Volunteer in silence research part.1

Today I volunteered a research project of Natuur en Mulieu Federatie Utrecht. In this Provence of the Netherlands there are several so called ‘Silence Area’s’ These nature reserves are open to the public. NMU wanted to know up to what level silence is respected in these area’s. Because of my interest in natural silence I was more than willing to participate in this project. For my recordings I regularly visit this kind of places which are more near to my home. From my own experience I know that silence in these forests are an illusion. This because your are allowed to enter some of them by car. Planes are flying over and of course the visitors to these places, and especially the dogs, are far from quiet.

I was asked to do my monitoring in a weekend. The days on which most of the visitors to these places make their visit. So when I left home today. Which was a beautiful sunny early spring afternoon. I was a bit prepared to bump into some other people. But I wasn’t prepared for the enormous amount of mountain-bikers I saw upon arriving. It was a bit hilarious. A moment I thought I got involved in a cycle-cross competition. An other sound that was very dominant were the almost continuously passing airplanes. So next week I will be there on a Saturday and see what the difference will be.