Appreciating trees and hedges with illustrated talks, a guided walk, and seasonal planting opportunities; spread the word on sustainable living; updates from future-oriented projects of the Town Council, Shaftesbury School & Dorset's climate action network; weblinks to connect with national resources and campaigns |
|
|
As tree planting projects get under way, our meetings in November and December both feature talks organised by Shaftesbury Tree Group which is also launching a 'Hedge School'. What's the Hedge School? Close observation of nature is enriching and necessary to ensure that any interventions we make are beneficial for wildlife. We'll observe and learn about Shaftesbury's hedges of all ages, relict field hedges, or the clue of a few old trees standing in line like sentinels, and boundary hedges, parish or county, often on banks with ditches. Hedge walks with local experts and practitioners will look at what surrounding farmers/landholders are doing by thickening up their hedges, making connecting corridors for wildlife etc. Together we will learn why garden hedges are usually better for wildlife than fences, how we can manage them to benefit birds for nesting and feeding, blossom for insects/pollinators (dormice) and hedgerow bottoms for small mammals, and especially, hedgehogs. We'll find out about the best species to plant and manage to capture pollution from vehicles, to deflect and baffle wind and absorb noise. Discover the location of the singing hedges and how to create more of them; how to age hedges and identify the plants and creatures that depend on them. Disseminate information on when and how to cut/manage them… The first hedge walk is amongst the events listed below, more details of all these are on the website. |
|
|
Thursday 17th November, 7.30pm, Shaftesbury Town Hall. Julian Hight, author and photographer, is the guest speaker for this monthly meeting. His talk Britain’s Ancient Forest - Legacy and Lore explores the story of Britain’s ancient forest told through its remaining ancient trees and surviving customs – living links to our rich history – accompanied by specially written forest music and archive photography. One to bring your friends to! Sunday 20th November, 11am. Meet at the war memorial on Park Walk for a 1-hour guided Hedge Walk looking at the range of hedges we have in town, their history and the benefits they bring practically, aesthetically and for wildlife. Led by Joe Hashman. This is the first Hedge School event. Saturday 26th November, 10am. Meet at Wardour Primary School SP3 6RF to join in planting new woodland adding to more than 500 trees that have already been planted to create Harfish Wood. Families welcome. Sunday 4th December, 10.30am. This is year 3 of the 5-year plan for enhancing Shaftesbury's trees and hedgerows and today, weather permitting, planting begins at Wincombe Rec. Volunteers are needed to help with planting 60 tree saplings in the fenced-off area there. Please bring a spade and gloves and wear stout shoes. Further areas and verges to be scheduled for planting include Ash Close play area, Cockram's Field, Castle Hill Close play area, Enmore Green Community Field, and Grosvenor Road bank on north side. To be invited to one or more of these sessions email volunteer offers to birchbark@btinternet.com Thursday 8th December, 7.30pm Shaftesbury Town Hall. Planet Shaftesbury's pre-Christmas gathering with cider apple expert Liz Copas. Her illustrated talk Lost Orchards of Dorset, including ancient customs and old apple varieties, will set the scene for our informal networking ... and cider sampling. |
|
|
Sustainable Living: Our website now includes suggestions for those who ask: What can I do? Most of us are reluctant to set ourselves up as experts because everyone's circumstances are different. However, there is scope for additional local information to be assembled and made accessible to people who seek help. If you want to pull information together to add to our website, or if you'd like to make sure that more local information is promoted through the website of Sustainable Dorset (which is about to be upgraded), please email Rachel c/o planetshaftesbury@gmail.com Shaftesbury Library hosted our autumn display, Cost of living: What can I do and save the planet too?, including a drop-in advice session accompanied by children's activities on the final Saturday. They subsequently offered to host similar advice sessions on a regular basis. We don't have the capacity yet, but it's a possibility for next year ... as long as the library has the capacity to accommodate us when people want it. Dorset Council is conducting a consultation on its plans for the Library Service: participate here https://www.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/lets-talk-libraries-consultation. |
|
|
Shaftesbury Town Council has a Sustainable Communities Action Plan which was agreed some months after their declaration of a Climate Emergency in 2019. Subsequent work lost momentum during the pandemic and a change in staff. At our October meeting a small group volunteered to provide feedback on the plan to the town clerk, Brie Logan. It was clear that the plan needs a refresh and calls for more attention to community engagement so that the council can show some leadership but, nonetheless, it provides a start point. Brie is now launching an initiative to update and re-energise a Sustainable Shaftesbury plan. The first meeting of an informal working group takes place later this month. Lucy Young, one of those invited, is open to receiving ideas that you'd like fed into this meeting, contact her by email at LYoung@wwf.org.uk |
|
|
Shaftesbury School is hosting students from across the Sherborne Area Schools Trust for a number of future-oriented study days across this academic year. A small team of volunteers from our network will help the school manage the influx of visitors. See the dates and themes on our website and email Rachel c/o planetshaftesbury@gmail.com if you'd like to join us on one or more of the days. |
|
|
Dorset Climate Action Network (Dorset CAN) Professor Michael Dower, a champion of rural communities long before he co-founded Dorset CAN, died on 7th November. He had become very engaged in the campaign for a better Local Plan for Dorset, Dorset Deserves Better (DDB). Dorset CAN has become an invaluable network through which we have connected with inspiring groups such as Zero Carbon Dorset (see details of their monthly online meetings on our website), and Dorset Declares (who work with smaller businesses that want to embed sustainability in their workplace); as well as linking with others to campaign (as with DDB). Just this month Rachel Bodle demonstrated our commitment to the campaign by joining others from DDB in their first meeting with David Walsh, Portfolio Holder for Planning, at Dorset Council. Catch up with news from across Dorset, sign up for the newsletter, and join as an individual member through the website: https://www.dorsetcan.org/ |
|
|
Think global, act local: This month world 'leaders' are participating in the 27th conference to address climate change. Next month sees the 15th conference to address biodiversity loss. Other news channels carry daily or weekly updates and analysis of progress. We will take stake stock of our own responses and the impact on local activities at our 3rd Thursday meeting in January. Whether you have expertise or insights to share, or questions to ask, please come along. Meanwhile, as has become our custom, there will be a reflective gathering close to the midwinter solstice. When the venue and date are set the meeting will be added to the events listed on the website. |
|
|
Weblinks: selected national & international resources & campaigns CSE: The Centre for Sustainable Energy offers energy advice, information about local energy, supports open greener homes events and much more. https://www.cse.org.uk/ NESTA is a UK innovation agency for social good. Their work highlights 3 missions: a fairer start, a healthy life and a sustainable future. https://www.nesta.org.uk/ Team Seas is an innovative enterprise removing trash from the ocean. Great energy - check them out! https://teamseas.org/ Campaign for Better Transport are fighting to protect bus services from funding cuts. https://bettertransport.org.uk/better-transport/buses/ Rainforest Rescue: A better way to protect biodiversity: strengthening indigenous rights! See details and a petition here: https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/ |
|
|
|
|
