Tree planting at Greengrow, Jan 2012

On a cold but sunny Saturday in January we set off for Greengrow for their annual treeplanting day.

Greengrow is a Grow your Own community vegetable and fruit growing project based at Illketshall St Andrew (between Beccles and Bungay). It’s for people who want to learn how to grow food sustainably or want to do so with others.

As soon as we arrived the children formed a pack and were off, which is so nice to see and gives us mums and dads a break! On the day, we were planting pear trees and you soon fell into a comfortable rhythm: dig the hole, put in some muck mix, put tree in, add earth, cover in newspaper, attach to stake, cover with Hessian sack, et voila! Such an earthy heart warming feeling planting trees and in such nice company.

There are a lot of exciting things happening at Greengrow this year. They have had two grants – one for a reservoir and rainwater/irrigation system and a second for a long greenhouse against the barn with a vegetable packing and storage area inside.

Sliding down the bales at Greengrow

As we were happily chatting and digging away, the children were gradually becoming unrecognisable through the layers of mud they had become coated with. I looked up to find my little Dan standing next to me saying “mummy i’m freezing!”. A good bowl of hot soup soon put the warmth back into us all and the kids were playing badminton over the fence and sliding down the straw bales.

If you didn’t make it to the planting day and would like to find out more or get involved, Greengrow have regular volunteer days. As I’ve reported above, there are lots of exciting projects to get involved with this year.

Checkout Grow your Own on Facebook for up to date info.

If you’re ever feeling down plant a seed in the ground!!

Whether you sew by hand or on a machine, make quilts or kites, repair socks or don’t know where to start come and receive advice and inspiration. We can get creative all together!

Next session on Sunday 11th March 3.30pm

Spread the word!

For more information contact Eloise on 01986 788785

The room upstairs at Bungay Library was packed for our second Plants for Life event yesterday (Sunday). This was a relaxed conversation on Growing Organic Herbs between organic and biodynamic herb grower, David Wrenn of Orchard End Organics in Kirstead and Mark Watson, the events’ organiser. Mark writes:

David began by passing around several of his extremely healthy herbs so people could rub and smell the leaves. One of these was the graceful Balm of Gilead (Cedronella tryphylla), a native of the Canary Islands in the mint family. A tea from this highly aromatic plant helps to clear blocked sinuses and chests. And tastes really good.

Speaking about about the soil as a living organism, David explained that the word organic has only begun to be employed in recent decades because of the increase in artificial pesticide and fertiliser use. He grew up on a farm in Dorset in the 1970s where his father used only natural methods.

We learned how if you want to grow plants on a small scale, it’s best not to dig too much in established growing areas because of the web of life under the ground – from the networks of beneficial mycorrhizal fungi to earthworms. And also to try things out, see what works and doesn’t, get our hands into the soil, feel our way round with the plants and to use our instincts.

For an inspiring introduction to the no-dig system take a look at The One Straw Revolution by the late Japanese natural farmer, philosopher and no-digger, Masanobu Fukuoka.

The audience joined in after David’s introduction to ask his advice on everything from how to grow basil successfully (don’t put it outside in April, wait until Summer is really here, and better still keep it on your warmest, sunniest window and only water in the mornings, the roots don‘t respond well to watering at night) to the virtues of keeping an aloe vera plant in the kitchen (instant relief for minor burns and cuts).

Of the many invaluable hints and tips David shared with us yesterday, one particular image remains uppermost in my mind: that of the roots of plants following the casts made by earthworms as they work their way through the soil. If the whole world took this ‘organic’ image to heart, and worked with the land with nature in mind, I’m sure we’d be a healthier, happier species.

David Wrenn runs Orchard End Organics in Kirstead. Click here for his website and contact details.

Next month (Sunday 18 March at 3pm) we welcome medical herbalist Dan Wheals who’ll be showing us how to Adopt-a-Herb. So do come along. These monthly Plants for Life talks are open to everyone. There is no need to book and entrance is free, though donations are gladly accepted.

