Big Yellow Taxi

If any of you are fans of the band Counting Crows or maybe you are just lucky enough to be as old as me. Either way you might well remember the opening line from their song Big Yellow Taxi.

“they paved paradise and put up a parking lot”.

Earlier this year I wrote several blogs regarding deforestation in Oslomarka, especially in Maridalen.

The aim was not only to raise awareness of this but also the consequences both for the climate but also Oslo residents’ mental health perspective.

These fantastic areas and woodlands can offset many of the stresses of daily life.

This afternoon I returned with my gang to explore the area I used to call “Happy Place”. This magical area with towering trees, the sun shining down through them, the snow lying untouched all around or the mist hanging between the trees and over the streams. It was a little Garden of Eden.

Unlike in The Counting Crows song it has not been paved and there is no parking lot. We still had a wonderful adventure and the dogs played and explored happily. But that certain “magic” is gone from there. You won’t get that zen feeling in the open space with craters and mud tracks from the huge machines they used to plunder the woods.

Nature and trees will of course return to the area, but Happy Place will doubtfully be back within my lifetime.

Oslo needs to start demanding the protection of it’s adjoining woodland for the sake of it’s residents and future generations.