A sign ‘Stiltegebied’ is placed, and the silence is over

2023-08-31 09:16:00

The Stille Kern was located in the middle of the forests of East Flevoland. It was a beautiful place. The Stille Kern was provided with paths, benches and a parking lot. It is now a popular spot for picnics and wedding photography. Didn’t see me there once more.

It is typical of Dutch nature management. Quiet areas are areas where only nature sounds might be heard. Don’t be, because that has to be experienced by people, that has to be enjoyed. A ‘Stiltegebied’ sign and a bench will be placed. And it’s done with the silence.

I used to think that some people ruined it for the good majority in nature. Now I know that some people are many. Sometimes I come to a quiet place, where I keep myself quiet. Soon there is loud talking, even louder telephone calls, music and it hardly ever takes long before a mowing, pruning, chopping or harvesting machine approaches.

Silence makes you listen differently

Silence is scarce. When I’m in a really quiet place, with no faint distant hums, no mowing machines, no murmurs, rustles and ticks, the silence seems to be audible. There are people who can lie awake because of the silence.

According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, you can indeed hear silence. At least, we perceive silence as more than the absence of sound. They recently wrote that in the scientific journal PNAS. If test subjects hear one constant tone in a dead quiet room, that tone seems to last longer than if they hear two different tones mixed together for the same amount of time. If the subjects heard a few short tones during a period of silence, the silent pauses between them were estimated to be longer than the same tones in a room with background noise. Silence, in short, changes the perception of sound.

Hopefully, site managers will honor their scarce quiet areas and not put a bench there with the sign: ‘Stiltegebied’.

Three times a week, biologist Koos Dijksterhuis writes regarding something that grows or blooms. Read his previous Nature Diaries here.

1693776699
#sign #Stiltegebied #silence

Leave a Replay