Mark Watson co-ordinates Sustainable Bungay’s Plants for Life Talks, Walks and Workshops 2012 and this year’s Plant Medicine Bed in Bungay Library Courtyard Garden

For all enquiries Tel: 01502 722419 or email markintransition@hotmail.co.uk

Photos: David talks about organic and biodynamic herb growing; listening to a question from the audience (CDC)

After the recent cold spell it was a huge relief to see the bees flying today. There was an audible buzz as I approached the hive and I have to admit all thoughts of letting the children help me or use the stethoscope for practice quickly disappeared. The bees were bringing bright yet deep orange pollen in, which may be from snowdrops. Hefting the hive it felt quite light, so it was good timing to feed them some fondant candy.

After reading the ingredients list on pre-made bakers fondant I decided to have a go at making some myself. I followed the basic recipe and quantities given by the barefoot beekeeper:

1kg granulated sugar

250ml water

Heat until sugar dissolves then boil until thermometer reaches about 114 degrees C (soft ball), cool and then intermittently whisk with a handheld electric or hand whisk, it gradually turns opaque. Pour into containers just before it sets.

All went well and I proudly took my offering to the bees, only to have a moment of self doubt about how to present it to them. I had originally assumed I would turn it upside-down over the hole in the crown board. But as I stood there images of bees getting swamped by a slowly slumping avalanche of white stickiness invaded my mind. I ended up placing it the right way up in the eke. I watched one intrepid bee sampling it from the surface and to my relief it didn’t get stuck or sucked in. In fact it flew off as I replaced the lid. I wonder if it will round-dance the location to it’s sisters in the hive?

And we’d also love your company at the placing of the commemorative plaque in the Library Community Garden beforehand – at 2.30pm.

Looking forward to seeing you there.
Mark Watson

Happy Mondays with the Community Kitchen is always a celebration of the best local and seasonal ingredients: the room will be decorated; and the welcome warm. But it will also offer opportunities for volunteers to build their kitchen confidence, learn about local suppliers and discover new recipes and ideas.

Our aim is to highlight what’s growing in and around Bungay in gardens and on farms, show how local, seasonal eating is not only healthy, enjoyable, good for the local economy and environmentally sound but also exciting and surprising.

In time we hope there will be a Happy Monday every week, but at the moment our aim is a monthly meal. If you’d like to get involved, perhaps supplying ingredients from your garden to the kitchen, cooking, suggesting recipes or helping meet and greet please do contact us.

When: February 20th, 6:45 for 7pm
Where: Bungay Community Centre, Upper Olland Street
Cost: £5 for 2 courses
Menu: You can view the January menu here (as soon as the Feb’ menu is confirmed we’ll post it too)

Save Bungay Library – what happens next..?

The good news is that Bungay Library is secure for the next year and there is a great team working to ensure it stays that way for many years to come.

The bad news is that the future reach and quality of the county-wide service remains uncertain. Suffolk County Council have incorporated an Industrial Provident Society (IPS) to run the library service independently; the hope appears to be that this new arms-length organisation will be able to run the libraries more cheaply, more efficiently and with less bureaucracy and more accountability than was possible when the service was run directly by the County Council. But Bungay is very lucky that Sylvia Knights, who campaigned so hard to save Bungay Library, has been co-opted onto the first Board of the new IPS – she’ll be joining a committed group from across Suffolk with a great breadth of experience running public and private sector organisations (including libraries). If it can be made to work they will make it work. Well done Sylvia, and thank you for putting in so much time and effort – it really is appreciated.

Here in Bungay a cross-community library working group formed early last year, they’ve spent months developing plans that should ensure we have a library in Bungay for many years to come. Initially Suffolk County Council (SCC) had suggested that Bungay residents would have to find most if not all of the library running costs but by the end of 2011 (and after lots of active campaigning as well as quiet negotiating) SCC reduced the amount local communities would have to find to 5% of total running costs. This amounts to a around £1500 in the case of Bungay library – still a big chunk of money in difficult times, but a better position than we were in last February when it looked like the library would close for good.

