Category: Conservation

Islands and Heritage of Japan’s Nagasaki Prefecture

In this series of articles several aspects of heritage, conservation, design, cultural tourism and sustainable development on the tranquil and rural islands of the Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan are being explored. These are places steeped in history but less known amongst visitors to Japan. The character of these islands is less urbanized than some of …

Contaminating India’s Largest Freshwater Lake: Garbage Dumping and Landfilling at Wular Lake, Kashmir

In May 2017 an article was published in Kashmir by Owais Farooqi to raise the problem of landfilling and contamination through garbage dumping at Wular Lake, Kashmir. Wular Lake is India’s largest freshwater lake. I personally see this, and the wider issue of garbage dumping in Kashmir, as incomprehensible and decided to republish the link to Farooqi’s …

The Sea and the Mountain in a Sacred Dance: Itsukushima and Mount Misen, Japan

The Island of Itsukushima is located in the Seto Inland Sea (Setonaikai), in the Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. It is one of about 3,000 islands that are part of the Setonaikai National Park (瀬戸内海国立公園), which was designated in 1934 (Setonaikai National Park, 2017). Miyajima (宮島町, Miyajima-chō) is the historic town located on the island of Itsukushima. …

Mount Auburn Cemetery in Spring

Mount Auburn Cemetery in Watertown and Cambridge, Massachusetts, was founded in 1831 and became a model for the American ‘rural’ cemetery movement. It was listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and received National Historic Landmark designation in 2003. In an earlier article on ‘A Landscape of Memory: Mount Auburn Cemetery‘, some …

Winter in the Forest: Boulder Park in Chester-Blandford State Park, MA, USA

Boulder Park is located in the Chester-Blandford State Forest, in the scenic Berkshire Hills of New England, USA. I stumbled upon this hidden treasure, an early twentieth century recreational park, a day after one of the first snowy days of the winter in Eastern Massachusetts. In this beautiful forested landscape the mystical Boulder Park offers glacial history together …

Genius of Place: The National Parks, Olmsted & Landscape Urbanism (Lecture Report)

As part of The Friends of Fairsted Lecture Series for 2015-16 Ethan Carr (University of Massachusetts Amherst) presented a talk on ‘Our National Parks and the “Fairsted School”: An Enduring Legacy’. The 2015-16 Lecture Series is organised in Recognition of the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service. Tom Woodward (President, The Friends of Fairsted) gave …