Scruffy Spots

Nature loves untidiness, biodiverse places are messy but in a good way, there is decay, disorder and disturbance. The best strategy to protect wildlife is to leave it alone as much as possible.

Long grass hides litter, cushions the ground, gives a home for insects and small animals, soaks up noise, catches dust, cleans the air of dust and pollution, calms the weather and invigorates the soil. Different species of plants come and go through the year in a constantly changing scene of opportunities for nature to thrive!

We need a world peppered with 'scruffy spots' for birds, animals, bees, wasps, beetles, ants, butterflies and worms because there is no life on earth without an ecosystem to support it.

 

Wherever you can get permission! 

Your GARDEN!

Your LOCAL PARK!

ANY patch of land could be a 'scruffy spot'!

 

Go get it!

 

 

 

 

YES!

This is where 'scruffy spots' is chiefly concentrating and our campaign was first piloted in Levenmouth Academy in Fife (see photos on homepage and its Bat's Wood page).

There is an urgent need to plant of trees in unused playing field land.

The reasons are compelling:

• the science on climate change,
• the known health benefits of green spaces,
• the Declaration of Climate Emergency,
• Education Scotland policies on school estates,
• policy documents from Learning for Sustainability Scotland and outdoor education groups and
• the Scottish Government’s School Estates Strategy which states that the outdoor environment should be as carefully designed as the indoor one. 

There are lots of sources: 

 

Half Earth by E. O. Wilson

Rewilding by Isobella Tree

Rebirding by Benedict MacDonald

Feral by George Monbiot

 

See also: Bat's Wood

Scruffy Spots came from this project here!