I have to admit it but we don’t have the best view from our front room window. In fact for lovely leafy Leamington it’s perhaps not the best view or most typical of our town. I live opposite a car show room that has flags flying in the daytime, lights glaring at night time and balloons by the dozen at the weekend to promote their special offers. So as you can imagine for someone who is passionate about sustainable transport it’s not a view I tend to marvel at.

Now a few months back on a Sunday afternoon we were lazing in the front room with our Sunday papers when I happened to look up and see a staff member walk around the car park and cut all the balloons free. Up, up, up they floated as the worker continued to set about 50 balloons free.

I was flabbergasted, as to me it was just plain littering. A business wouldn’t throw out 50 odd leaflets or food wrappers on the street. Just because they float upward and out of site doesn’t mean they are not litter when they land. They obviously weren’t thinking about where they were going to land as it would be far, far away out of sight and not on their land. Not their problem! I was also annoyed as I’d read that they posed a danger to wildlife as birds and marine creatures can mistake them for food similar to plastic bags and can choke on the remains.

The following Saturday to my shock horror when I drew back the curtains there were pink, blue and yellow balloons (yes, all colour co-ordinated) promoting their latest cut deal offer. This time there must have been over 100 balloons gracefully bobbing in the breeze. I wont go into the next half an hour but it involved me stomping around the house whilst my poor long suffering partner looked on bemused followed by me marching across the road to see the manger.

Luckily I ‘d found some info on the net about balloon littering and that organisations could be fined up to £2,500 if caught littering. Needless to say the manger did take seriously what I had to say and promised not to release (litter) any more. Whilst balloons are no way on the same scale as plastic bags for polluting our landscape. I still think it’s important for companies to realise the risks to our wildlife and that there is no excuse to litter. Hopefully the ‘Don’t let go’ campaign will raise awareness of this issue.

For more information about the campaign you can download a Don’t let go fact sheet. This has details of the threat to wildlife and more information about fines, the environmental protection act and the Marine Conservation Society.

Who’s your favourite Wildlife presenter? My personal favourite has always been David Attenborough who inspired me at a young age to connect with nature. Through his programmes and many other wildlife documentaries I felt inspired to watch real wildlife and undertake some nature surveying of my own, and whilst it was only my back garden in my young and creative imagination it was every bit as exotic as the jungles on the TV documentaries.

My passion for the natural environment stayed with me and eventually led me to a job working for a wildlife charity. Whilst my job is office based and involves fundraising and some marketing as opposed to being a qualified conservationist conducting surveys, my enthusiasm and eco adventure remains and I still participate in exotic surveys……… ok they are still in my back garden.

However such amateur survey skills can come in very handy, for example the conservation charity ‘People’s Trust for endangered Species’ is currently trying to recruit volunteers in the UK to help them with their annual ‘Living with Mammals’ survey which runs through the UK during April, May and June.

Through the project they aim to find out how wild mammals use the built environment and the green spaces within it so that they can begin to understand – and encourage – the biodiversity on our doorstep. Participants are being asked to choose a site in the built environment (such as their garden, allotments, a playing field or churchyard) and to record sightings and field signs of mammals for eight or more weeks in the survey period.

So if any of you GGG readers are keen wildlife enthusiasts like me and you would like to undertake some surveying  then I encourage you to participate. For further details about the Living with Mammals survey click here. If you want to brush up on your mammal knowledge then I highly recommend David Attenborough’s ‘Life of Mammals’.

I will definitely be participating and yes my childish behavior will most likely not have progressed as my back garden in my mind will be just as exciting and important in terms of biodiversity as the Galapagos Islands.

Houses, flats, shopping centres and commercial properties are being built everywhere these days. You would think that nowhere was safe from development!

Think again! Organisations such as the Wildlife Trusts are reviewing planning thousands and thousands of planning applications in order to try and protect greenbelt and even brown field sites from being unnecessarily or unsympathetically being developed on.In addition to protecting such sites, various Wildlife Trusts are also purchasing land in order to transform them into wildlife havens for the benefit of people and wildlife. For example through a recent fundraising campaign Gwent Wildlife Trust managed to raise over £525,000 in order purchase a 104 acre dairy pasture in Penallt, near Monmouth, South Wales, UK.

