Attention Nottinghamshire based GGG readers! Here is an interesting event for you.

Event Name:

Professor Tim Burt’s lecture, titled Long-term monitoring of the natural environment: perceptive science or mindless monitoring

Date: Wednesday 23^rd January 2008      Time: 6pm

Location:

Sir Harry and Lady Djanogly Lecture Theatre, Shakespeare Street, Nottingham, UK.

Details:

Long-term observation of the natural environment has too often been dismissed as low-grade science which contributes little to our understanding. However, the value of long observational records has recently been recognised, for example in relation to global warming and the impact of pollution. This lecture will use examples from the UK to argue that well designed monitoring programmes provide our best chance of studying effects that can only be identified over long periods of time and for revealing new questions of interest that could not be anticipated at the time the measurements were begun. Case studies will cover some of the UK ’s longest records of climate and water quality, and will even include some ‘blue skies’ thinking about heavy rainfall and floods!

Professor Tim Burt is Professor of Geography and Master of Hatfield College at Durham
University . His research interests include hydrology, geomorphology and water pollution; a recent focus has been the export of dissolved organic carbon from Pennine catchments. He is also interested in long climatic records and has run weather stations at Oxford and Durham , the two longest records for any university in the country.  

Booking:

This lecture is free to attend but will be ticketed. To book your place at this event please click here to email the Events Team

Made famous by tales of Robin Hood the Sherwood area of Nottinghamshire is known all around the world. Unfortunately though due to industrialisation and other factors this historic landscape is no longer the majestic place it used to be.

However don’t despair as this could be about to change!  A project titled ‘Sherwood: The Living Legend’ has been short listed (amongst four other great projects) for the People’s Millions lottery initiative and is with a chance to win £50 million.

This extremely important project is being led by Nottinghamshire County Council in conjunction with a variety of partners including the Sherwood Forest Trust and Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.

Restoring Sherwood Forest

Recreating the forest to its former glory is a key element of the project. The plan is to convert at least 300 hectares of farmland (that’s roughly the size of 400 football pitches!), north and west of the River Trent back into wood and heath land.

Most of the new trees will be native oak and birch along with other shrubs sourced from the Sherwood area.  The new trees and heath will connect together existing but fragmented remains of the original forest and improve the visual landscape along the main routes into Sherwood Forest, giving locals and visitors alike a much better sense of how the most well known forest in the world appeared hundreds of years ago.

And of course all of these new trees, shrubs and heathland will help to absorb Carbon ensuring that Sherwood Forest can truly be the lungs of England.

Cycling, Walking and Horse Riding Network

If successful the project will also create a 250 kilometre network of walking, cycling and horse riding paths. 95 km of these will be completely new and introduce new road and river crossings to connect existing routes together. How sustainable is that!

Yes, you can help Sherwood Forest

You may have read the tales of Robin Hood when you was younger, you have probably watched at least one Robin Hood film and you may have even watched the BBC Robin Hood TV series….

….But now you can actually give Robin Hood the home he deserves, please vote for Sherwood: The Living Legend project to win the £50 million. The project is being backed by a range of celebrities including Brian Blessed, Kevin Costner and Jonas Armstrong who plays Robin Hood in the BBC TV series.

How to vote

To vote online for the Sherwood: Living Legend project please click here.

You can also vote by telephone, by calling:

However hurry as the voting ends at 12pm on Monday 10^th December.

Please vote Sherwood, thank you!

Anna-Lisa

Did you know that Nottinghamshire is home to some fantastic green projects? In fact last Thursday (08-11-10) I was at Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust’s 2007 Green Guardians Environmental Awards Gala Dinner (which I helped to organise) celebrating some of the best green projects in Nottinghamshire.

The event was hosted by TV Environmentalist Penney Poyzer and supported by a range of other green celebrities including David Bellamy who was the final judge.  In total, five awards were presented and winners in all but the business category receive £1000 to invest in the future of their projects.

The Winners were as follows:

Environmentalist of the Year: Tony Menzies

Tony is a key member of the Farndon Residents Environment Group and has spent hours working to make Farndon a more pleasant place to visit and live. He has been instrumental in landscaping and restoring the area adjacent to the riverside and in caring for the ponds nature reserve and propagating snowdrops throughout the village. He is also reserve warden at Farndon Willow holt where he monitors the internationally important collection of willows.

