And now this initiative!! It sounds interesting I need some advice!

Last autumn, Somerset County Council launched a £1 million Climate Emergency Community Fund, for local councils to bid for money to fund projects to reduce carbon emissions and increase resilience to the effects of climate change.

Curry Rivel Parish Council submitted four bids, and are pleased to announce that two of them have been awarded in full or in part. These are to run a feasibility study for a cycle path between Curry Rivel and Langport (see the story on page 13), and a project to launch initiatives to encourage the switch to heating from sustainable sources.

Curry Rivel does not have mains gas, so most houses in the village are heated with oil, which is a major source of both carbon dioxide and air pollution. It is expensive and likely to get more so.

The first task is to get professional advice on what will work in Curry Rivel, using experience from around the country and nearer. We aim to work closely with other localcouncils nearby. This advice will include information about sources of funding for implementing sustainable heating schemes.

We will work with villagers and the bodies running public buildings in the village, such as the Village Hall and the school. Once a good set of initiatives has been identified, we will promote them through open meetings, the village website, Curry Rivel News, etc.

We need to assemble a small and dedicated team to progress this exciting project.

Any comments about this project will be passed on to our Council

This notice was published in our local community newspaper!

Nature Conservation

Amazing what you can find ! I regularly visit my local Oxfam used book shop in Taunton. I found a collection of Annual Reports which I bought for a few pounds. They were annual reports for the Trust which became the Somerset Wildlife Trust, SWT. Barbara Gibson was a Trustee and a distant relative of mine. She worked as an educational Advisor for Somerset County Council. So especially interesting to me. I'm now a member of SWT. I have sent a copy of this report published in 1971, a long time ago. The message is still valid 50 years later.

B. M. GIBSON. 

The Somerset Trust for Nature Conservation.

7 th Annual Report.

October 1971

 

 

CONSERVATION AND CHILDREN

Great changes are taking place all around us and at no time in the history of the world has change in the countryside been so rapid or so pervasive than at the present. What is happening in our own locality — an approaching motorway, a new housing estate, another school, a caravan site, an uprooted hedgerow, a felled tree, another machine on road or farm - and what else? Changes and additions to meet the needs of the seventies - but all making impact on our lives and on our landscape. No doubt planning, research and often sacrifice preceded every change - but did we give thought or realise the effect till viewed in reality.  Improvement or spoliation did it happen overnight?  This is only part of the report, I may publish the rest if its of interest! I sent the entire report to SWT which is about to publish a new 10 year policy document.

Beatrix Potter : A must visit place on my list!

 From the Armitt Museum Musum and Gallery and Library .Link: http://armitt.com/armitt_website/beatrix-potter/Beatrix Potter

Beatrix Potter‘s life and art combine and complement each other.  From an early age, she had many interests, including natural history, mycology, archaeology, fossils and farming, but always she liked to draw and record whatever she was studying.  She was born on 28 July, 1866 at No. 2, Bolton Gardens, Kensington, and her early life was typical of many Victorian children with wealthy parents.  First a nanny and then a series of governesses presided over the nursery on the third floor and she recorded in her journal that this was preferable to formal schooling. It allowed her to develop her own interests without being forced into a regulation mould.

These interests began with the many animals she and her brother Bertram kept in their nursery, varying from newts, frogs, bats and a snake to the more usual rabbit Beatrix called Peter Piper.  The creatures were drawn and painted exhaustively.  As Beatrix grew older, her early studies were widened to include different aspects of the countryside.  She could not resist what she called ‘the irresistible desire to copy any beautiful object which strikes the eye … I must draw, however poor the result!‘

The best opportunities for sketching came during the family holidays.  These were taken in April, two weeks at a seaside resort, and during the summer, three months in the country.  At first Scotland was the choice, at Dalguise in Perthshire, but from 1882 it was mainly the Lake District.  Beatrix discovered the beauty of fungi at Dalguise, learning much about them from the local postman, Charles Mclntosh.  She became knowledgeable about obscure species and studied their propagation.  Eventually she had over 250 drawings of fungi, over 40 of different mosses and many microscope studies of the process of germination.  Her theory on this process was presented in the form of a paper ‘On the Germination of the Spores of Agaricineae‘ to the leading scientists of the day at a meeting of the Linnean Society, but though proved to be right in later years, it was not then considered tenable.

Beatrix Potter was one of the most iconic and influential figures of the Lake District and also a member of the Armitt almost from its founding in 1912. She was a major benefactor and on her death in 1943 she bequeathed to us her exquisite botanical drawings and watercolours, together with her personal first edition copies of her ‘little’ books. With this archive together with material from the National Trust Archive, The Frederick Warne Archive, and the Beatrix Potter Society, we have created an exhibition on her life that is guaranteed to fascinate anyone who loves the Lakes.


Between 1888 and 1898 Beatrix Potter developed a passion for the study of mycology, culminating in her research paper on the germination of macro-fungi being presented to England’s oldest natural history organization, The Linnean Society in London. The intriguing outcome of her venture into Victorian science can be discovered in ‘Image and Reality’.
During this period she produced over 450 drawings and watercolours to support her research. These works have the almost unique distinction of being both scientifically accurate and beautiful works of art. She herself considered them to be amongst her best work. On her death she left her portfolios of mycological work to the Armitt and we are proud to be the custodian of her scientific legacy.


