'God created heaven and earth, and the Dutch created Holland'

Heated political discussion with the bus driver about the future of this landscape.




Land art: Polderland of Love and Fire


Coffee on the bus...






Discussing reflections and sense impressions on the train back to Utrecht.


I think the most remarkable thing that happened today was the greeting we received before our presentation at the Zuiderzeeland Regional Water Authority; each of the four presenters made their way around the room to personally shake our hands and introduce themselves. They were so eager and welcoming, I was impressed. We were given a further introduction to the way water works in the landscape here, and how it is regulated and by whom. I must say I am still a bit confused about what exactly is going on under ground here, no matter how many diagrams I draw for myself. There is so much rising and falling of the land and the water in tandem, and changing and manipulating of it all. Maybe I'm just not used to such control over the land and such planning, and more accustomed to a measure of chaos in my environment.

We had an extensive bus tour today, and even were served coffee by our bus driver from the coffee machine on the bus! What a country, I love this place. We drove by Oostvardesvold, a sort of northern savannah filled with wild horses, red deer, and wild cattle that have no natural predators and are therefore taking over the landscape. The government has planned to build a corridor for them to connect their population to other herds in Germany and beyond, which calls for removing existing agriculture on some of the most fertile farm land in the country. Of course farmers protest this, as their livelihood will be taken away at the expense of animals that were never there to begin with, as that particular land used to be 5 meters under the sea. Of course, this brings up the question that always comes up with restoration, which is to what time period do we return our lost landscapes to? There is no right or easy answer. Any chosen solution speaks more to a cultural value and thus inherently human idea of landscape more than any true concept of the wild. Perhaps the problem lies, once again, in our removal of ourselves from larger natural systems; if we are not used to functioning in the natural world and working within natural systems that impose limits on us, how can we design ourselves into our own images of the landscape? We have to re-imagine our place in the 'natural' environment in a way that can be inclusive of a human way of life. Regardless of any of this, I am amazed that this country prioritizes animals and an ecosystem enough to remove a valuable economic asset and completely recreate a wild landscape, with a several hundred meter wide land bridge crossing one of its major highways to boot. Did I say that I love this country?