Speaking about Tony, Professor David Bellamy commented:  “A volunteer in the truest sense of the word knowing what needs to be done and getting down to work to do it. A real Little John of the green team”.

Environmental Community of the Year: Partnership Council

The Partnership Council has been delivering a varied, exciting, and unique programme of environmental education involving children, young people and adults, alongside a number of hand-on projects involving volunteers. Overall, their aim is to work with local residents to help them change and care for their local environment and to give them a voice on environmental issues.

Speaking about the project David Bellamy said: “The partnership council is touching on and improving most facets of environmental concern in the heart of Nottingham.”

Environmental Business of the Year: Notts Golf Club, Hollinwell

The Golf Club has made an amazing contribution to heathland habitat restoration in our county at a time when this habitat has been the focus of environment efforts across the
UK. The golf club has has transformed  neglected heathland and acid grassland areas through effective habitat management  – helping to bring back a number of threatened species and help redefine the boundaries for sustainable golf course management.

David Bellamy said:  ”If every golf cub followed suit I would probably take up golf”

Education in the Environment :  Orston Primary School

Orston’s environmental programme is a fundamental aspect of learning within the school and the number of environment related activities are countless. They range from wildlife gardens and insect towers to waste reduction strategies and a dedicated Eco Team, ‘Eco Code’  ‘Eco Action Plan’ and Eco Newsletter.

David Bellamy Commented: “Wow! the greenest of the green. Educating, Entertaining and Enthralling as they Reduce Reuse and Recycle their way towards a more sustainable future”.

Green Guardians ‘Living for Tomorrow’ award: Partnership Council

This award is designed to promote sustainable lifestyles and was presented to the Partnership Council due to its wide ranging activity programmes and links across different sectors.

I would like to congratulate everyone who applied for the 2007 Green Guardians Awards as every entrant was fantastic. The 2008 awards will be launched in April and I hope that there will be an even greater number of fantastic projects that are nominated.

Today’s children will be tomorrow’s decision makers, thus it is important to provide them with the opportunities to learn about climate change, the environment and sustainable living.

In the UK, thanks to organisations such as Young Peoples Trust for the Environment, the Wildlife Trusts and many other organisations this is being achieved. Young children are being provided with excellent environmental education, ranging from the natural world to renewable energy.

An example of a new local environmental education programme in Nottingham is ‘Mariel’s Green Village’ which forms part of the ‘Reading Keen Thinking Green’ programme at Care Training – East Midlands. They had their first session on Monday 22nd October and it was a great success!

The aim of Mariels Green Village (named after the programmes coordinator) is to educate and inform parents and kids on the dangers of global warming and how small changes to your life can make a big difference to the planet. Their approach to this is all done in a very gentle, round-about, fun way so they don’t appear too extreme!

I will keep you posted about when their next session is and how they progress – lets hope that they inspire lots of children and parents to be greener.

In the UK this weekend the clocks will be going back and the winter nights will be drawing in, indicating a time of year that most of you will want to be getting all cozy indoors.

However this winter please make sure that you don’t forget your feathered friends, those beautiful garden birds that provide much pleasure with their playfulness in the garden and chirpy song. At winter garden birds need a helping hand through the provision of nutritious food to keep them warm during the winter months and in preparation for the breeding season.

Some may argue that by feeding garden birds it is interfering with nature – however we have already interfered with nature by building too many houses, mass agriculture, use of pesticides killing useful plants for birds, and removing hedging containing nutritious food and replacing it with walls and fences instead.

Thus it is my personal opinion that feeding the garden birds is good, because not only does it provide pleasure in watching them feed it also helps conservation efforts especially in urban areas where there is a lack of suitable natural food sources.

However when you feed your garden birds it is important to consider the following:

• Chose the right food and feeder for the birds you are trying to attract
• Don’t feed them bread (bloats their stomach) or salty products (as it will dehydrate them)
• Do buy bird food from a reputable company (I use http://www.walterharrisons.com/ as they also donate money to Notts Wildlife Trust for every bag of bird food sold
• Be careful where you put bird feeders in order to not attract vermin, if possible move them to different parts of the garden regularly for hygiene reasons.
• Wash the bird feeders regularly with boiling water and suitable non harmful cleaning product to ensure that disease is not spread (always use rubber gloves when handing bird feeders for your own protection)
• Do put out water (for example using a bird bath, or upturned dustbin lid) as it is important that birds have access to clean drinking water.

