Wild is a word that can mean natural, untamed, or uncultivated. It can also mean free. Most of fauna in Richmond Park is wild with the exception of the deer. They were artificially introduced and their health and numbers are artificially maintained but with quite a low key touch (ie providing some winter feed and culling weaker animals to maintain herds appropriate to the size of the Park). The flora too is largely wild with the exception of the areas of p planted flower gardens and the Isabella Planation where the plants are purposefully cultivated. Equally there is a degree to which the trees are cultivated in so far as dangerous branches are removed and new trees are planted to create new areas of woodland. Nevertheless these interventions do enable wildlife to thrive. Richmond Park is London’s largest designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). According to Natural England “Richmond Park has been managed as a royal deer park since the seventeenth century, producing a range of habitats of value to wildlife. In particular, Richmond Park is of importance for its diverse deadwood beetle fauna associated with the ancient trees found throughout the parkland. In addition the park supports the most extensive area of dry acid grassland in Greater London.”
Tag: Wild
31 Days Wild: 19th May 2025
I like to think of Richmond Park as a place for wildlife, be that ancient oak trees, sky larks, or deer. But is it really a ‘wild place’? It was originally created from farmland as an exclusive park where Charles I could hunt deer – a managed environment. Even today its biodiversity is shaped by a high degree of human impact – both the work of the Park’s management team who weed out invasive species, manage deer numbers, and plant new trees, and the large numbers of people (and their dogs)who use the space for recreation, commuting and for mental wellbeing.
What makes somewhere a wild space?
31 Days Wild: 5th May 2025
What do I want to achieve over these 31 days? A bit more understanding about the natural world, about what the word ‘wild’ might mean, a greater aptitude to pay attention to the natural world around me – looking, hearing, smelling, feeling.
There is a little piece of woodland that separates a field from a local park. Its certainly not wild or natural in the sense that the trees were planted by a previous generation, but it does provide a habitat for a large number of wild birds – and I’m guessing other wild things such as bugs and insects etc. I often pause here and use my Merlin app which identifies the different birds that are singing in the locality – as many as 14 different species on some occasions. I hope that by doing this regulalry I will learn to identify more birds by their songs. Today I could hear on one side of me a chiff chaff and on the other side another chiff chaff replying – their songs were similar but each had their own pitch.
The Green Tau 