Whilst this piece of land is currently extremely wildlife poor it was an essential purchase for Gwent Wildlife Trust in terms of the site acting as a wildlife corridor between a wildflower meadow at the Trust’s Pentwyn Farm reserve and a woodland habitat of the Wye Valley.

When transforming the site, Gwent Wildlife Trust will be stepping back in time to the stone ages in order to create to a traditional ‘open wildwood forest’ of neotholic Wales’. It is estimated that the project will take up to 25 years however upon completion it will be rich in biodiversity and I think truly majestic.When thinking of Wales, you may already imagine a Country rich in wildlife however intensive farmland still dominates areas of Wales, leaving vulnerable patches of isolated wildlife rich grassland and woodland. Instead of fragmented nature reserves it is vital that wildlife corridors are established.

As a child I spent a couple of wonderful holidays in the Welsh countryside, to me Wales was a beautiful and magical place thus I am delighted that strong progress is being made by the Wildlife Trust in order to create a truly wildlife rich Wales.

If you would like to help Gwent Wildlife Trust with enhancing and protecting South Wales then why not:

- Click here to donate money to help them transform the dairy pasture

- Click here to find out how you can help them campaign against the building of a new toll motorway across the Gwent Levels

This is my final instalment of articles about our experiences at Make Hay of working to be a green and ethical company. This article is related to my previous posts where I talked about using ethical suppliers and encouraging others with your ethical policy.

Just to recap, the previous articles were:

Part 1 – Powered by the Wind
Part 2 – Waste? What Waste?
Part 3 – Be a Smart Consumer
Part 4 – Live your Policy

PART 5 – MAKE ETHICAL FRIENDS

Starting out with an ethical business was sometimes an isolating experience for us. At that time there was not the huge number of like-minded entrepreneurs around us and we were often told that what we were trying to do was a bad idea.

If it wasn’t for the enthusiasm of the people we met via green blogs, directories and networks life would have been much more difficult.

Making ethical business friends does not necessarily mean you are running an ethical business but it certainly motivates you to keep learning and working harder to improve. Seeing more and more new ethical businesses appear shows that the market is growing and consumers want more responsible services. I strongly believe that there’s power in unity and making links with these businesses allows us to share ideas, good practice and collectively raise the profile of ethical entrepreneurship. If, collectively, ethical businesses can influence business practice as a whole then eventually ethical business won’t be unusual or alternative but just the way things are done.

Community Working

Another way that we have made friends here at Make Hay is by getting involved in local community groups and activities.

Some businesses align themselves with a charity and donate a percentage of their profits to that charity. This can work well for larger companies but for small businesses like ours there is another, more creative way to provide useful, substantial support; and that is to volunteer your expertise.

We are actively involved with a few community groups in this way. For example, we provide free Green Hosting and voluntary web designs services to All Ours. This is grassroots service which holds social sessions and cooks healthy, organic meals for people experiencing mental ill health. For the Gedling Fairtrade Group we provide voluntary web services and work on the steering group to raise awareness of Fairtrade issues in the local area. Additionally, we are currently providing voluntary web design and consultancy to the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and have built them a brand new content managed site.

Whatever type of business you run it is highly likely that you have a product or service that you can donate to someone who needs it. You don’t have to have lots and lots of spare money (and most small businesses don’t) just be able to give up a little of your spare time.

Making friends with individuals and groups within your community allows you to make tangible changes by doing what you do best – your ethical business.

What do you do?

Well I’ve talked quite a lot about Make Hay and the things we do to be an ethical business but there is always room for improvement and new things to learn.

I’d love to find out about other business owners’ experiences (good or bad), practices and ideas. Contact me at Make Hay, I’ll look forward to hearing from you!

Firstly,  some GGG readers may have noticed that I have not been blogging for awhile and this is due to a building company cutting though my broadband internet and phone wires – thus whilst I am waiting for this problem to be sorted I have struggled to be online much.

However I have stayed late at work tonight to get at least one post up on GGG.  In response to the lovely comments left on some of my posts – I promise that I will reply soon and also provide updates about my Environmental Studies,  New Year Pledges and Veganism etc.

In the mean time here is an update about the Save Lyme Bay Reefs campaign that I have been involved in and which I reported about in the post ‘Help Save the Seaside’

So far:

* More than 8,000 people sent campaign postcards to the Secretary of State, Hilary Benn,  asking the Government to protect the full 60 square miles of the reef.

* More than 3,000 people signed the online petition.

