Did people really turn to Nature during lockdown?

This week I read that, “People have left the equivalent weight of 20 double decker buses of litter in London's Royal Parks during a month of lockdown” on BBC News.

As people flocked to local parks to escape their houses during a particularly sunny and warm Spring, volunteers and councils reported that levels of litter were shockingly high. Lots of plastic bottles and bags, detritus of parties including barbecues, alcohol and drug refuse were all cleared, often by volunteers, as Londoners, locked out of pubs and not able to indulge their party littering at festivals (where at least they pay a clean up fee as part of their ticket price!) took themselves off to their local green space to drink and picnic in the sunshine. 

Alexandra Park reported that they removed 26 tonnes of litter in May compared to 14 tonnes the year before, with 5 tonnes alone collected in 24 hours on 28th May. The same was reported from other parks around the borough, including Finsbury Park where residents were also subjected to high levels of noise from music, Chestnuts Park and Bruce Castle Park also the scenes of late night parties and tides of litter left by partygoers, and cleared by the Friends groups daily. 

Stories like these have me struggling with competing notions that people en masse are noticing Nature more, turning to it in times of high stress during pandemics, valuing it and wanting things to change for the better as we emerge from restrictions. Rather, it seems, that many people who went to the parks felt no more part of them than if they’d partied in a car park or in a concrete square. They went because there was nowhere else to go, not for the therapeutic qualities of trees, grass, birds and flowers. 

On the other hand, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that some people are benefiting from a closer relationship with the parks and green spaces that they can access, be it walking in woods, following river paths, visiting parks or even just sitting in gardens (if they are fortunate to have them).

Leopard slug in my garden

Personally, although I spend a lot of time outdoors doing Nature education with primary kids, my epiphany was just how much was happening in my garden and how many species of insect and bird visited daily. It came as quite a surprise, in a good way, that my tiny patch could support the same kind of life as a Nature reserve. I took particular pleasure in watching the fledglings coming to feed, the emergence of insects and the number of wildflowers that had quietly colonised my garden while I was out elsewhere pointing them out to seven year olds. 

Woodlouse spider in my front garden

There is also survey data, via MENE, that affirms that people are spending more time “in Nature” and “appreciating Nature”, but I wonder what those terms mean to people? Has the lockdown increased that number?

Is there a correlation to changing perceptions of how they move and operate within Nature i.e. not leaving litter, not "over-gardening"? Do they now feel post-lockdown as much part of Nature as a hover fly, say, or the buzzards of Hampstead Heath?

Furthermore, have the people who answered in the affirmative  RE-discovered Nature, having been prevented from doing so by work or other constraints or do they have a NEWLY awakened sense of their place in the natural world?

Most importantly, now that shops are opened, pubs and restaurants allowed to have sit down clients, and, of course, more people return to work, will their interest in Nature continue and influence how they act and the decisions they make?

I don’t wish to be negative about the wild moments that people have experienced that have helped them cope and I do believe that for some, including myself,  the slow down brought the natural world close to home into much sharper view, nor do I wish to suggest people can only use parks to experience Nature, although I do think that, whatever you go there for, you can clean up after yourself.  I do, however,  raise a quizzical eyebrow at the suggestion from some quarters that the pandemic is bringing Britain "back to Nature" (whatever that term means!).  

Inevitably, things are much more complicated than simply that people are lazy or indifferent as this article explores but, if the stories that emerged about the tide of rubbish in parks and waterways tell us anything, it’s that we have a lot of work to do before we can talk about a renaissance of British Nature Lovers.

Has Nature been beneficial to you during lockdown? Has there been anything in particular you’ve enjoyed that you didn’t do before? Share your lockdown stories of urban wild in the comments.