Tag: wordpress

Protecting Devon from Development

January 8, 2020

I haven’t written anything in far too long… I have a backlog of posts to finish writing and frankly I’m ashamed of myself.

Anyway.

This is a bit of a depressing post (but with a small hint of positivity and a big dollop of importance) I’m afraid so strap in and make a cup of tea. Let’s get cracking.

I recently returned home to Devon to spend Christmas with my family. But driving around some of my favourite local places (Dartmouth, Totnes and Dartington) highlighted the current mass of development of unaffordable houses around the areas. I hate this. Every time I’ve been home across the last 6 months, I return to see more trees cut down, more hedgerows out of action and more green land being prepared for vast new housing estates. I believe we need the right quality homes in the right locations at the right price points, genuinely affordable to young people and low income families, but after completing comprehensive research on the matter, it’s obvious that a majority of the development on local Devon greenfield sites is inappropriate; not priced affordably for local people.

The frustrating fact is that Campaign to Protect Rural England’s (CPRE) annual State of Brownfield report shows that there is enough suitable brownfield land available in England for more than 1 million homes across over 18,000 sites. Yet developers choose the lush green sites because it’s cheaper.

As an environmentalist, I am seriously concerned about the threat of such development to wildlife and the lack of regulations surrounding this. The farmland I played in as a child (situated behind my grandmothers house in Totnes), has now been converted into luxury dwellings and during my walk around the new estate, I noticed that there is a considerable lack of greenery to support the biodiversity that once thrived on the land previous to the building.

I just don’t understand why it’s not a top priority for councils to make these estates (if we have to have them..) green! After all, we are currently in a mass extinction. I’m talking about planting up the areas in-between houses with insect friendly flowers, shrubs and trees. Using the small green triangles of land that separate areas of the estate to benefit nature and the environment. It would cost next to nothing (literally) and could be used to educate the new community on the importance of these spaces for the local wildlife. But no.. instead they’ll plant some tranquil looking, non-native species, grass that does bugger all for wildlife and will look shabby and bleak in a couple of years.

This all climaxed in my mind about a month ago, when I decided I had to do something about it. I’m sick of seeing precious greenspace developed for profit with no regard to the wildlife that inhabits there.

Subsequently, I contacted my local MP (and managed to keep my language grandma friendly!) to ask if they could lobby their fellow members of parliament to make a change and tighten the surrounding laws. After I received a pretty beat-around-the-bush reply (however I did appreciate the reply), I then decided to email the Minister of State for Housing, The Rt Hon. Esther McVey MP. I then proceeded to pester the local Councillor for Totnes, and the South Hams Council general enquiry service. Have I exhausted my efforts? Absol-bloody not. I’ve only just started.

Do I think that my emails will make any sort of difference at all? No. But it makes me feel a lot better sending them and feeling like I’m doing something about it. After all, they can’t concrete over the whole of Devon… Can they?!

For more information visit: https://www.cpredevon.org.uk/campaigns/right-homes-right-place/

The Perfect ‘Hyde’ Away…

June 27, 2019

#LondonWildlifeChallenge

Picture this; You’ve finished work at the office. You’re tired. You’re in London and you need fresh air and a jolly good ‘earthing’. By which I mean ground yourself back to nature…. Nothing cheeky…. Naughty.

Well I may have your solution here; Hyde Park I truly believe is not hyped about enough. This is an utterly gorgeous spot, splat bang in the centre of London and a space where wildlife flocks to!

Within half an hour I had spotted Canada geese, Shag (cheeky..), Moorhen and Coot in the bird department (otherwise known as the lake). But the real head turner for me was seeing hundreds (maybe thousands, but you know… Didn’t stop to count!) of honey bees (Apis) busy buzzing around the lambs ear plant (Stachys byzantina) IN CENTRAL LONDON! I was so excited I had to sit down with a cup of tea…

The Royal Parks certainly look after this space and the wildlife appears to be extremely well catered for – which I just love and is so important with a third of all species currently in critical decline.

