Too easy for city folk to ignore nature

BEE-HAVE: Without bees, we'd all be in trouble.

The birds and bees are on my mind this week.

No, I'm not yet receiving tricky questions from Mr Four that require a "Go ask your dad" answer. I am literally thinking about birds, bees ... and butterflies even.

Walking our crazy dog the other night, he started barking into the bush as we headed into the reserve. Looking left into the gully, a few metres away, was a morepork sitting on a branch at eye height, quizzically turning his head to the side and looking back at me.

It was awesome. It gave me a taste of what my kids' preschool teacher reminded us before going on their beach trip: "Everything is wondrous for a child, so maintain their excitement when discovering a shrimp in a rock pool or a hermit crab scrambling along the sand."

During Sea Week, the first week of March, I read stories about kids taking part in not only their first beach clean-up, but their first beach visit. It's a tragedy in a coastal country like New Zealand that we have children for whom a trip to the beach is a rare event.

It's easy to say that food on the table and a warm bed are more important - and they are, literally, vital - but what is life without fresh sea spray on your face, walking in the bush deafened by a crowd of cicadas, or simply savouring a moment's peace under the shade of a tree.

With poverty one of the political themes of this election year, I wonder how - after we deal with the essentials like a living wage and warrants of fitness for rental housing - we address the inequality of life's experiences of nature.

I read an article about the concept of "nature deficit disorder" - coined by Richard Louv, the author of Last Child In The Woods - to describe children becoming disconnected from the natural world. He commented that 2008 was a huge moment in human history as it was the first time more people lived in cities than the country.

We face the challenge of how to retain and redevelop our connections to nature, although in New Zealand, with our low population density and concentration of stunning landscapes, we may be insulated for longer. What does this mean for how we design nature-friendly cities of the future?

And what of bees? I missed a presentation last week on the worldwide decline in honey bees, but in New Zealand, wild bee colonies are now rare.

The concern is that we have been too enthusiastic with our pesticides and are on the brink of causing our own catastrophe (yes, another one). Without pollination by bees, many of our plants and those dependent on them, including us, will find survival damn tough.

One of the culprits is claimed to be neonicotinoids, insecticide used for seed treatment, which were banned last year in the European Union. Others say the varroa mite is the main offender. It seems to me a precautionary approach is wise.

Some city-dwellers now keep bees in their backyards, or rooftops for apartment dwellers, which is a good thing for our gardens. Check out www.greenurbanliving.co.nz for some tips on bee-friendly gardens.

In our own shabby garden, our swan plant is on its second wind after getting hammered by an army (the collective noun for caterpillars) of monarch butterfly caterpillars. Now revived, it is home to a new batch of caterpillars.

My children's experiences of nature are starting in the backyard and at the beach but I have finally started taking them on more adventurous journeys into Egmont National Park, right on our doorstep. I had been putting it off thinking Mr Two wasn't up to the rough tracks and tree root trip hazards but, of course, he powered ahead demanding to lead the way.

I hope my children maintain strong connections to nature. There's so much to gain, including this: Advice From A Tree by Ilan Shamir: "Stand tall and proud. Sink your roots into the earth. Be content with your natural beauty. Go out on a limb. Drink plenty of water. Remember your roots. Enjoy the view."

Nicola Young is a former Department of Conservation manager who now works for global consultancy AECOM. Educated at Wanganui Girls' College, she has a science degree and is the mother of two boys.