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Buckingham Palace Garden

The garden at Buckingham Palace covers over 39 acres (16 ha) surrounded by a wall. It is situated at the heart of London and, with its proximity to the

Royal Parks (the Green Park, St James’s Park, Hyde Park and Kensington

Garden), forms an important part of the central London green space.

The design of the garden as seen today dates back to George IV’s conversion of Buckingham House into Buckingham Palace from 1825. The new royal residence needed a suitably private garden, and George IV appointed William Townsend Aiton, who was in charge of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, to oversee the remodeling of the grounds. By this date the taste for very formal gardens had been replaced by a desire for more naturalistic landscaping, inspired by the work of Capability Brown and Humphry Repton. Aiton’s main alterations were the creation of the lake and the construction of the Mound, an artificial high bank on the south side to screen the Palace from the Royal Mews.

Like the Palace itself, the garden at Buckingham Palace has undergone changes over the years. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mother) cleared many of the dense Victorian shrubberies and introduced a wide selection of decorative flowering trees and scented shrubs. A number of commemorative specimens planted by members of the Royal Family are identified by plaques recording the occasion, including birthdays, wedding anniversaries and jubilees. The plantings are constantly added to by today’s team of gardeners, to introduce new areas of interest and to enhance the historic landscaping.

The garden is home to 322 types of British wild flower, 150 mature trees, 30 species of bird, and a quarter of the total British list of moths and butterflies. An oak tree has been planted for each of the Queen's children, growing from an acorn germinated on the day they were born.

Buckingham Palace is the holder of the national collection of mulberries* and there are almost 30 different varieties grown there. Horticultural rarities include the Chinese chestnut tree and the Indian bean tree. There is also a silver lime a present from the Royal Horticultural Society, planted in 1977 for the Silver Jubilee.

Unlike the nearby Royal Parks of London, Buckingham Palace Garden was not usually open to the public. It was used by the Royal family for official entertaining and celebrations. George IV started the ball rolling, but royal garden parties were started by Queen Victoria. Now the Queen holds three garden parties each July with guests chosen from cross-section* of the public.

Over 30,000 guests attend The Queen’s Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace every year, around 8,000 at each occasion.

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The festivities start at 3 p.m., when the gates open. Everyone is ushered through the palace to the terrace and lawns behind it, where they can wander around the garden and listen to the band. At 4 p.m. the Queen joints her guests, talking briefly to as many people as possible while walking her way down the garden towards the tea tent. At a typical garden party, around 27,000 cups of tea, 20,000 sandwiches and 20,000 slices of cake are consumed, served by around 400 staff. Then, at 6 p.m. sharp, the band plays the national anthem as the signal for everyone to go home.

The show goes on whatever the weather. In 1996 one of the trees of the garden was stuck lightning during a thunderstorm, but the tea and the shatter just carried on as usual.

The biggest event ever held in the garden at Buckingham Palace was the party for the Queen’s golden jubilee in 2002, when a giant stage and banks of sets were put in for two huge concerts that were televised around the world, the first being a classical concert and the second a pop concert.

Since 2009 the guided tours of Buckingham Palace Garden have been started and visitors are shown the giant Waterloo Vase made for George VI in Italy, the palace tennis court where George IV played against Fred Perry in the 1930s, the oldest private helicopter pad in London which was first used shortly before the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, the 19th century lake with pink flamingos wading about in it.

Money raised from ₤20 admission charge goes towards the maintenance of the garden.

cross-section – репрезентативная выборка mulberry – тутовое дерево

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A forest country where no feet may tread

Perhaps, most Russians associate the place name Karelia with furniture made out of Karelian birch or with the personality of ex-president Yeltsin whose heart problems often prevented him from traveling to southern resorts, choosing instead recreation in the northern republic. Only a few, however, think much about the past, present and future of that unique forest and lake country.

Located at the junction of Europe's two largest physiographic areas, Fennoscandia and Russian Plain, Karelia with its landscapes is one of Europe's most diverse taiga regions. A fragment of aboriginal fir taiga is situated in a drumlin landscape* of the northwestern most point of Karelia, while typical north pine taiga along with occasional virgin pineries* can only be found on the White Sea coastal swampland.