This year Bungay library turns 20 and the Library Working Group are planning a series of events – they will need our ongoing support and we’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile this Sunday we’ll be unveiling a hand carved plaque commemorating the effort that went into creating the Library Courtyard Garden – it’ll happen at 2:30, do please join us and feel free to stay for a garden event afterwards (see below for details). JOSIAH MELDRUM

Sunday 19th: Plants for Life

Growing Organic Herbs – Sunday 19th February, 3pm – with David Wrenn plus mounting Commemorative Plaque, 2.30pm

This is the second of our monthly (medicine) Plants for Life series of talks, walks and workshops in 2012, running in conjunction with the Plant Medicine Bed at Bungay Library. This month we’ll be in conversation with David Wrenn of Orchard End Organics – everything you ever wanted to know about growing and tending Organic herbs that we can fit into an hour’s conversation!

Monday 20th: Happy Monday with the Community Kitchen

Happy Mondays with the Community Kitchen is a celebration of the best local and seasonal ingredients. But it will also offer opportunities for volunteers to build their kitchen confidence, learn about local suppliers and discover new recipes and ideas. We cook for 40 or 50 people once a month, this time we’re serving pancakes filled with leeks and mushrooms in a creamy white wine sauce, three winter salads with rhubarb cobbler for pudding.

You can find out more about Happy Mondays (and book your place) here

Tuesday 21st: Green Drinks

Green Drinks will make a welcome return on Tuesday after a break over Christmas. It’ll will follow the usual relaxed format and we’re inviting expert conversationalists who can answer our questions about a specific subject, or steer our discussions along fruitful paths.

The first evening of the New Year will focus on sharing as a practical way of better using resources, building stronger communities and saving money. Sophie Garrett, founder of Yours to Share, will talk to us about the benefits of co-working, car sharing, land sharing and other forms of ‘fractional’ ownership.

Please do join us (7:30pm, Green Dragon), you can find out more about the evening here

Everyone laughed and went outside into the courtyard garden that in spite of the winter still had 12 vibrant medicine herbs amongst the fruit trees and bushes and ghosts of flowers past: sage, thyme, marigold, parsley, fennel . . .

Writing now it’s hard to recall exactly what I said in the 40 minutes that followed, because as you go about Standing Up to Speak you realise that set and setting are everything, the people in front of you are everything, and the words come tumbling out in a completely different order than you expect.

I imagine I am going to give a neatly ordered talk, but plants and speaking are spontaneous right-hemisphere things. You write ideas and concepts in left-hemisphere lines in your blue notebook, and then you look at the audience and those words start inventing loops and connections you hadn’t thought of. You find yourself swinging far and wide from those linear concepts, running with a topic in directions you had no idea were there. You find yourself getting up and dancing and making people laugh. And you have to go with that. Because it’s not just you speaking and this is the initiating talk in the Plants for Life series Mark has organised for 2012.

So in this post I am giving just a part of what I remember and letting it go where it wants to go.I wanted to start with a flower that was appearing in January and on our way to the Library we found a butterburr on the road to Brampton – a composite flower, known as winter heliotrope to gardeners, related to the native larger butterburr (known as petasites to herbalists). So that was the defining plant, a member of the sunflower family, frequently used as a natural pain killer and anti-allergen. I passed it around so everyone could smell its heavenly vanilla scent.

How do you approach a flower? I asked the circle. Colour, scent, shape, touch, taste we all agreed. With our memory and imagination, poetry and song. How do you approach your day? Ah, that’s harder. We think about our day. We drive down the country road and we don’t see the flower standing there on a cold January day, clocking the pathway of the sun. We are on the one-way fast track, staring dead-ahead. When you stop you realise you have to slow down and look all around. Notice this earth we are on for such a short while, what time we are in.

Right now we are in root time, coming up to emergence next month with the snowdrops and aconites. We’re still in winter, on the edge of hibernation, underneath the soil, in the dark, storing up our energies for the bursting out of spring.

