A flora report of the area identifies the presence of thirty-three biologically important species, including the bee orchid which is listed as rare in Greater Manchester and found only at four other sites. With plans in motion to redevelop the site for a rather lacklustre huddle of apartments, the area has become one of interest to botanists and ecologists who speculate that drastic steps have been taken over the years to prevent the area from becoming listed as one of ecological importance, including what appears to be a kind of “scorched earth policy”. Diggers are sent in routinely and swallow up every bee orchid that befalls them. Despite this the site continues to thrive as a green space, in fact the measures taken to clear the site work to create an even more diverse landscape as the emergence of new, dormant life is borne from the ruins. There’s a brackish sand dune quality to the mounds of land formed by the forcible uprooting of mature trees. Over these old roots, new saplings have laid down their own. Moss and lichen carpet the corners of cracked paving along the periphery of the site, and all around Pomona is a defiant hive of life. Looking towards the docklands away from the city you’ll face a curtain of blue and green — sky and grass, a gateway to the eventual sea, and across the open stretch of land the smell of salt sweeps across the buddleia and blackberries. On the island the gap between wilderness and urbanity is constantly closing. Running through the island is a geometry that can only belong to a city: the man made canal, and that brick-forged spine of industrial Manchester — the railway. Yet on a summer’s afternoon the scrubland between these structures hums with life. Bushes thronged with grasshoppers and bees, birds swoop across the open fields dropping snail shells beneath them where they are sun-bleached until blue and brittle, and even the Irwell is mobbed with fish. Running along the opposite side of the river vivid graffiti clings to the walls of industrial units, and between the tram line and the canal lies a seam of scrap yards. The faint mechanical din and tinny FM radios rising from the yards are birdsong across the boondocks. It is not to say that Pomona is an idyll. Geography plays a significant, fundamental role in shaping outcomes in society and Pomona’s hazy borders render it seemingly lawless. Used needles and stolen handbags pepper the recesses within the great railway bridge, during the evenings dogs are trained for fights, and since the 19th century the Irwell has been used as an illegal dumping ground for chemical pollutants. It is the wilds here, for man and nature, but to love Pomona you do so warts and all. Owners, Peel Holdings have started work on the construction of flats and plan to rename the area Manchester Waters. •
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