A small 'island' of virgin forest is also located 65 km north from Petrozavodsk, in the reserve Kivach. With its area amounting to a mere 12×14 km, Kivach is one of Russia's smallest reserves. It, however, has four comparatively large lakes, and is crossed by the rivers Suna and Sandalka. The reserve is widely known due to its cognominal* plain waterfall, Europe's second largest, on the Suna. In a quiet weather it can be heard from a distance of 5 to 7 km.

The name Kivach originates from the Finnish 'kivi' and 'kivo' – 'rock' and 'snow mountain', respectively – for the waterfall is cramped between tail stony banks.

Among important persons seen by Kivach was Alexander II. To meet the tsar, locals constructed a good road leading to the waterfall, a house on the left bank, a pavilion on the right bank, and a bridge linking the two.

According to a legend, the water in the Suna near the Kivach is troubled because the river is chasing after her sister, the Shuya River. Down the stream, she would lose every hope to catch up with the sister, give up further attempts, and flows on gently.

Another legend tells a story of a peasant who, while walking nearby the waterfall, once encountered a gang of robbers. They forced him to raft them to the opposite bank. When they crossed the Suna, the brave peasant fearing for his life quickly jumped onto the bank and pushed the raft with the robbers toward Kivach.

The renowned poet Gavriil Derzhavin was the first Olonets governor. One of his most well-known poems, The Waterfall, was written under the impression of the roaring Kivach.

Although not as rough anymore, Kivach is still grandiose in the season of spring floods.

Forests of firs, pines and birches aged 120 years on average occupy a large part of the reserve. There are even pines aged over 300 years. The forests are a

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home for many rare and endangered vegetable and animal species that once included the famous Karelian birch.

Set up in 1931, the reserve was a scene of military action in World War II. The Finns who at that time were at war against us cut down the birches to take the valuable timber to Finland. After the war, the reserve remained shut down for some time. Presently, the Karelian birch in the area has been completely restored. An interesting detail is that the oaks that had been brought here from the Valaam Island could eventually naturalize in our oakless area. This was due the waterfall that creates a special microclimate.

Virgin forests* in Europe – with a few exceptions – have all been cut down, apart from small forests in Arkhangelsk, the Komi Republic and Karelia. If these disappear, we will entirely lose the genetic animal and vegetable diversity of northern forest ecosystems, since the formation of a forest takes 500 to 600 years.

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S. Petersburg Times, September 28, 2007

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal is known the world over as the largest and deepest fresh-water lake on the planet. But few would be able to describe the lake’s other myriad wonders. That Baikal’s waters are among the purest on Earth. That Baikal holds a fifth of the planet’s liquid fresh water: enough to supply three liters to every living person for 3,000 years. That Baikal reaches more than 1 1/2 kilometers deep – and up to 9 1/2 kilometers through sediment to bedrock, a rift approaching the world’s deepest abyss*, the Pacific’s Mariana Trench. That, while most of the Earth’s other deep lakes support life to 250 meters, there are living things squirming in Baikal 1,600 meters below the surface. That Baikal is home to 1,750 unique organisms, including the world’s only fresh-water seal, the “nerpa”. The list of Baikal’s wonders grows larger to this day, yet the average citizen of the world hardly knows Baikal at all.

To what extent is Baikal being damaged by humans? How can it best be protected? It’s difficult to believe that humans have any effect on a lake of Baikal’s size and reputation. Many Russians still buy into the myth* of Siberia’s inexhaustibility, of its endless forests, uncountable numbers of fur-bearing animals, mines that yield 4,000 pounds of gold a year, an unfathomable lake that makes pollution disappear.

And much of this is true. Baikal does pull off a unique miracle of selfpurification – through its miniature shrimp*, the Epischura baicalensis. These animals strain pollution from the water like a tiny vacuum cleaner about the size of a poppy seed.

Baikal’s zillions of shrimp filter “the lake’s entire volume every twentythree years.” Thus “Baikal is in a perfect state!” one scientist announces. “It is huge, it is rich, it is healthy, it is wise, and it is not similar to any phenomena in the world!”

But waste from factories, farms, and human settlements are testing the limits of Baikal’s delicate ecology. Siberian industry helped spearhead the nation’s economic and technological achievements of the 1960s and 1970s.