What are the root dishes on our table? Swede, parsnip, carrot, turnip, beetroot, potato, Jerusalem artichoke. What are the root tincture and teas on our medicine shelves? Angelica, burdock, elecampane, horseradish, liquorice. All herbs for resilience, the sweet, the bitter and the pungent. I held up a stringy root many people recognise (nettle), and a root most people don’t.

Here we are I said, in root time in sugar beet country. In January the trucks of East Anglia thunder towards the sugar refineries of Cantley and Bury, ferrying these wurzels torn up from the muddy fields. They stand waiting in vast piles by the road. We don’t notice them as we speed by. We are barely aware the sugar that goes into our tea and marmalade comes from these pale giants, or anything about the industry that turns these roots into the white stuff that artificially sweetens our indoor lives.

But to connect with the plants is to connect with the rhythm of the year, to locate yourself in time and space. It is to connect with the neighbourhood you find yourself in and discover, that even though your world has apparently shrunk because of economics and peak oil, it has in fact grown hugely. It has by your attention to detail, brought memory, fragrance, belonging back into your life, as you notice the limes in the churchyard, the sage in the library garden, the butterburr along the highway. Each plant a small universe with its own story to tell, its own medicine to bequeath.

You can’t make these connections with your straight mind, you have to do it with your wiggly mind that runs along the lines of the rivers and clouds, along the shapes of shorelines and roots and branches. You have to use your imagination to see the invisible underground systems of plants and the connections all the mycorrhizal fungi make. Right now, in root time, you have to go into the depths of yourself and connect with the plans and maps and dreams for the future you hold in store, that will one day burst through into the light of day, come what may.

Once you are rooted in time and space, in synch with the living systems, you can look at the bigger picture, you can be aware of your every encounter with all its ramifications. Where you don’t want to be in a time of unravelling is whirling about in your mind only thinking in straight lines, listening to the radio in the car, in air-conditioned 24/7 time. You need to make different connections. Approach the world with all your senses. Stop and look around. Get up out of your comfortable chair on a cold day. See things for yourself.

It’s a wiggly world out there with its own beautiful sun-based logic. In this earth-bound time and space the terror that prevents us from seeing what is happening to the planet and ourselves can be evaluated and acted on. You have to use your heart to see like this and not hold on to a fixed world view, you have to get up and shimmy and let those stiff thoughts and habits break up and decrystallise, so you can think and feel about life in a different way, come up with new twists and solutions.

There is one root we have in England that gleefully occupies every space and can give us all a hand in this endeavour: it was the main plant of the talk and is a peerless medicine for this crossover moment, from root time to emergence. Another member of the sunflower family, the Dandelion. This resilient “weed”, loved by bees, hated by gardeners, contains in its roots, leaves and flowers all the bitter qualities of heart medicine. It gives us minerals for our bones and helps break up the stiffness we inherit from living in a rigid and heartless society, striking the strange attitudes of snooty politicians and fashion models. Detoxes our system, cools our inflamed and creaky joints. We ended the afternoon with dandelion and burdock tea. Two of the most powerful and most common medicine roots in the realm. Free for the taking.

This post can’t do the things that speaking can. Because it misses a vital ingredient. No matter how smart and entertaining the words, how lovely the images, the warmth and vibrancy of people and the physical world are what really matter. Without them we go nowhere. Without these meetings there is no material, no context for anything we write.

We are, like the roadside flower, here for a short time. We have to value our human form, this wiggly mind, that allows us to comprehend this earth and know it for the extraordinary experience it is. We have to know what part we are destined to play in the future as a people. The plants have been with us all our lives, they have been here from the beginning of time when the earth grew her first spring-green coat. They are our link to her and to all our ancestors. We need, right now, to connect with them, because only with strong roots in this earth, can we hold fast in the winds of change that lie before us. This emergence we call Transition.