Beatrix Potter also had a strong entrepreneurial streak that lasted long after she lost interest in publishing. From 1913 she turned away from writing to take up farming in her beloved Lake District. This became her life.
 In the final act of this singular journey she used her great wealth to buy up large areas of the Lake District, that she believed were at risk, with the sole purpose of leaving it all to the nation through the National Trust.


‘Image and Reality’ is Beatrix Potter’s remarkable story told through her own words and images and through the great wealth of archival material held at the Armitt; it is a portrait of an extraordinarily rich life lived during a period of great social upheaval.

Climate change news

 Significant legal case news I think!

Luisa Neubauer took the German government to court over its climate change law -- and she won.

The cases are most often centered around the idea that future generations have a right to live in a world that is not completely decimated by the climate crisis. 

Neubauer and her co-claimants argued that the current German government's failure to have a concrete plan to reduce emissions beyond 2030 would make their lives more difficult because they'd be forced to confront the catastrophic impact of climate change in the future. 

The 2019 law called for a 55% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030 from 1990 levels. 

The lawsuit argued that the target wasn't sufficient to meet Germany's obligations under the Paris accord. Under the agreement, most signatories pledged to keep global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius and as close to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that warming of more than 2 degrees would have devastating consequences, including sea level rise, frequent heatwaves, extreme weather and droughts. 

"The [German Constitutional] court was not so much talking about the impacts of climate change on young people, but the impact of mitigation measures," said Gerry Liston, the head of climate litigation at Global Legal Action Network, or GLAN. 

"If action is delayed, it will require vastly greater emissions reductions in the future and that would impose a massive burden on those alive then," he said.

Batty Piece

The Campaign to Protect Rural England ( CPRE) do a great job promoting the amazing value of our countryside and should be supported.

Here is what they say about hedgerows. 

"Hedgerows are the vital stitching in the patchwork of our countryside. Not only are they beautiful, with shifting seasonal colours, but they also provide homes and corridors for wildlife. And all the while they help tackle the climate crisis by capturing carbon from the air and storing it in plants, slowing climate change. We’d like to see more hedgerows planted and restored, and support the Climate Change Committee’s call for a 40% increase in the extent of hedgerows by 2050 to help tackle the climate emergency."

At last I have added some photos which I took a few days ago in our very own meadow shown below.

I am pleased to see the 200 metre long hedgerow we planted in 2006 with young native trees is now looking full of interest as we see the 7 different native trees flowering and growing well in Batty Piece in Curry Rivel, Somerset. The new hedge links up with ancient hedges at both ends which all enclose a 4 acre protected wild flower meadow.The photo shows the path we keep mown around the field. 

There is a rich covering of buttercups, cowslips and later on there will be many Pyramidal orchids too.

Wilder Somerset 2030

In this post I am hoping to focus on how my local Wildlife Trust here in Somerset is developing a new approach to its work of protecting nature. I am looking forward to a major Zoom meeting presentation on the 19th May when I hope to hear details of its plans and the thinking behind those plans. On the Trust web site they start with a quote from Sir David Attenborough. ( I have just finished reading his impressive book ""Life on Air" and I recommend it to all. So I know the extent of his lfe work in documenting wildlife around the world and pay attention to what he says) The Wildlife Trusts play a very important part in protecting our natural heritage. I would encourage anyone who cares about wildlife to join them. Sir David Attenborough Here is a short extract from the Trusts web site: Bigger, better, more joined up At the heart of our Wilder Somerset 2030 is tripling the amount of land managed for nature. It’s a significant challenge, but one we can only achieve if we work together. We need to create a strong, interconnected network of wild spaces and healthy habitats that provide space for nature to thrive and and restore the resilience of our ecosystems at a landscape scale, which can then provide healthy soils, clean air and water. Land of any size can contribute to this Nature Recovery Network – nature reserves, community spaces, gardens, farms, parks, churchyards and schools – it works at any scale. " Wilder Somerset 2030 Protect and restore Our work over the decades has slowed the rate at which species have been lost, and has protected important habitats in Somerset but we must now take a more radical and urgent approach and involve many more people in acting locally for nature’s recovery. Small things add up to make a difference. But the challenges nature is facing are vast, so we are all going to have to think bigger, think bolder and take more action together to have the impact that’s needed. At the heart of our Wilder Somerset 2030 is tripling the amount of land managed for nature. It’s a significant challenge, but one we can only achieve if we work together. We need to create a strong, interconnected network of wild spaces and healthy habitats that provide space for nature to thrive and and restore the resilience of our ecosystems at a landscape scale, which can then provide healthy soils, clean air and water. Land of any size can contribute to this Nature Recovery Network – nature reserves, community spaces, gardens, farms, parks, churchyards and schools – it works at any scale." So I await with high hopes as the plans are rolled out around Somerset and especially to see how our local group , "The Heart of the Levels" , can play a part! I hope to pass on more news in the near future.