(c) Laura Cutress
My wild Connection
Steve talks about the importance of connecting with nature
What does 'nature reserve' mean to you?
To me a nature reserve is a haven for wildlife, or more like a sanctuary in our ever-crowded and polluted world. An escape where wildlife can ride out the human storm and hopefully flourish where possible. They are places where humans can give something back, when we have taken so very, very much from this world. These places are not actually for us, although it is vital we engage with them and encourage their creation and expansion.
To me a nature reserve is a sanctuary in our ever-crowded and polluted world. They are places where humans can give something back, when we have taken so much from this world.
At our nature reserves do you enjoy any traditions or special activities?
Apart from my now annual winter starling murmuration hunt, I love to ‘snake spot’ in the first warm weather, often as early as the beginning of February. Incredibly, I hear snakes long before I see them and I have learned to recognise the difference between the noise of a plant blowing in the breeze and more crisp plant movement noise caused by snake movement.
What wildlife have you discovered?
It's odd to think of it this way really because I have seen so much nature and discovered so much incredible, wildlife but the one discovery I value most of all is the discovery of a wild me... What I mean by that is that the more time you spend surrounded by nature, the more you feel completely connected to it and utterly a part of it.
What does Wild Yorkshire mean to you?
I truly hope that over the next few years, policy makers across the country will recognise the true benefit of reconnecting nature, because not only does it reconnect nature to each other (which will enable their survival) but it also reconnects nature to us. That is what I hope for a Wild Yorkshire: that nature is completely a part of us and our daily lives.