Photos by Mark Watson and Elinor McDowall: poster for Mark’s Plants for Life talks, walks and workshops, 2012; CDC standing up to speak; tools of the trade; anyone know this root? (sugar beet); dandelion clocks in real time; Gemma and Kate checking out resilient herbs; Nick, organizer of the Bungay Library Community Garden.

Bungay Comunity Bees (BCB) has captured the imaginations of many this year. Several other Community Beekeeping groups have begun and we have become known to inspiring organisations such as The Natural Beekeeping Trust, Friends of the Bees (Phil Chandler ‘The Barefoot Beekeeper’), Bees for Development, The Bumblebee Conservation Trust and Buglife, whilst continuing to strengthen our links with the Soil Association and Sustain. The way in which we straddle the worlds of Beekeeping and Community Transition sets us apart from many other Beekeeping groups and is a major strength.

We grew rapidly in numbers and ideas this year. Building upon our burgeoning awareness of the greater picture concerning bees and the many challenges they face, we have formed four project strands:

 Beekeeping; bees in hives and training others to become beekeepers/guardians

 Education and Outreach; hosting Bungay Beehive Day, talking to interest groups, schools and others

 Hives; making top bar hives and exploring different designs with sustainability in mind

 Plants for Bees; looking at ways to preserve and promote bee-friendly spaces and gardens

Our website http://www.sustainablebungay.com/bungay-community-bees-2/ is continually changing to reflect the needs of our group. In addition to a complete library of BCB posts we have sub-category archives specific to each strand. There is an electronic membership form and several links to interesting organisations and websites. We are currently working on some resource pages. If you have any ideas you would like to see implemented please contact us via the form on the BCB page, bees@sustainablebungay.com or 01986 948154.

Beekeeping

Co-ordinated by Elinor McDowall

2011: We have had a mixed year in terms of colonies in hives. Unfortunately we lost a few colonies for a variety of reasons including cold temperatures, varroa, injured queens and the unexplained evacuation of a hive. However, we do have an extremely strong colony as the winter turns and I hope to build our numbers up this year. Especially as we now have honey extracting equipment and jars!

Our first horizontal Top Bar Hive (hTBH) saw service as home to a swarm and they built some beautiful comb in it. That is, after we removed a very large and majestic (native) hornet and her delicate paper nest…

The Natural Beekeeping Conference gave Eloise and I plenty of food for thought about beekeeping principles and methods, we have shared some of these in a post on the website.

Plans for 2012: We currently have two beekeepers, with four apiary sites and more offered should we need them. Another two members will be trained with Waveney Beekeepers Group and we would like to have between four and eight hives by the end of the summer.

It would be good to build our colonies up early to allow us to access any excess honey stores!

Plants for Bees

Co-ordinated by Rose Titchener.

2011: We have entered into the ‘River of Flowers’ world by sowing a wildflower meadow with Keith and Jeannie Parker at the Flixton apiary site. We will develop this in the future.

Our pilot project with the Three Willows Garden Centre in Bungay has taken off. Although not quite finished, there is a display stand highlighting bees and bee-friendly plants backed up by BCB ‘bee-friendly’ stickers indicating appropriate plants.

Some of us attended the Linking Landscapes event hosted by the Suffolk Naturalists, which was full of great ideas from some great organisations – encouraging us to think big yet again.

Plans for 2012: We are in the process of designing a poster and leaflet to encourage bee-friendly practices.

We will continue communicating with growers, retailers and gardeners. There are several farmers we know of who are using some really interesting techniques in both organic and conventional agriculture that we would like to know more about.

The wildflower meadow and pond will be further developed and we will begin monitoring species of plants and bees/insects at our Flixton apiary.

Once again there will be ‘walks’ led by plant and bee enthusiasts, a chance to learn more about, but more importantly to step back and appreciate what is. From there one can think about how to optimise the spaces around each of us.

Education and Outreach

Co-ordinated by Gemma Parker.

