Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
to set aside a large area inhabited by orchids, bats, birds, and the rare natter-
jack toad. The toads bask on open ground, which is frequently created on
port lands but also often disturbed. Setting aside a stable reserve for the toads
away from the growing portion of the port development has the potential to
double the current toad population, provide business leaders certainty that
their future actions would not be of concern to conservation groups, and dem-
onstrate that commercial and conservation interests need not always conl ict.
Look around your place of work and the businesses you support. Odds
are you will i nd pieces of nature surviving in the rough edges, manicured
hedges, open lots, rooftops, ponds, and puddles that remain. Nearly every
commercial area provides habitat for birds and other species by default. Some,
such as the Port of Antwerp, are engaged in intentional stewardship. This
blend of passive and active conservation benei ts nature and provides interest-
ing diversions for workers and customers who might even i nd a hungry black-
bird waiting with them for a shop door to open.
Substantial and signii cant open space exists within a city's workplaces, but
this is not the only green area in the city that can serve double duty as a place
for people and birds. Soccer pitches, football i elds, and baseball diamonds
provide loai ng areas and, if the turf is natural, feeding areas for some birds.
But by far and away the recreational site within a city that has the greatest
potential to double as bird habitat is the golf course.
Golf courses are one of the most plentiful vegetated spaces within subirdia.
Worldwide there are more than 31,500 courses, and their numbers are increas-
ing rapidly. In the United States alone 300 courses were built annually over the
past three decades. From a humble beginning in Scotland, golf courses now
cover nearly 1 percent of the United Kingdom. Courses also dominate recre-
ational space in Australia, Japan, Southeast Asia, and, increasingly, China.
