#161: Natural England

The resources that will be created for the new GCSE Natural History will include a set of weblinks directing teachers and students to organisations which connect with the key themes within the specification. 

Natural England is the government’s adviser for the natural environment in England. It helps to protect and restore our natural world and some of its activities and reports connect directly with the likely themes within the specification which is as yet to be revealed.

Natural England is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

It is worth exploring the links above, to investigate what the site has to offer. There is content on a range of themes linked to landscape and nature.

Here are some sample highlights from the Natural England site. 

I had the pleasure of working with Natural England on a booklet called 'The Language of Landscape' which accompanied free Ordnance Survey Maps which were sent to Year 7 students for some years in the early 2000s. The emergence of Digimap for Schools was the end of that project.

Natural England has a number of publications, maps and data.

Natural England also provide information on lanscape and its management.

#79: The Language of Landscape

I contributed a piece to the Ordnance Survey's 'Mapping News' when it was still distributed to schools - at the time of the free OS maps for Year 7 students programme. It was called the 'Language of Landscape'

This led to me creating a booklet for Natural England.

It can be accessed via the National Archives - code NE201.

I came across this quote in a book I read last year.

It is about the value of landscape. Landscape according to Anne Whiston Spirn was our original language. She explains the powerful idea that:

“landscapes were the first human texts, read before the invention of other signs and symbols… a person literate in landscape sees significance where an illiterate person notes nothing.”

I then found a copy of the book in a second hand bookshop a few days later coincidentally. 

Reference

Spirn, A. W.: ‘Language of Landscape’ – Yale University Press; Revised Edition, 2000

The Languge of Landscape: 

https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20140304113507/http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/50009?category=10005