"Brian" --- 'flayb' to respond wrote in message
...

"Bevan Price" mynameATTTTfreeukDOTTTcom wrote in message
...

"Brian" --- 'flayb' to respond wrote in
message
...
GWR used to issue a green card that permitted approved
botanising along
railway land. I can only remember that we were warned not to
stand
between
the rails when trains were coming! Very few cards were ever
issued. Many
plants grew there that were missing or rare elsewhere.
Motorways look even more promising and I cannot believe the
biology
of
these verges is totally forbidden~ without some form of approved
access
to
somebody knowledgeable. Nowhere else is there land that remains
ungrazed
and
undisturbed for such long periods.
Can anyone advise?
Best Wishes Brian.


But that was before we had the HSE, and company lawyers afraid
that the
company might be sued for damages if you accidentally hurt
yourself on
railway property.

Bevan
~~~~~~~~~
I accept all the reservations mentioned but surely some
botanists must
have access or the plants involved would not have been recognised.
It must
be that highways and railways have their own approved botanists.
If something cannot be seen and isn't noted ~~ then does it
really
exist?!

'Can't speak for anywhere else but, Lincs has some 60 odd "Protected
Roadside Verges", a scheme run by the Lincs Wildlife Trust and the
Lincs Co. Council Highways dept.
Again, I can't say whether any are bordering 'major' roads but all are
surveyed and reported on annually at least.
And yes, they do harbour many interesting plants. I counted 217
orchids on one this very day.

--
ned

http://www.bugsandweeds.co.uk
last update 24.06.2005