As I understand it, Guerilla gardening is where a bunch of people just take it upon themselves to turn an area of land over in the middle of the night with no agreement with the land owner. I'm not saying it's always bad. I saw a programme once on the TV and they made a lovely job of a traffic island in the middle of the road. It really did make the whole area look much better and the end result was probably better for wildlife in terms of diversity of plants etc.
I just worry that not everyone who undertakes this will be so responsible.
Milims example sounds like an organised scheme, which presumably had the land owner's permission. I think that's a lovely story and have heard of a few of these. Sort of Ground Force without the celebs. In these instances, hopefully, the effect on any rare wildlife will have been considered.
guerrilla gardening
I guess this could be one of those never ending debates. I can certainly see arguements for both sides.
Lots of it comes down to beauty being in the eye of the beholder and like already said, a hope that those involved are responsible types.
What may appear to be a foresaken neglected area to some may well have either plans for it, or things going on that are not apparent to the casual uninformed veiwer.
Red's toad tale is a perfect example of do gooders upsetting something because of a lack of information about anothers land. Our own property might also serve as a good example. While it doesnt qualify as one that might be targetted by GG's because of its size and isolated location, to the casual observer it is a scruffy looking gorse ridden steep hillside that begs for a clean up, screaming out at us to get the job done. However, as we work our way through the gorse we find hundreds of native seedlings, birds and other critters galore, and steep clay banks- all of whom are reliant on the gorse to provide shelter and support while the regeneration is in progress. If we had the money and muscle power to do a major clean up, ripping out gorse, spraying the resisters and planting grass or a cover crop, hundreds of thousands of plants and animals would be displaced and parts of the land would become unstable.
We also have a problem here with a local possum fur harvesting gang who have for the last two years seen fit to enter our property and harvest possums for their fur. We hear that they consider they are doing a good job, getting rid of the possums while fattening their bank blance, and that we should be grateful. Our experience with them is this- we start to explore parts of our property, discovering new bits WE havent even been into yet, and find rotting, plucked possum bodies, peanut butter jars, plastic bags and thumping great flourescent markers sprayed on the trunks of our pines. They are trespassing and doing what suits them and their needs, and carrying out activities quite at odds with us, the land owners.
I can see that GG's may have the best intentions without a doubt, but if their project has merit, it should stack up with and get support from the landowner. The landowner should at least have a say in what goes on on his/her land shouldnt they?
Lots of it comes down to beauty being in the eye of the beholder and like already said, a hope that those involved are responsible types.
What may appear to be a foresaken neglected area to some may well have either plans for it, or things going on that are not apparent to the casual uninformed veiwer.
Red's toad tale is a perfect example of do gooders upsetting something because of a lack of information about anothers land. Our own property might also serve as a good example. While it doesnt qualify as one that might be targetted by GG's because of its size and isolated location, to the casual observer it is a scruffy looking gorse ridden steep hillside that begs for a clean up, screaming out at us to get the job done. However, as we work our way through the gorse we find hundreds of native seedlings, birds and other critters galore, and steep clay banks- all of whom are reliant on the gorse to provide shelter and support while the regeneration is in progress. If we had the money and muscle power to do a major clean up, ripping out gorse, spraying the resisters and planting grass or a cover crop, hundreds of thousands of plants and animals would be displaced and parts of the land would become unstable.
We also have a problem here with a local possum fur harvesting gang who have for the last two years seen fit to enter our property and harvest possums for their fur. We hear that they consider they are doing a good job, getting rid of the possums while fattening their bank blance, and that we should be grateful. Our experience with them is this- we start to explore parts of our property, discovering new bits WE havent even been into yet, and find rotting, plucked possum bodies, peanut butter jars, plastic bags and thumping great flourescent markers sprayed on the trunks of our pines. They are trespassing and doing what suits them and their needs, and carrying out activities quite at odds with us, the land owners.
I can see that GG's may have the best intentions without a doubt, but if their project has merit, it should stack up with and get support from the landowner. The landowner should at least have a say in what goes on on his/her land shouldnt they?