2011: Those that joined us at the end of July already know what a success Bungay Beehive Day was. Held in a marquee on Castle Meadow we had various displays about plants, honeybees, bumblebees and hives. The observation hive (thanks to Bob and Sally Spruce of WBG) was fascinating, as were the slides and activities provided by the Iceni Microscopy Group. Other contributors came from the Natural Beekeeping Trust, the River of Flowers project and our own BCB (plants, healing honey, bumblebees) with a hugely popular ‘bees and flowers’ walk.

We also spent a very busy week with Bungay Primary School (read the blog post) and spoke to several local interest groups.

Plans for 2012: Look out for Bungay Beehive 2012 on July 15th! We shall shortly be asking if anyone wishes to participate, and if so, in what capacity. Let us know if you would like to be involved in any way.

We have bookings to speak to several groups throughout the year, including to the Suffolk Wildlife Trust on March 19th (see diary dates).

Hives

Co-ordinated by Mike Southern.

2011: Mike built two hTBH’s for us which we hope to get back into service this year. He is currently in the process of building another two. Ever curious he has been researching other hive types using natural comb as well.

Plans for 2012: Mike did a wonderful job of organising an (incredibly popular) hTBH building course which has unfortunately had to be cancelled due to our partner organisation being unable to continue. We are currently looking at alternative options. In the meantime Mike is considering a step by step instructional guide to complement his existing blog and photographs.

Creating

We have recently had a couple of fun meetings when we used our honey to make honey buns (recipe here) and our wax to make a yarrow salve (blog post here).

Publicity, conferences and networking

Wow! This year we seem to have got everywhere in one way or another; we have presented at a Soil Association Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) conference, been interviewed alongside UEA Beekeepers and Gods Acre Beekeepers for the British Beekeepers Association News (not yet published), had a double page spread in the EADT, several appearances in the Bungay and Beccles Journal and an interview on Radio Suffolk. We have also appeared in ‘A Growing Trade’ by Sustain (downloadable here) and in the new Transition book ‘The Transition Companion’ in addition to getting mentioned in Transition News and on the Transition Show (Radio Stroud) – thanks Mark!

And then there are the many other ‘talks’ our members have given to various groups and friends, I’m sure at the very least most of you will have mentioned us to someone else… I know somebody even mentioned BCB whilst chatting at the worldwide gathering of beekeepers (Apimondia 2011) in Argentina (and the best bit is they had already heard of us!).

Several of us have attended various other conferences (self funded), including The Natural Beekeeping Conference, Linking Landscapes Conference and Transition Camp.

Dates for your Diary 2012:

BCB Meetings:

February 12th 14.30, Old Rectory, Flixton – Making Bug Hotels with Eloise

April 15th 14.30, Old Rectory, Flixton – Planting & Sowing with Rose

June 10th (time yet to be arranged) – Walk/Talk at High Ash Farm, Caister with Chris Skinner

August 19th 14.30, Old Rectory, Flixton – Identifying plants and bees, survey our apiary site

October 14th 14.30, Old Rectory, Flixton – Natural Beekeeping Conference Review with Elinor

December 9th 14.30, Earsham or Flixton – Making & Creating for Christmas

Plants for Bees and the other strands are likely to be holding various extra events/meetings/work days

Other Stuff:

‘Queen of the sun’ is a new, highly recommended film about bees, to be held at the Waveney Beekeepers headquarters in Barsham, date yet to be confirmed.

March 12th – BCB talking to Suffolk Wildlife Trust, 19.30 Bungay Community Centre

July 15th – Bungay Beehive Day

July 29th – stall at Weston Country Fair, 10.30 – 6.00, volunteers VERY welcome!

August 10th-12th – Natural Beekeeping Conference, West Sussex

Big Thank-you’s !!

So many people have enabled BCB to step beyond the original plan this year, here are some of them:

*Adnams Charity: funded our honey extractor and jars

*Beechwood Bees: once again they donated beekeeping equipment, bees and advice

*Bungay Rainbow Store: gave fun day proceeds to fund Hives and Plants for Bees

*Every single member: nothing could happen without you!

