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How to win the green game. Few words on Poznań’s relationship with nature Maciej ski Moszyń TC TRAKT C
From the very beginning human beings have been creatures driven by the need to conquer. Over thousands of years they have increased their impact on the environment and used its resources. They did this at the age of tribal migration, when they moved from place to place in small or large groups, as well as when they started their first permanent settlements. What distinguishes people from millions of species living on Earth is one peculiar feature – they have always tried to adjust the surrounding to their own needs. The areas in which the natural environment has been particularly changed by people are historical cities. One thousand years ago, people started building a settlement on the Cathedral Island, which marked the beginning of the great process of development. Its characteristic feature was a continuing impact on the local nature on an unprecedented scale. To build the 10-metres-high and 2-kilometres-long ramparts, people needed an enormous amount of building materials, in particular wood from the forests surrounding the island. In the places where people cut down the
trees, new animal and plant species, which were typical for open areas, began to appear. The strategic decision to locate the settlement on a river island was key for the local natural environment. It was a pragmatic decision, as the river constituted a natural defence system. Moreover, it was also a travelling route and a source of food. What impeded the development of the settlement, however, was the unpredictability of the forces of nature. For centuries the inhabitants of the island have raised the ground level, built dykes and moats, and cut and burnt huge parts of forests in order to protect themselves from seasonal floods. In the middle of the 13th century, when Poznań received a city charter and was moved to the right bank of the Warta River, the human impact on the natural environment increased even more. Levelling out the area of some 21 hectares, where a town square and a network of streets was to be built, and its development BIT
