully that’s appeared through your burrow.

And what about the destruction of the vital mycelium network which connects all things in the woods? A network which is, unconsciously, helping us by absorbing harmful pollutants which it regards as food.

I know the people who proposed and created the MTB track have done it for all the right reasons but I’m not sure that destroying nature in order to enjoy it is really the best idea.