Reading Test 04

|Part 1|

Worming put new life in the derelict site

Poisoned soil at an old steelworks is being cleansed by thousands of worms, writes Mimi Chakraborty.

THOUSANDS of deep-burrowing earthworms are to help turn the long-derelict site of a steelworks into woodland and a renewable energy park.

As part of a pioneering low-cost plan to reclaim the site of the former Hallside steelworks at Cambuslang near Glasgow, worms are being used to accelerate the process of soil regeneration and to transform the land, over time, into an attractive and financially productive site.

Hallside's closure in 1979 put an end to more than 100 years of steel production. The surrounding land had become heavily compacted and was too contaminated with heavy metals such as chromium, cadmium and lead to support any kind of brick and mortar development.

The site's 30 hectares were lett abandoned until 1990, when a rescue plan put together by local landscaping and earthmoving company, HL Banks, and the regional developer, Scottish Greenbelt, was approved by local authorities.

Now the site has been covered by a two-metre layer of partially treated sewage material which has been mixed with colliery waste. This will be converted into usable soil by about 21,000 Lubricus terrestris (garden lobworms) and Aporrectodea longa (black-headed worms) that have been let loose on the site.

The specially raised hermaphrodites, which are self-impregnating, will spend the next five to ten years chewing their way through the topping layer to create a soil structure able to sustain long-term plant growth. Without them, the process could take up to 60 years.

Researchers at Bell College of Technology in nearby Hamilton examined the use of earthworms in land regrading, and found that even in the hostile mixture of coal-tip waste and partially treated sewage, earthworms were able to speed up the process of soil recomposition.

They selected different varieties of deeper-burrowing earthworm species, whose bulk feeding and casting actions, as well as their ability to improve the mineral content of soil, would increase the rate of reformulation much faster than the natural processes
Sean Ince, of Bell's department of biology, says: The idea is that earthworms will contribute in a cumulative way to further soil binding, and that they will aerate and add nitrogen to the soil covering the Hallside site.

At the same time, Scottish Greenbelt has begun planting the area with 250,000 trees -including willow and alder -specially selected for their
ability to grow on degraded land.

These will have the dual function of extracting contaminants from the soil through their root systems, and being harvested for wood burning or chipboard manufacture.
By using the cash raised from wood harvesting, David Craven, director of Scottish Greenbelt, says he expects Hallside to be self-financing.

The first tranche of trees was planted in April and they are now over six feet tall, despite dry weather through the summer' he says. The fields are being planted on a four-year rotation basis and will be used to help us meet our costs.

Craven says the cost of land bio-remediation - the labour-intensive process of removing soil for chemical and bacterial cleansing-could have been more than £30m.
At Bell College, Ince says There's a whole legacy of toxic soil contamination going back many years. There is physical degradation of the soil as well as contamination from metals, including lead, chromium and arsenic.

Sampling of the soil at regular intervals over the next few years will give an indication of the level of contaminants. Within less than 20 years the land could be re-integrated into the community.

Hopes of a successful outcome at Hallside have paved the way for similar regeneration plans for the nearby Gartoosh steelworks and at Glengarnock in Ayrshire

|Part 2|

Great escapes

A I have recently planted a hedge. Living in a rural environment, I made the decision to plant only native species, including field maple, hawthorn, hazel, dog-rose and blackthorn. In time this will grow to form a dense hedge whose primary purpose is to form a windbreak, but which will also be attractive both to me and to wildlife. In the two years since planting, a number of hedgerow wild flowers, such as scabious and knapweed have already begun to colonize the spaces between the growing shrubs. Of course, if allowed to grow too freely, rank weeds and grasses will limit the growth of the hedge and need to be removed. This is done by hand, without the use of herbicides, in order to encourage bio-diversity.

B But it is not only native species that have found a foothold in the new growing environment. A number of garden plants of non-native origin have also established themselves. Some have come via wind-blown seeds, some through bird droppings, while others have arrived through human agency, stuck to the soles of boots or as dormant seeds embedded in garden compost. They include Lychnis coronaria, Echinops ritro and Brunnera macrophylla, all valued garden plants, but looking rather out of place in a natural setting. Such intruders are called 'garden escapes', and it isn't only my garden they are escaping from.

C In his recently published book, Flora Britannica (1998), Richard Mabey devotes a whole chapter to garden escapes. Many of these are relatively recent introductions, such as the Indian balsam which was first brought to Britain from the Himalayas in 1829, and Fuchsia magellanica which arrived about the same time. Both of these grow wild in Britain now; Indian balsam may be found along riversides and in damp places all over Britain, while Fuchsia magellanica is mostly confined to mild south-west England. Buddleja davidii was introduced from its native China in the 1890s and is now a ubiquitous shrubby weed of urban wasteland, derelict building sites or crumbling walls. Its dusky purple flowers are much frequented by butterflies and for this reason it is by no means an unwelcome interloper. Like the others it has succeeded by exploiting an ecological niche. No native British plant species has been able to colonize dry inhospitable urban landscapes to such advantage.