* To date, 59 MPs have signed the Early Day Motion on Lyme Bay.

* Oliver Letwin led a debate in the House of Commons, supporting the Wildlife Trusts  position.

* Approximately 90 consultation responses were submitted to Defra.

Coastal Management

When managing coastal areas such as Lyme Bay it is extremely important to not only ensure that the environment is protected,  but also that the needs of the population and also economy is taken into consideration too.

Do you think that you could do this?

A fun and great way to test your ability of effective Coastal Management is through the Open Universities and BBC’s Coastal Manager Game – click here to have a go.

Plastic bags have been popular for many years because they are relatively cheap to produce, waterproof and durable.

However, it’s their durability that makes them so unsuitable as disposable items. They are made from polyethylene, a product of petroleum, which is a non-renewable resource.

They are not biodegradable and are almost indestructible. They take an incredibly long time to break down and when they do, it’s into a “plastic dust” which contaminates animal life, the soil and the water, the oceans and the seas, forever.

Around a trillion plastic bags are used world wide every year (10 billion in the UK alone). They are environmentally unfriendly in the extreme, filling up landfills, blocking drains, littering the land and the oceans.

Many plastic bags are not recycled; they are dumped in landfills and escape into the environment by wind or water action. In South Africa, plastic bag litter is so common it is called the ‘national flower’.

Plastic bag litter has a devastating effect on animals, birds and marine life. They mistake them for food & die after ingesting plastic bags which have obstructed their digestive systems. Birds become trapped in plastic bags hanging off bushes and trees. Whales, seals, turtles and countless fish become entangled in them & suffocate or starve to death as a result. Prior to death, they probably suffer severe discomfort and pain. After death, their bodies decompose and the plastic is released back into the environment where it may kill again.

Plant life on land is smothered and killed by plastic bag litter. In the oceans not all plastic floats, much of it sinks to the bottom where it smothers and kills marine plant life as well.

HOW CAN WE HELP?

Use long lasting biodegradable shopping bags: Natural cotton shopping bags are an excellent alternative to single use plastic shopping bags.

Re-use: All plastic bags, including any existing plastic single use bags in the home or business, should be re-used as often as possible, then recycled when no longer usable.

Recycle: This seems obvious and it may be assumed that everyone is already recycling, however, many are not.

Compost: Reduce the numbers of plastic bin liners you use by composting all biodegradable waste e.g. egg shells, fruit, vegetables etc.

Pick up plastic bag litter: Discard any litter picked up responsibly e.g. in a recycle bin.

Encourage others: Encouragement to do all of the above would probably work better than enforcement through legislation. Many people are becoming resentful of the word ‘green’ as they feel that it is just another form of stealth tax.

Seanid M. Marchant
http://reusablebags.letsbeegreener.co.uk

“We all love to be beside the seaside” and that’s actually official!  The Wildlife Trust conducted a survey in which 1,200 UK citizens took part and over one third of them chose a day at the seaside as their favourite leisure activity.

With this in mind, I’m sure that all of you who love to be beside the seaside will want to help protect some of the finest areas of coastline that we have for the benefit of people and wildlife.

Lyme Bay

A coastal area that needs immediate support is Lyme Bay on the Devon / Dorset coast in England.

Lyme Bay is one of Britain’s finest sites for marine wildlife. It consists of reefs which are a haven for corals, sponges and starfish in fact the reefs are home to over 300 recorded species of plants and animals, including dense populations of the nationally protected pink seafan and the extremely rare sunset coral.   Both species are national priority species under the Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP).

The Seafood industry

As well as being home to a range of rare species, Lyme Bay also hosts a range of species used for seafood (i.e. crab, lobster, scallops etc). Thus it is a popular fishing location for commercial fishermen.  However gone are the days when fishermen use the traditional method of potting or diving to catch seafood such as scallops.  No, instead all in the name of demand and profit, the fishermen use a technique called dredging.

Scallop dredging

Scallop dredging involves using a dredge that consists of a metal frame with spring-loaded teeth to which a chain-mesh bag is attached.  The dredge is towed over seabed habitats, where the teeth rake the seabed disturbing the scallops.  This gear is extremely robust and can be used over much harder grounds than traditional trawls.  As a consequence, scallop dredges can severely damage other seabed organisms and habitats.

To see footage of scallop dredging please click here.

