I RECENTLY took members of our Young Rangers Club on a visit to the Natural History Museum in London.

The sheer diversity of displays within their collections meant everyone who went on the visit had been inspired or enthused by something they had seen.

For most it was the dinosaurs or mammal collection, for some the fish and marine invertebrate section, some even found the building itself wonderful enough to comment upon. For me however, what really made me think, was actually nothing within the museum as such, but more the journey into London.

As cities go, there is actually a reasonable area of green open space available to the masses; however it made me realise how fortunate we are to have so much, and such diverse countryside right on our doorsteps.

Much of that in London, or most Cities for that matter is parkland, neatly mown, lined with pristine trees and organised flowerbeds. These are fantastic resources, and can indeed be wildlife havens in amongst the concrete and tarmac of a city.

But what we have is very different to this, while we do have areas of beautiful parkland; we also have diverse and wild areas such as woodland, marsh and heath.

Even on a grey, rainy day, the nature reserves of the district can offer a place to explore, or something to experience.

While most of the wildlife will be tucked away somewhere dry, the autumn colours of the woodlands will still be a sight to behold, or even the way the paths on the Rifle Range and Habberley become gushing river-like torrents during such downpours.

Days like this also give a rare opportunity to experience the reserves as much more peaceful places; with the majority of folk choosing to stay indoors it can feel like you have the place to yourself.

One of the other real joys of our local nature reserves is that on many of them you can really get that feeling of being in a wilderness, and of being miles away from the urban sprawl, most have areas that, no matter how hard you try you cannot see a building, and in some instances there are places rarely frequented by even the most regular of dog walkers.

Within this district we are surrounded by countryside, and even in the most built-up areas you are never more than a mile or two away from open space.

One of the benefits to having local nature reserves on your doorstep is that these are place that anybody can access and enjoy, in some cases we have access to more green space than people living deep in the countryside, as lots of the land in more rural locations is privately owned or with restricted public access. I think it is often easy to become complacent and forget how fortunate we really are.

Many of the reserves support extremely rare plants and animals, in some cases the habitat itself is rare or unusual, and I often feel quite privileged to have such diversity and rarity at our disposal.

By ADAM HAMILTON