Three dams on the Angara River produced electricity for aluminum, petrochemical and airplane factories – all within 50 kilometers of Baikal.

The result is a “contaminated hot zone.” A Soviet government study found that in 1988 the city of Angarsk produced more harmful air pollution than all of Moscow, and the government recently admitted that Irkutsk and nearby cities have some of the poorest air quality in the nation.

Among the worst culprits is the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill*, whose red- and-white striped smokestacks rise above the lakeshore at the edge of town like candy canes* laced with strychnine.

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The plant was built in the 1950s as a source of cellulose fiber for military aircraft tires, to be produced using Baikal’s “super-pure water.” Nikita Khrushchev supposedly said, “Baikal, too, must work.” Today the plant produces newsprint and bleached cellulose pulp, sending sulfates, phenols, heavy metals and air pollutants into and over the lake.

While the lake’s shrimp do cleanse pollution, unfortunately, that is just the beginning of the story. Epischura are at the bottom of the food chain, and predators at the top – seals, raptors, bears and humans – are at risk of larger effects of contamination. The process known as biomagnification means that concentrations of pollutants jump by several orders of magnitude from one link in the food chain to the next. So marine mammals like the nerpa, which accumulate enormous concentrations of toxic chemicals, are dying off. And humans, who eat the fish that eat the Epischura, might likewise be in danger of grave health risks. This is the nasty irony in Baikal’s stupendous self-cleansing act: extraordinarily pure water, extraordinarily contaminated animals.

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Forestry in the Netherlands

Two important factors determine forestry in the Netherlands: the physical and climatological characteristics of the country as a river delta in the northwest corner of the European continent and the high population density. As the result, Dutch forest may be characterized as follows:

Forests in the Netherlands are scarce. Only 10 % of the surface of the country is covered with forests.

Forests in the Netherlands are artificial not natural virgin forests.

Forests in the Netherlands are although mainly multi-purpose, play a tremendously important role as a recreational facility.

Forests and therefore forestry, in the Netherlands are only marginally profitable if at all.

Forests and solitary trees are often the only vertical elements in otherwise

flat scenery of the Netherlands. Solitary trees, lines of trees and small or large woodlands are among the most important tools of a landscape architect.

The most important tree species in Dutch forestry is Scots pine which accounts for approximately 38 % of the forest. Other important coniferous* trees are larch and Douglas-fir. Oak is the most important broad leaved species (accounting for approximately 16 % of Dutch forest). Spruce, beech, poplar and birch are also frequently used.

Man-made forests

At the beginning of the XIX century the situation in the Netherlands regarding forests was alarming. Centuries of forest destruction to feed the demand for agricultural land and for timber to build Holland’s huge mercantile and naval fleet had reduced the forests to only 2 % of the country’s area. Even those could not be called virgin forests, since people had used them intensively. At the end of the XIX century a company was formed to turn heath land into agricultural land or forest and soon after that the State formed its own body whose task was to manage the state owned forest. Since then afforestation has been continuous.

Multi-purpose as well as multi-functional

Although recreation is an important function of Dutch forests, most of them serve several purposes simultaneously, with timber production and the nature conservation as the most important. Poplar forests or stands may be the exception to this rule. There are approximately 25000 ha of poplar in the country and much of this may be considered as pure production forest since it does not have the infrastructure to accommodate visitors and the stands are too shortlived to be of any value for nature management.

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The economics of forestry in the Netherlands

Being a private forest owner in the Netherlands is not a profitable occupation. In general the forest properties in the Netherlands are small and are therefore uneconomical to manage. Only 150 of the 2480 registered owners has properties larger than 200 ha. On the top of that, wages are high, rates and taxies (for example for water management) are also high and production is relatively low. Government subsidies are therefore extremely important but fall short of making forestry profitable.

Forests and environment

Forests serve an important but tragic role in signaling the state of environmental pollution. Since 1983 the Dutch government has conducted a forest health survey annually, to chart health of Dutch forests at the national level, per tree species. The survey also aims to describe the changes in the state of health compared with previous years and finally, if possible, it pinpoints the probable causes of the current state of forest health. The survey is conducted according to directives formulated by the European Economic Commission.