If you would like to help your feathered friends, then this weekend is a good time to start as it is the RSPB’s “Feed the Birds Day” and it is still “Wild Weeks” which I mentioned in the ‘Go wild this week’ post.

To celebrate Feed the Birds day there will be a variety of events happening across the UK including one at Attenborough Nature Reserve in Chilwell, Nottingham on Sunday 28^th October. Such events will provide you with guidance on how to help your feathered friends.

In addition to feeding your garden friends, this weekend why not put up a nest box or even plant some native hedging which will provide your garden friends with natural and nutritious food.

I beleive that local, fresh and organic food can help to prevent ill-health and also help heal those who are ill. Which is why I am  supporting Nottingham City and QMC Hospital’s proposal to have an on-site kitchen using sustainable development technologies at the hospital.

The proposed kitchen would supply patients with freshly cooked food, brought in from local farmers. This would replace the existing food contract that the hospitals have with a large food contractor who currently provides cook-chill meals and delivers these from its Colchester base.

If you would like to provide feedback about this proposal (I have) then write as soon as possible to:

Mr John Hughes, Catering Manager, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Hucknall Road, Nottingham, NG5 1PB.

For those who do not live in Nottingham or the UK even, why not encourage your hospital to use local food and cook it on site too.

Hurrah! It is now easier to recycle Tetra-Pak packaging in Nottingham and other places in the UK. So when I have finished with my carton of soya milk or fruit juice I can take it to one of my local recycling points instead of posting it to a Recycling Centre in Somerset.

It is great that Nottingham City Council finally decided to provide some Tetra-Pak recycling points. I think that their decision was down to individuals lobbying them including me. So that does show if you lobby the local authority enough positive outcomes do happen.

In Nottingham there are now 5 Tetra-Pak recycling points at:

• Asda at Hyson Green
• Tesco in Top Valley
• Sainsburys at Castle Marina
• Kwik Save in Sneinton
• Co-Op on Carlton Road

Although I do not shop at any of these stores I can cycle to one of them on my way to or from work, which is much easier than posting them to a recycling centre at my own cost.

Where can you recycle cartons?

Tetra -Pak have been working hard to get more local councils recycling cartons, in fact they have invested £1.2 million to support local authorities in setting up recycling and collection facilities. If you would like to see if they offer it in your area then check out Tetra-Pak’s interactive map

If your local authority does not provide carton recycling – then lobby them! Then it wont be long till they do.

How are cartons recycled?

Cartons are made from 70 and 90% paperboard, a renewable natural product, therefore they can reclaim much of the carton in the recycling process. Apparently this is a straightforward task.

1) Baled cartons are dropped into a pulper, similar to a giant domestic food mixer,
2) filled with water, and
3) pulped for around 20 minutes.
4) This breaks down the packaging to produce a grey-brown mixture.
5) The aluminium foil and polyethylene are separated from the fibre,
which is recovered to make new paper products.
6) The remaining mix of plastic and aluminium can then be used in furniture, to generate energy or even separated out into pure aluminium and paraffin.

What are they turned into?

Once recycled they will be turned into plasterboard, strong paper bags and envelopes which is much better than going to landfill.

So please spread the word – It’s now easier to recycle Tetra-Pak!

Attention all Nottinghamshire based GGG readers!

Back in August, Vicky and I posted details about Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trusts 2007 Green Guardians Environmental Awards. I would like to remind anyone who is interested in applying that there are only seven days left. So if you or someone you know has been involved in an environmental project and would like the opportunity to gain recognition then complete your application form asap.

Green Guardians is the only award scheme in Nottinghamshire specifically dedicated to recognising and rewarding positive environmental action. The award categories include:

• Environmental Community of the Year
• Environmentalist of the Year
• Education and the Environment
• Environmental Business Award
• “Living for Tomorrow”  Award

Winners of the individual, education, community and living for tomorrow categories will receive £1,000 which will be presented to them at the prestigious Green Guardians Gala Dinner in November.

If you would like to make a nomination or apply for a Green Guardians award please visit the NWT Website’s Green Guardians page Closing date for entries is Monday 1st October 2007 – so hurry!

Harvesting at last!

OK, harvesting is definitely too grand a word for a handful of tiny tomatoes and a cucumber but they’re edible! Actually, I’m almost embarrassed to write this post after Anna-Lisa’s Garden to Plate article but here goes anyway.

