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Cryptoforests: 1) Urban forests hidden from view 2) Urban fallows that might or might not be considered as forests 3) Gardens gone wild
Sizeable piece of marginally tended land. It is owned by a building company (?) who send in the lawn-mower-man every year, but trees are starting to appear.
A cryptic view on Westraven's true crypto-forest. This is an old gas-holder field left to fallow for at least 5 years, it is well concealed and enclosed with water and fencing, but large and home to a colony of pheasants, here to stay.
This crypto forest is long (several hundred meters) but narrow (40 meters?) treeline next to the A2 motorway. It is planted but untamed, exciting to walk especially because it hides a few treasures of human impact.
The 'Anatole France Forest' has grown in the shadow of refused planning permissions for 30 years. Rumour has it that it was once guarded by an aged misanthrope who packed a shotgun and kept a vicious guard dog next to his side. Now it has new owners but the owls are still there. There is no legal way to enter it.
A fallowed Hoograven field with the first trees appearing, best seen from across the canal.
A micro crypto forest along the railwaytrack in a side street of the Amsterdamsestraatweg, enough blackberries (the staple-crop of all wild nature in Utrecht) to attract and satisfy ten edible city art projects. Tree included.
The Goohoogle map image (the first one) is 5 years old, the others are recent (July 2010). This is a triangular plot, claimed for a property development but no building activity seems forthcoming, the resulting crypto-forest has well-maintained trails; a nice feral park along the canal.
A feral garden overgrowing a house on the the Amsterdamsestraatweg; a crypto-cryptic-forest?
The former bread factory is surrounded by a huge plot but will probably not be given the time to grow beyond first weeds. A space to watch.
Archetypical cryptoforest on the Zeedijk: a narrow fenced-in back plot of no use to anyone. The first 2 meters are paved, after that the forest.
The first cryptoforest on the 'Kop van Lombok', land is claimed for building but ten years delay would be appreciated.
A smaller fallowed plot on the 'Kop van Lombok' but remarkable for its 'zones' containing high grasses, savannah-style grasses, dense tree-shrub constellations. Deep trails.
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