*Volunteers: your hearts and souls (and time) are very much appreciated

*Waveney Beekeepers Group: always kind, supportive, informative and interested in our efforts… As members of BCB you are welcome to their meetings, a diary can be found on their website.

Remember, BCB benefits in many ways from being a community group. Not least from the varying interests and skills of our members. If you have any ideas you think the group could take on please let the rest of us know!

bees@sustainablebungay.com

www.sustainablebungay.com/bungay-community-bees-2/

01986 948154

The Suffolk Naturalists’Society hosted the Linking Landscapes conference in Autumn 2011. The overriding theme was one of response to loss of insects and other wildlife. This loss has resulted from a reduction of habitat and of links between habitats, which then impacts upon plants, insects, birds, mammals…us…

Some responses are large scale and ambitious – they need to be when one is looking at geographical systems – but they also create a framework within which we can all work on a more local scale.

All the speakers were thoroughly engaging and the topics they covered extensive. Rather than go into them in depth I have tried to highlight some key points. Food for thought.

(I also have to admit to missing the first two speakers due to having locked myself out of my house and needing a locksmith before setting out…sorry)

RSPB Futurescapes: Aidan Lonergan
http://www.rspb.org.uk/futurescapes/

* ‘we are losing nature constantly….living beyond our environmental limits’
* We know that biodiversity is greater in larger areas
* We know that the presence of key species is more likely in larger areas
* We know that biodiversity correlates with habitat variety
* Aim to increase the quality and quantity of biodiversity in protected areas
* Consider the use of wildlife corridors or stepping stones as well
* What are the most important areas to target?
* What is the government doing and how can it work with NGO’s effectively?
* How do we get environmental work mainstreamed (and funded)? – it is essential after all, not just ‘nice’
* How to engage with local people, those who have the area ‘etched on their souls’?

Richard Mabey (who I always think speaks so eloquently about the perils of monoculture or lack of diversity)

* Boundaries are not defined in nature but by us and our expectations of an area
* Using nature ‘reserves’ turns them into ‘reservations’, this creates an artificial boundary and is detrimental to our perception of nature. It gives licence to destroy habitats in favour of ‘development’.
* Be aware of trading species, protecting one may adversely affect another through habitat and ecosystem alteration
* In the USA several large scale projects connecting landscpes are underway, see this one in Washington
* A recent Government Bill allows communities to put forward plans for developing their area, as long as it doesn’t interfere with housing or other ‘essential developments’!

Chris Baines ‘Making nature work for people’

* CATS!!! (and that isn’t said in a positive way..)
* How to reintegrate the environment and us, needs to be as dramatic as the disintegration of the last 50 years
* Conservation needs to make sense to agriculture
* In the UK 90% of us live urban lifestyles
* Green spaces act as breathing spaces, both physiologically and psychologically
* Trees are vital to urban landscapes, shelter from them can reduce heating and cooling of buildings by 10%, they slow the rate of rainfall to the ground, help with air pollution, and provide an excellent base for an ecosystem, they protect against solar radiation and decrease the risk of skin cancer
* If managed well the high speed train link could provide an opportunity for a ‘wildlife corridor’. Connecting urban and rural.
* Need to look at whole systems; the water system needs more water retentive areas upstream, wet woods and meadows instead of overgrazing and intensive farming.

Buglife species-scape: Matt Shardlow
Buglife

* The B-Lines project in conjunction with the co-operative group is creating wildflower rich corridors across Britain (currently being piloted in Yorkshire). Aim for two lines in each county, each at least field width wide (nesting habitats, lacking in smaller areas such as hedges).
* 3,000,000 ha of flower rich grassland has been lost since WWII, only 100,000 ha remain. 0.3% (6,500 ha) has been recreated with agri-environment schemes. B-Lines could create 150,700 ha at 2.5% of the agri-environment budget (I think I have that right..)

So: we need to create ‘wildlife reserves’, but we also need to expand upon this, to link larger areas together more formally and also to integrate with our local environment. NGO’s, farmers, the public (us) and the government all need to find a way of working together as a necessity not a nicety.