Now is best time to enjoy some of the finest parks in the country and green spaces - Donald Anderson
In Edinburgh we are lucky. Everyone knows how valued Edinburgh’s World Heritage sites are as international beacons of conservation and heritage, but not everyone fully understands just how good Edinburgh’s parks and green spaces are. Indeed, I’d argue that they’re every bit as much of a success as any world heritage site.
Indeed, because of the work done the city council and an army of Friends of Parks groups – these people are heroes, our parks are fantastic.
Those people clean up our parks, support tree planting and biodiversity and they improve parks pathways and infrastructure.
Last week I met with Barry Fisher who runs Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB), which is an environmental charity that is a bit like David Attenborough - it’s a national treasure.
Despite a pittance of a budget, it runs major campaigns and operates Scotland’s Green Flag scheme for our parks. Edinburgh has around half of all the Green Flag parks in Scotland.
Barry confirmed what a triumph the city’s parks are. Edinburgh probably has the best parks estate of any city outside London, and those parks are looking fabulous just now.
I’m also a member of an environmental charity called Paws on Plastic. It’s another fabulous organisation that recruits dog walkers like me to pick up litter on our dog walks.
I’ve now been doing litter picks for 40 years and picking up some litter on a dog walk is not a challenge. I manage to keep our park at South Gilmerton clean – it is a struggle, but I also take our dogs to some of the 500 plus acres of superb parkland in and around Liberton, Gilmerton and Craigmillar.
This week I have been visiting Little France park, which is one of the city newest parks and was recently declared a nature reserve. It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been and one of my favourite places on the planet. The wildlife is stunning.
I do three things on my dog walks. I walk the dogs, collect litter and I try and get pictures of the wildlife. Taking that picture of a stonechat was a delight and thank you to the News for printing my picture of a reed bunting in Tuesday’s paper.
I use the Merlin Bird App, which is free and an amazing resource. What was once a boring caravan site is now the site of a major teaching hospital and nature reserve.
I clocked up over 20 species of birds on a short walk, and one of the resident roe deer even made an appearance. I left delighted and the park was cleaner than when I arrived.
Spending time outside will improve your physical and mental health, and if you’re a dog walker you can join the 29,000 plus members of Paws on Plastic who already collect over 42million pieces of litter every year, and I guarantee you’ll feel better for doing so.
June is peak wildlife, and the flowers, birds and animals are out in force. So, if you’re looking for something to do, you might want to get out more and explore one or more of the finest parks in the land.