Dredging at Lyme Bay

Lyme Bay Reefs support rich and varied biological communities of national importance. However scallop dredging destroys both seabed species and the habitats on which they depend.

There is hope though as these marine species can potentially recover, provided that disturbance to habitat is not too extreme.  This is why the Wildlife Trust wants a ban on scallop dredging within a specific 60 square mile of Lyme Bay Reefs.

Talking about Lyme Bay Reefs Paul Gompertz, Devon Wildlife Trust’s director recently said:

“The reefs are the undersea equivalent of the rainforests and closure of Lyme
Bay Reefs to dredging is essential if we are to stop their destruction.  Lyme Bay Reefs is one of the best-studied areas of seabed off the entire UK coast, and the scientific and economic data point very clearly to the only sustainable option: closure of the reefs to scallop dredging.  If the Government fails to make the right choice here, it bodes very badly for the protection of other important – but less-studied – sites.”

History of protecting Lyme Bay Reefs

Devon Wildlife Trust has been studying the reefs for 15 years and, along with The Wildlife Trusts, has campaigned for their protection. During the 1990s, Devon WT worked with the local fisherman and negotiated a voluntary agreement in 2001 to stop scallop dredging in two parts of the Bay.

This agreement broke down last year demonstrating the need for a statutory approach. Natural England subsequently called upon The Department for Agriculture and Fishing (Defra), with the backing of The Wildlife Trusts to introduce an order to stop the damaging activity.

Defra’s Lyme Bay Reefs Consultation

In response to Natural England and the Wildlife Trusts request to stop scallop dredging within a specific 60 mile square mile of Lyme Bay, Defra has written a consultation letter and have been asking for feedback – to view the letter please click here.

The Wildlife Trust has responded to the consultation advising that the only real option in which to protect Lyme Bay Reefs and its marine wildlife is option C “Exclude the use of all towed gear, by either SFC Byelaw or Order, in the 60 square mile area originally proposed by English Nature in May 2006.”

The original deadline for submitting a response to the consultation was the 12^th December, however Defra have extended the deadline to the 21^st December.

You can help – but please act now

The good news is that you can help to protect the beautiful and diverse Lyme Bay Reefs and the marine wildlife that depends on it through just two simple steps (which should take less than 5 minutes!)

1) Email Defra explaining that option C in the consultation is the only realistic choice to protect this beautiful and diverse area of the ocean.

Please click here to download an example of an email that you can send to Defra (Choose the save option as opposed to just opening it)

Even if you do not live in the UK, then I think that you should still email Defra raising your concerns and asking them to chose option C.

2) Email your MP asking them to sign the Lyme Bay Early Day Motion.

To find out who your MP is and how to contact them please click here.

Once you have checked who your MP is click here to see if they have already signed the EDM.

Together we can make a difference

Remember we all love to be beside the seaside and if we all work together we can make a difference to marine habitats and the world!

What name do you give a whale? Mister Splashy Pants of course!

For those who are wondering what I am talking about, cast your minds back to my post titled A whale by any other name…in October, when I reported that Greenpeace had launched a competition to name a whale.

Apparently over 11,000 submissions were entered, which were narrowed down to 30 and then it was up to the public to vote. Of those 30 short listed names, 150,000 (over 78 percent) voted Mister Splashy Pants as their favourite.

However now that the humpback whale has been named, he needs your help! He might have a great name but he and his friends are still in danger. The only way to be 100 percent sure that ‘Splashy’ doesn’t get harpooned is to stop killing all whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

You can help Mister Splashy Pants and all of the other whales by clicking here and signing Greenpeace’s petition calling upon the Japanese Fisheries Agency to promise not to kill Mister Splashy Pants.

Come on GGG readers let’s save Splashy Pants !

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

Another positive news post following on from the last positive conservation news post titled ‘Endangered monkeys found in Vietnam’.

The Berkshire, Buckinghamshires & Oxon Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) has managed to raise enough money (£850,000) from a successful public appeal to be able to buy a piece of precious floodplain meadow habitat at Gallows Bridge Farm on the Bucks/Oxon border.

The floodplain which is home to a range of threatened species including curlew birds will be restored by the Wildlife Trust and transformed into a wetland habitat. This new properly managed wetland will also help local people by acting as a natural flood defence, absorbing water which could otherwise cause problems downstream.

For further details about this project please click here to be redirected to the BBOWT Wildlife Trust website.

Photograph: Curlew image copyright David Kjaer