Shaftesbury 2030 - the BIG conversation;  Boosting biodiversity;  Food & farming; Well-being; Home that supports a more sustainable lifestyle?; event & web-links 

This event could be our biggest yet ... 

Thanks to Alex More at Shaftesbury School, we have all the space, technology and refreshments we need to host this significant event. Now it's time to invite people to join us in a conversation about 2030 across the Shaftesbury area. Please book your place and encourage your local friends, neighbours and colleagues to join you.  

• Come for the range of talks and films: the programme offers a wide choice. The varied sustainability topics link global issues to our local lifestyles.
• Come to catch a particular speaker or film. Find out why Jocelyn Riggins, marine ecologist, calls her talk Pooping for the Planet. Hear inspirational speaker, Rob Hopkins, talk about the power of asking What If? as we contemplate a more sustainable local future. Learn how your money matters. Many of our sessions could have been the single focus for an entire event!
• Come for a free meal: the caterers will provide for all tastes. Seating will be socially distanced around refectory tables.
• Come for the conversation and discussion. Compare impressions of what you've seen and heard. What could we choose to do differently by 2030? What questions do you want to be addressed in the panel discussion? Be encouraged and inspired by our local community. 
• Come away reassured that making sustainable lifestyle choices can be easier than you think. 

See the detailed programme and book through this link. 

Diverse news linked to biodiversity!

Education: Naturalist Mary Colwell referred to her long campaign for a Natural History GCSE when she spoke during the Reading the Land book festival last month. She has succeeded and the new course, launched this month at the Natural History Museum, will be available from September 2025.  

Planet Shaftesbury and Greener Gillingham volunteers weren't able to erect the cover for their shared stall at the Spring Countryside Show this weekend because of the strong winds. The displays highlighting local wildflowers, gardening for wildlife, providing hedgehog highways, trees and hedgerows, the community farm, and more, will appear on some other occasion.

Jonathan Thomson at Underhill Wood Nature Reserve (on the Wiltshire/Dorset border) hosts rewilding workshops and has made equivalent information available through a webinar produced with Rewilding Britain. Link to details below.

New, relatively large beech trees have been planted alongside Christy's Lane to mitigate the loss of trees during development of Lidl's car park and a section of cycleway. Thank you to all those whose persistence made this happen.

No Mow May! Plantlife ask gardeners to let the wildflowers in their lawn bloom to help 'bees, butterflies, wildlife and us'. At the end of the month the organisation oversees a survey 'Every flower counts'. There's much more about Plantlife's campaigns on their website.

Date for next Tree Festival? Our meeting this month recognised the success of last year's tree festival and agreed that it should be repeated. However, an annual event could overwhelm us and we suggested 2023 for the next one.  

Food & Farming

Farming Futures: Last month many people enjoyed the thought-provoking conversation between farmer and author Chris Smaje and ffinlo Costain, locally-based chief executive of the Food & Global Security Network and producer of a regenerative agriculture podcast (Farm Gate). Chris described the key role he thinks small farmers must play in a sustainable future. He continues to add to his thinking: last week he added a blog post about climate change to his website, link below. ffinlo also keeps busy, adding a podcast on The Politics of Protein to his website earlier this month, link below. 

Food Security:  ffinlo Costain is amongst the speakers at the Shaftesbury 2030: Choosing our future event next month when he'll provide insights to why reconnecting farming and nature are essential to maintaining peace and ensuring national resilience. Highly topical. Next week's conference of the Soil Association has a similar theme (details on our website).

Who feeds Shaftesbury? Do we need to know? In Frome the town council commissioned a study to explore the challenges and possibilities of their local food system. The recently produced report has lots of ideas that could be relevant to other small towns such as ours. Link below. 

Well-being: Active Hope Last month's newsletter highlighted this programme which is designed to inspire people to address their personal concerns about the issues of today, notably the climate emergency, in positive ways, and in turn enable them to act effectively at times when they might be feeling overwhelmed or too despondent to do so. Here's the missing link to more information.  Christina asked if others were interested in being part of a group, email her: strickland31@btinternet.com

Trying to live a greener lifestyle? Happy to talk about it? Increasing food and energy costs are leading more people to be considering growing food, tackling energy efficiency at home, and reducing travel where they can. Would you like to help? You don't need to be an expert, just someone who has made changes, even small ones, that support you in living more sustainably. Would you be willing to share your experiences? People who want to make changes really appreciate an opportunity to talk to someone who has been in the same position and isn't trying to sell them anything. Conversations like this happen during the Dorset Greener Homes event which will be held in early October with local support from Shaftesbury Town Council. Link to illustrative detail below. If you might join in as a host, please email Rachel at planetshaftesbury@gmail.com

Web links

Shaftesbury 2030: Choosing our future more details and booking link here. 

Rewilding workshop from Underhill Wood Nature Reserve: details and webinar link here.

Small Farm Future: Chris Smaje's blog site is here.

The Farm Gate Podcast: produced by ffinlo Costain. Website here.

Who Feeds Frome?  Report is here.

Dorset Greener Homes: website with listings based on last year's event is here  http://dorset.greenopenhomes.net/

The next monthly newsletter will appear around the end of the 3rd week of May.  If you have news to share please send it to planetshaftesbury@gmail.com