D Other vigorous aliens introduced as garden plants are now regarded as pernicious weeds. One such is Japanese knotweed, probably introduced into Victorian gardens in the 1840s. Its root system extends rapidly and it is able to regenerate from the smallest fragment of root. It forms dense thickets reaching 1.5 metres in height, under which no other plants can grow and little animal and insect life can be supported. It spread from London in the early 1900s and by the early 1960s was reported in every county of mainland Britain, reaching us even here in the remote Suffolk countryside. It is virtually ineradicable, and is now a serious pest in parts of south-west England. Another unwelcome intruder is giant hogweed, an undeniably handsome herbacious perennial, reaching up to four metres in height in damp meadows or open woodland, crowned with enormous umbels of white flowers. It, too, is invasive and its sap is also poisonous causing severe skin irritation and blistering, especially when activated by the ultra-violet rays of bright sunlight. Children are particularly at risk as the thick hollow stems and broad fan-like leaves lend themselves to a variety of games.

E This process is taking place all over the world. Plant species from one continent are introduced into the gardens of another, or as a food crop, or for hedging. They may then spread disastrously, taking advantage of suitable climatic and soil conditions, and of the fact that there may be no animal, insect or fungal predators in the new environment to keep them in check. The prickly pear, a spiny cactus originating in Central America, was introduced into Australia to control stock and keep out wild animals. It has now colonized vast areas of the Australian outback as both domestic animals and wild kangaroos and other herbivores find it virtually inedible. Prickly pear also grows now in parts of southern Arabia and is spreading rapidly. Even goats, which will eat almost anything of vegetable origin including cardboard boxes, find it difficult to deal with the dense spines of this cactus.

F Many of the commercial food species now grown in Europe have also been imported from other continents, including potatoes, tomatoes and kiwi fruit. These do not readily spread across our landscapes, as they require constant human intervention in the form of irrigation, fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides. However, some agricultural crops can interbreed with wild species. Oilseed rape is one example. Plants are adaptable and have in their genes characteristics that enable them to survive and breed in a variety of conditions. Recently, with the development of genetically modified crops, some food plants have acquired new characteristics, such as resistance to drought, herbicides or insect attack. How long will it be before one of these genetic modifications transfers to a vigorous weed, escapes our global garden and goes on the rampage in the remaining wild habitats of the world?

|Part 3|

Day-dreaming: an art or a waste of time?

Day-dreaming is generally viewed as an impractical, wasteful activity: one should be doing something useful, not just sitting or walking around with 'one's head in the clouds'. But rather than being of little worth, the capacity to fantasize is a priceless skill, a thoroughly useful tool, a tool for all seasons.

Day-dreaming is an essential ingredient in most, if not all, creative processes. In the pursuit of innovation and development, many organizations have been trying over recent years 'to capture the day-dreaming process' by formalizing and institutionalizing the process in creative seminars. Workshops where employees sit around 'brainstorming' and 'being creative' are now mushrooming. But do they work? To a certain extent they can, but not always. There are instances of outside consultants setting up brainstorming sessions for companies where the chairperson or director gives his or her ideas first. By doing so, they set the parameters as no one wants to contradict or overrule the boss. True brainstorming, like true day-dreaming, however, knows no boundaries, no hierarchies and no fears. The intention is not to disparage such activities, but they are too over-controlled and do not even mimic the environment needed to day-dream and create. But they do show how the creative force, so frequently despised before, is creeping into the mainstream, even if in a contained manner. Very contained, in fact.

So where to begin? Day-dreaming or fantasizing is discouraged in children, so that by the time they are adults it has been completely removed. While one would not want to have all children sitting around in a kind of hypothyroidic haze of day-dreaming bliss, those most naturally inclined to it should be given space to dream and their ability nurtured. Creativity comes out of the unusual and needs space, in fact lots of space, to develop. Yet, life is based on mediocrity and so society demands that creative flair be knocked out of someone when they are young so that they can conform.

As adults, then, it is by and large more difficult to day-dream in general. The limitations have been set by others early on and by subtle reminders to keep people in place. Individuals in danger of deviating from the norm are kept in their place by a permanent flow of seemingly innocent comments designed to induce conformity ('I don't like that.' 'That won't work.') quite often delivered subconsciously. Fortunately, the die-hard day-dreamers manage to struggle through.

Dreaming spots

For some of us, coffee shops, pubs or public places where people are moving around are ideal spots for day-dreaming. Or, indeed, somewhere where there is running water, by a river or stream. The constant movement seems to stimulate thought and ideas in a way that perhaps a library or the solitude of a study does not. It may not be possible to hone the finished text sitting around in a noisy coffee bar, but the challenge of holding together thoughts against adversity, as it were, is a productive force. In the peace of one's home there are even more distractions, like the TV and the phone. People who are not familiar with the creative process find it hard to accept that places like coffee bars are a source of stimulation. But why certain places and things motivate the creative individual and others do not is difficult to fathom.

Is day-dreaming an innate ability or something that can be taught? While I personally am prepared to accept that inheritance of ability does play a significant role I am more inclined to the idea that the environment, and perhaps chance, play a much greater role. It is said that genius is 10 per cent inspiration and 90 per cent perspiration. The coffee shop experience bears this out: a place of turmoil to engender the ideas and then back to the nest to flesh them out. The 90 per cent is a notional figure. If one looks at the work of the great inventors and artists past or present, one can see that more than 90 per cent of perspiration, as it were, went into the execution of their work.