Rural Europe on the move English_chap7_13 | Page 40

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1. The outstanding beauty of the landscape: autumn in Lesachtal
The Art of
Being Different
SIMONE MATOUCH
I
first set foot in Lesachtal over 25 valley in the South-West of Austria. It
years ago. I was scared at that time, sits between 600 and 1400m above
not yet used to travelling to unknown sea level, a wild stretch of a canyon
places with unknown people. I was cut by the Gail river.
also fearful of the stories which
I was there as a biologist, still based
“We don’t need any
advice from outsiders.”
emotional about, particularly when
preceded my arrival, stories of the at university, to carry out a project on confronted with scientists who want to
outstanding beauty and wilderness of biodiversity and cultural landscapes. measure, evaluate and quantify it. “We
the landscape, but also of the narrow- The first meeting with the mayor was know best about the land here.” “we
mindedness of its inhabitants, -‘typical unfriendly and cold, not just because don’t need any advice from outsiders,”
stubborn mountain farmers’, - I was the place was sparsely heated. Nature “you university types will not impose
told. The Lesachtal is a high mountain conservation is a topic people get anything on us.”
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