Forest policy

All forests in the Netherlands are protected under the Dutch Forestry Act, which ensures that where there is forest there will always be forest. A forest owner who intends to fell a stand is obliged to report his intention to a representative of the Minister of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries. If, after a period of 30 days, he has heard nothing from this representative, he may proceed. His next obligation is to ensure that within 3 years there is a new stand of trees on the same spot.

Afforestation, reforestation and other measures in the forests increasing the cost of forest management are subsidized. One of the general conditions for receiving a subsidy is that the owner opens his forest to the public free of charge.

Threats for forests

Present environmental problems are a major threat for the Netherlands forests. The health of trees is damaged by desiccation and acidification. Air pollution from the agriculture, electricity plants, traffic and industry has a negative result on the forest health; the effect of air pollution on the forest ecosystem appears as follow:

a disturbed nutrient balance in the trees (leaves and needles) and in the topsoil;

increased leaching of important nutrients;

decline and destruction of sensitive plant species and fungi;

increased nitrate leaching to the ground water and by this and by this threatening the drinking water supply;

increased weakness for drought, frost, fungal diseases and insect damage.

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Forestry Policy Plan

The Forestry Policy Plan outlines the government’s intentions for forests and forestry for the period 1994-2020. Sustainable conservation and development is necessary to safeguard the little that is still there. Replanting new forests and woodlands is also needed to satisfy the needs of as wide a range of community as possible.

The three main goals of the Plan:

Sustainable forestry only:

All forests and woodlands areas are part of the national ecological network, a system of interconnected nature areas. The government wants to enhance forests’ nature values by adding areas of regeneration to older mixed stands.

Eighteen per cent of all forested area has to be entirely dedicated to nature conservation.

Better forest uses:

Basically all forests will have to be made more attractive for outdoor recreation. This means more per sent mixed forest and old forest and no large scale clearings. The multi-purpose land is to encourage by providing a grant scheme for private estate owners who take particular care to preserve the different uses and who public access to their grounds. An additional grant is given to owners whose grounds are sites of particular natural interest.

This also means increased timber harvest from the existing forests and from newly planted forests.

Forest expansion:

The need for more forests and woodlands is greatest in the densely populated areas such as West Holland conurbation. Other areas near towns and cities will also be afforested with the help of government funds. New forests will also have to be planted in rural areas. This means that in 21st century the Netherlands will have over 400 000 ha of forests and woodlands.

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Forests of Washington State

Washington State is home to approximately 21 million acres of forestland. Over 48 percent of the land in Washington is forested, a much higher ratio than the national average of 33 percent. Forty four percent of the forestland is owned by public agencies, 20 percent by private industry and 19 percent by nonindustrial private owners.

The Cascade mountain range splits Washington into two regions containing distinctly different forest ecosystems. West of the Cascade Mountains, a cool, mild climate and ample rainfall help create lush* forests of Douglas-fir*, western hemlock*, spruce, fir, and western red cedar. The coastal forests contain a large percentage of the world’s most beautiful and valuable temperate rainforests*. East of the Cascades, a temperate, sunny climate and low rainfall support open forests of ponderosa* and lodgepole* pine

A Variety of Trees

Douglas-fir, which is widely used in structural applications because of its strength properties, makes up 40 percent of Washington’s harvest. Hemlock and the true firs make up another 38 percent of the total harvest. Western hemlock is used to produce general construction lumber and also in the manufacture of pulp for papermaking. Cedar species, primarily consisting of western red cedar, comprise approximately 10 percent of the total harvest. Cedar products (including lumber, shakes* and shingles*) are valuable because of their decay resistance and durability. Sitka spruce, which is extremely valuable because of its unique combination of light weight and high strength, is used to manufacture specialty components, while its superior acoustic properties make it suitable for sounding boards in musical instruments. Red alder, which makes up approximately 4 percent of the total harvest, was once considered to be a “weed” species because of its status as a pioneer species that invades newly harvested softwood forests.

Today, high quality western red alder is used in furniture making and cabinet manufacturing. Ponderosa pine and lodgepole pine, which together make up about 8 percent of the harvest in Washington, possess straight grain and good machinability, making them excellent species for molding, millwork, and wood window components.

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