"It has to be Sherlock Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls - you know, before the diabolical Dr Moriarty threw him down into the depths," said the Holmesian addict. It does show a man in the dress of the last century or earlier, his back to us, standing on rocks while wisps of cloud swirl around his feet, and, in the distance, also lapped in cloud, are several peaks. But it has nothing to do with Holmes. It is the cover picture of Naturopa, a magazine from the Council of Europe, sent by Terry O'Regan of Waterfall, Cork, to help publicise his annual Landscape Forum, this year to be held in Maynooth on September 9th and 10th. In an editorial in the magazine, Dominique Voynet, who is, or was, French Minister for Regional Planning and Environment, reminds her readers of the diversity of landscape ("our surroundings of tomorrow") and of the glories of the past in her country.
She mentions the peasant farmers of Armorica who cleared the oak forests on the Atlantic coast, the monks of the Middle Ages who drained the marshes, and the shepherds who made tracks across the Mediterranean mountains - booleying or transhumance - to give France a diversity "which many countries envy us". She goes on: "This diversity is fragile when it is no longer protected."
And how often have we in Ireland been faced with blots on our most beautiful scenery? How often have worthy buildings been torn down? the minister quoted above reminds us that this diversity is disdained when it is no longer protected, and because it is not a source of profit and so "rural and urban areas are robbed of their originality." She makes a plea for preserving biological diversity. "Without the living network of the hedgerows, the wooded banks of the rivers, marshes, grasslands and other types of vegetation, it would be to no avail to seek to preserve much of the biological diversity within our countries, whose land is divided up by many linear infrastructures."
Urban sprawl spreading into the countryside around say, Dublin? This year's Landscape Forum has a specific focus - it is to be "Circling Maynooth" and speakers are invited to select landscape change within a 10-mile radius around Maynooth in the past 20 to 30 years as a subject for their presentation. More here another day. Meanwhile, you can contact Landscape Alliance Ireland, Old Abbey Gardens, Waterfall, Cork; phone 021871460.