PROTECTING WILD LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 125, 23 November 1932, Page 6

PROTECTING WILD LIFE

The protection of plant life1 in the country from senseless destruction is coming to be recognised as a matter of public interest. Some people may say: "Why bother about this when economic difficulties are so pressing?" But that is not an answer. Man does not live by bread alone, and the beauty of the countryside, affording relief to the tired mind, is always worth preserving. The means of preservation are not simple. Legislation and regulations will help, but there must be local support. In seeking this we may learn something from England. There in recent years great progress has been made with a new county organisation which assembles representatives of various county agencies engaged in public work for the countryside, statutory and voluntary alike, with a view to consultation, co-ordination, .and developing team-work. A writer "in "The Times" recently gave an example of the work of the new movement in protecting- the countryside from defacement. The county councils made the bylaws and the community councils (voluntary) mustered opinion and exerted the vigilance necessary to their enforcement. In Derbyshire there was a bylaw dealing with 'offenders who throw litter about or uprooted wild plants; it was supplemented by council literature and on holidays by community council warders.. In Kent there were 250 village warders to serve as the eyes of their districts. This organising of public opinion fpr the preservation of our own countryside would be valuable,now. Reasonable regulations are needed, with some provision for the student of wild life, but the success of all regulations de-. pends on the public opinion behind them.