I remember when we were first encouraged to “let the train take the strain”.
In those yuppie days, when I was in short trousers mind you, it was to allow you to use a mobile telephone the size of a Mini Cooper, while leafing through a file-o-fax to see when you had a ‘window’.
After a recent period of enforced public transport use, while suffering from being-sold-a-total-lemon-itis, I realised just how sensible this is today.
In 2007, rather than 1987 we are being encouraged out of our all-new, and much larger, Mini Coopers and back onto public transport to help take the strain off CO2 emissions.
Seeing as my role is largely about the celebration of our beautiful environment, I thought I ought to fall into line and provide you with some ideas of great wildlife encounters within a stone’s throw of a bus stop.
I was waiting for the X53 Coasthopper bus at Halfway House a couple of weeks ago when it hit me – you actually get to see the countryside if you are not concentrating on the rear bumper of a Honda civic, being driven at 30 mph by a gentleman with a box of tissues on the parcel shelf.
It was while waiting for this bus that I spotted a few hazelnuts on the short stretch of pavement. I scooped them up and, on closer inspection, could see that they had the characteristic teeth-marks of a dormouse.
So I now know that this inconspicuous spot I’ve driven past hundreds of times on my way to or from work has dormice living there. Not an earth-shattering discovery for science, but nice to know all the same.
I’ll stick with the X53 route, as it really does give some fantastic recreational opportunity throughout East Devon, and (selfishly) goes right past the front door of quite a few of the District Council’s Local Nature Reserves.
The Undercliffs National Nature Reserve is a stunning seven mile stretch of coast between Seaton and Lyme Regis.
Created 150 years ago by a land slip on Christmas day, the reserve is an isolated island bounded by the sea to the south and an inland cliff to the north.
At seven miles long, and with no half-way get out point, the only brave souls to venture all the way along the Undercliffs are long distance walkers, ‘doing’ the South West Coast Path, which is a great shame.
The place is remarkable, a tangled woody forest, with glimpses of the sea, and the location for the filming of The French Lieutenant’s Woman, starring Meryl Streep.
It is hard going and walking from one end to the other and then back again would be out of most people’s comfort zone. But armed with an X53 timetable and moderate fitness you can enjoy the yomp and be picked up at the other end.
I would advise travelling over the border – yes I know, Dorset, but it’s worth it I promise – and walking from Lyme Regis back towards Seaton.
At this time of year look out for the beautiful ghostlike wood white butterfly in sunny spots along the path, and keep your ears open for the cacophony of woodland bird calls, mixed strangely with the mewing of gulls.
You will eventually drop down over Axe Cliff golf club to get back to Seaton, and the views from here back along the East Devon coast are quite wonderful, even the MSC Napoli is conveniently hidden behind Beer Head.
Another good spot to know about on the route lies just above Seaton town itself, and is a woodland I have written about in these pages many times before.
Holyford Woods Local Nature Reserve lies in a little valley right behind Seaton Heights, and has a bus stop smack-bang at the entrance – it really could not be more convenient.
Fittingly this Sunday sees the annual Holyford Woods Open Day – a day of woodland celebration, cream teas and chutney sales, and you couldn’t pick an easier way to get to it than by bus.
Get dropped off at Seaton Heights and walk down into the woods along the footpath.
Watch out for bluebells and the vivid pink of red campion in the woods, and also notice the felled area, covered in foxgloves. This will be a riot of colour in a few weeks from now.
Follow the path into the woods, crossing a small bridge over a brook and bear right back out of the woods and down to Horriford Farm.
This is where Chair of the Holyford Woodland Trust, Colin Pady and his wife Val host this magnificent day.
Enjoy a cream tea on the farmhouse lawn and get there early to snaffle some chutney, before taking a guided tour of the woods from one of the Trust members or a Countryside Service Ranger.
The deadwood in the woodlands is a really important feature of this beautiful place, and is the reason why it is so popular with woodpeckers – all three British woodpeckers can be found here.
The guided walks will take you past some of the more spectacular fallen trees, as well as orchids, bluebells and drifts of fragrant wild garlic.
On your way back you can quietly peel off from the back of the group and make your way back up the hill to the bus stop and wait for the X53 to whisk you back to reality.
So this summer, leave the car behind sometimes. Avoid the stresses of being stuck in traffic yourself, and let someone else deal with that, as you sit back and admire our splendid countryside.
