On 25 Apr 2003 07:29:28 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:

~
~In article ,
~Malcolm writes:
~|
~| It's legal with the landowner's permission and until recently without.
~| One of the unspeakable legislation changes of recent years has been
~| to make wild plants effectively property, in the same way that wild
~| animals were by that Norman land reiver.
~|
~| Don't don't get caught by some offensively bureaucratic dog in the
~| manger.
~|
~| Given the scale of physical removal of primroses in many areas in
~| England in the last 20 or more years, making them rare where they were
~| once plentiful, it would seem to me quite reasonable to legislate to
~| protect what is left.
~
~It would be, if that were what had been done. It hasn't. The law
~is designed to PERMIT most of the sort of damage that has seriously
~damaged primrose populations, while removing traditional rights from
~the public. It did close one abuse, but one that could have been
~much more easily closed in other ways, without the harmful effects.
~
~Exactly like the enclosures and game laws, and it could well have
~comparable effects on the environment in the long term.
~
~As every ECOLOGIST has pointed out, the problem with the reduction
~of things like primroses has NOT been their removal by the public
~for private use. But what does science have to do with the laws
~and government of this country?
~

Well to be optimistic, you ought to see the wild primroses here in the
Chilterns right now. Beautiful. In my town most people have wild ones
as they just seed everywhere. I have to be careful with lawn
weedkillers - I tend to use a trowel these days as often the seedlings
are primroses. I move them into the borders, as do most folk. There is
a bank in the adjoining road which I really must photograph, it's so
covered in flowers, both the yellow and the pink forms.

As for the rescuing bit, 3 years ago I rescued a tiny cowslip from a
patch of ground at work which was about to be run over (literally) by
a skip lorry. I didn't make myself terribly popular running behind it
and digging the plant up rapidly! It's now in my rock garden, a
massive plant with at least 10 flower stalks on at the moment, rather
than compost in a bit of scrubby land.


--
jane

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone,
you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
Mark Twain

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