As I was looking around at my plants and taking pictures for the blog I realised actually how much I’ve learned from this ‘practice run’ of growing. Previously I’d only ever grown tomatoes which is no huge achievement as they are pretty tough and provide lots of fruit but this year I tried a variety of veg with no prior knowledge or previous experience at all. I wish I would say that despite this lack of knowledge I’ve yielded a healthy crop that could feed us for the year but sadly that’s far from the truth.

However, from what I’ve learned I know that next year will be better. There are 3 simple things (within my control) that I need to improve:

1. More space
I’ve realised that I grew too many of each plant within a limited amount of garden and greenhouse and they didn’t have enough room to grow. For the things that I grew in pots, the pots were too small.

2. More food
OK, this is a pretty poor thing not to do and I don’t have any other excuse other than being ridiculously busy this summer. The poor plants simply needed to be fed more often, I can see that they’re lacking nutrition and I’m still expecting them to provide me with fruit and veg. BIG lesson learned there and very easy to fix.

3. Get tougher on pests
Although the slugs, snails and caterpillars have just about obliterated by cabbage, broccoli, onions and leeks I just couldn’t bring myself to use the necessary means to stop them. I thought I could keep them away using various barriers but the slugs and snails on my garden are determined and have no mercy on the poor plants – I have to step it up next year.

Beyond my control, less rain and more sunshine would be a huge help too!

Oh, and one more thing – I have to start reading about how to do this stuff instead of just guessing. It’s difficult for me though, I’m just not a ‘read the instructions’ person.

Anyway, some of the latest developments in the garden and greenhouse are the tomatoes and cucumbers as I mentioned already. There are many more tomatoes but they’re not ripe yet and the other cucumbers are still tiny.

The sweet peppers are only just flowering and the sweetcorn is just showing some tiny cobs (which I found very exciting indeed).

I thought that the potatoes I threw in a bucket had died but when I went to empty the bucket I saw they had produced a few baby potatoes, although they were green so I can’t eat them.

The poor veg patch itself which started it all is looking more and more like a giant piece of Nottingham lace with hundreds of holes from slug and caterpillar jaws. The broccoli keeps getting taller though so there might be some hope there.

The 2007 ‘Clean up the World Weekend’ will be taking place this weekend (14-16 September). The initiative which is being held for the 15^th year in a row aims to inspire communities across the world to “clean up, fix up and conserve their local environment“. Activities such as litter picking are extremely important in creating an healthy environment for people and wildlife – becuase not only does litter look ugly to us – it also affects wildlife, for example:

Small  mammals such as hedgehogs can be attracted to left over food in plastic containers and cans, however they can get their head stuck and are unable to reverse due to their prickles – thus if left with no help they can die of starvation.

Animals such as foxes and gulls that scavenge for food amongst our rubbish can eat leftover food which is potentially harmful for their digestive system. By allowing them access to this waste, they are not learning how to naturally hunt for their own more nutritional food.

Floating plastic bags look like jelly fish to some marine life and if swallowed they can die.

Broken glass can cut the feet of mammals such foxes and badgers.

Discarded fishing lines can kill wetland and sea birds.

What you can do:

Reduce your waste. Consider the amount of packaging on the items that you purchase. Use your purchase power and don’t buy over packaged items.

Reuse your waste.  Be creative and think about what else you could use that item for, for example many containers can be reused as storage. Other items which you think may be rubbish could be another person treasure –even glass jars which are useful if you make your own jams or chutneys (or give them to someone who does)

Recycle. If you can’t reuse the item then consider if you can recycle it, make sure that items such as cans are crushed before you put them in recycling bins.

Cut it up. When you have finished with your 6 pack of beer or fizzy drinks, cut up the holders so that animals can not get caught in them.

Take it home. If you are out in public and have consumed food products either put the rubbish in a provided bin or take it home with you instead.

Put a lid on it. Make sure that you properly close the lid on outdoor bins and even put them in a place where scavenging animals can not knock them over.

Clean it up. If you do visit a nature reserve or green space and see rubbish then why not help out and put it in a provided bin or suitable refuse bag. Please always use gloves or other suitable hand protection and if you suspect the rubbish is dangerous (broken glass, syringes, chemicals) do not touch it but report it immediatly to the correct authorities.

Community clean up. Get involved with a clean up the world day event. For GGG readers who live in Nottingham why don’t you help to clean up Attenborough Nature Reserve Saturday 15^th September for more information please click here.

If you know about any Clean up the World events in your area then why not leave a comment on the blog.

Thanks

Anna-Lisa