The sea is a big place. It's also very difficult for you or me to explore easily, without strapping several kilos of welding gear on our back and zipping ourselves into a rubber bag. So it's not somewhere you can just pop out and walk the dogfish. Perhaps this is why our attitude towards the sea is about 200 years behind our value of the land.
Globally our seas are becoming critically unproductive for the fishing industry. As trawlers have got bigger and bigger, and the potential haul has increased exponentially, the global fleet has had to move further from the shore to find their quarry. Things are in a very desperate state in the ocean depths.
And still it is a place we know so very little of. Small scale research projects (when compared with the enormity of their subject matter) are finding new species and habitats year on year. And yet we continue to put unsustainable pressures on the sea through what we pull out of it, and what we throw into it.
Please don't misconstrue what I am saying - as there is a tendency to do at this point - I am not placing the blame squarely at the feet of any one group of people; be they fishermen, fisheries managers, waste managers, boat operators or whoever. Fishermen tend to get a little vexed when the world's marine ecosystem problems are traced back to themselves, and so they might. Yes, overfishing is a very overt factor in the decline, but it is just one of many factors and it should be all of us who shoulder the blame, and therefore strive to find solutions.
I don't like to linger on apocalyptical environmental messages, not least of which because it instantly encourages people to give up before we've even started, but in this case there is genuine light at the end of the tunnel. Looking to the terrestrial conservation movement, which still has a long way to go but is the best we've got to go on, there are lessons to be learnt.
Top predators can be encouraged to flourish by removing human persecution pressures. Peregrine falcons were poisoned and shot to near extinction by the late seventies. Through public pressure, followed by political actions backed by the enforcement of the law, these magnificent birds are now abundant in the British countryside and urban landscape. And therein lies the Holy Trinity of any successful conservation effort - you, me and everyone voices concern; politicians realise a popular issue and act; action is backed up with adequate enforcement.
Remaining focussed on the positive, I was fortunate enough to attend a seminar recently where the first threads of an exciting new marine conservation project were being woven together.
Finding Sanctuary is a collaborative project between Natural England; County Councils; Wildlife Trusts; South West Food & Drink and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, looking at the whole of the South West peninsular, taking the example of the Lundy Island 'No Take Zone', the first marine no take zone in UK waters. Finding Sanctuary is aiming to find appropriate places in our coastal waters to establish Marine Protection Areas, a sort of oceanic nature reserve. What makes this project so exciting though, is that the MPAs are not being dictated by a handful of bearded greenies, but rather, every interest group connected to the marine ecosystem is being asked to help mould what is decided.
By looking at projects that have worked elsewhere around the world, the South West is leading the way in making effective marine conservation a reality, and that makes me rather proud.
New Zealand, as is so often the way with environmental issues, is leading the way in this watery field. They have proven not only the emotive, but also the economic benefits of protecting areas of the sea, creating sanctuaries for marine species where they can live and breed prolifically without interruption. And the key word in that sentence is breed. By putting one exceptionally rich portion of the sea figuratively to one side, means that the surrounding areas get the benefits of overspill.
Taking one particularly tasty species as an example - lobsters produce more baby lobsters when they get big and old. If you have removed all the really big monsters from their underwater crevices then you are left with the fumbling adolescents, who make a total fist of the whole sex thing, and so the population begins its nosedive.
Marine protected areas are not only good for the fishing industry, and, as with land-based practice, we should try and look at the seas for more than just our fish supper. By protecting areas from damaging practices it provides havens for wildlife to flourish and, when wildlife flourishes in one place, it very quickly gets too big for one area, and moves into the neighbourhood.
So a start has been made. Lots of people, from a variety of backgrounds and with vastly differing ambitions, are getting together to discuss how best to proceed.
They are armed with two years’ worth of information gathering; everything we know about our coastal waters has been mapped, and, with the aid of powerful computer modelling, it is possible to see the future consequences of havens before a line has been drawn or a buoy deployed.
And, in theory, with all the right people making those decisions, when the MPAs are mapped, and a feature of every marine GPS system on every vessel entering the South West's waters, everyone will be supportive of the sanctuaries.
As I said earlier: it is a massive undertaking, and is another example of how conservation is as much to do with managing people as it is managing wildlife.
If you would like to find out more about this ground-breaking project for the South West log onto the project's website at www.finding-sanctuary.org.
If you are interested in learning more about the life in our seas, brace yourself for this year's East Devon Coastal Festival in August. It promises to be the biggest and best ever! More information is available by contacting the Countryside Service on (01395) 517557.