The walled garden is particularly lovely too, if scented flowers float your boat.

So go and check it out for yourself, if you haven’t already. I’m now beginning to see why London is this month becoming the first ever National Park City.

There we go! A positive post. B.E.A.Utiful.

You’re Kidney Me?

June 20, 2019

There is literally nothing nature related in this post at all. Bit weird.

Today is my birthday. How do I feel about it? Bit depressed to be honest. I’m not being ungrateful – I’ve got the best group of friends around me and my parents phoned me up and all, but…

This is my first birthday I’ve spent mostly on my own and in London (*violins play). Birthday’s just aren’t as exciting when you get older, are they. Does not getting excited about my birthday mean that I’m getting old? Have I officially got to start cooing at babies, wearing trousers that come up to my neck (with a belt) and drive with my car seat so far forward that my knees are driven into my chin? Furthermore; make jam and actually enjoy an episode of Gardeners World?…

Maybe.

It hasn’t been a brilliant build-up to my birthday either. Over the past month I’ve been in and out of hospital. Not fun at all. Turns out you cant just ignore symptoms of a UTI because if you do, they swiftly turn into a kidney infection and here I am… Yes it does hurt. Nothing some strong antibiotics and some (bloody great) pain killers won’t sort out though. Whilst sat waiting in A&E last night (after I keeled over whilst carrying out fish surveys in the river Thames – cue fish puns), I got asked to be in the new series of Channel 4’s 24 hours in A&E. So not only was I crippled over in pain, clutching my right kidney, I was also microphoned-up and filmed for peoples entertainment… Weeeell, someone may as well get some enjoyment out of my pain, aye?

So all in all… Life has truly gone off the scale at the moment. Privileged pain, oh I’m aware of that.. But fucking weird nonetheless.

Cheers to potpourri, Homes Under the Hammer and kidneys. I’m officially 23… (And we laaaaughed and laaaaughed)

Bloody well get on with it, Tooby.

 

Well That SuDS…

June 12, 2019

This is a bold move. Writing a blog post on a topic that (no doubt) most people would rather cut off their private parts and boil them for dinner, than read about. But hold on. Sheees-ah turning this around. There’s even a drop of romance in here for you… Cheeky.

SuDS, although you may have never of heard of them, are important. Just trust me please. SuDS, or sustainable urban drainage systems, refers to the green land (or lack of!) that is able to soak up surface water. Surface water is becoming an increasing problem. We have concreted over so much natural land that would normally soak up rainfall and excess water (through natural permeable surfaces, a process called infiltration) and now we’ve now got an influx of the volume of surface water.

To put it plainly, we’ve fucked it. But don’t fear, this isn’t necessarily a gloomy topic and I will prove this to you later on. Strap in.

Natural infiltration is limited in our urban areas, where many (once natural) surfaces are now smothered by buildings and paving. Instead, drainage networks divert surface water to local watercourses (rivers, estuaries etc). This can cause adverse effects such as downstream flooding and a decline in river water quality that is caused when sewers are overwhelmed by surface water, resulting in an over spill of raw sewage water into rivers.

Sustainable drainage systems aim to alleviate these problems by storing or re-using surface water at source, by decreasing flow rates to watercourses and by improving water quality – pretty cool stuff huh?

Now to slip in a cheeky bit of romance into the mix. This steamy stuff will get your attention… (Oop, naaaughty).

I’m referring back to when I was talking about sewers being overwhelmed and spilling untreated sewage into our rivers, messing up the water quality. A good example of where this issue is currently being solved is good old London. The Tideway Tunnel (also known as the super sewer) is a new 25 km tunnel being built underneath the Thames which will collect the excess water and prevent the tens of millions of tonnes of pollution that currently pollute London’s river every year. I am proud to say that I am currently dating a young man who works for this company (on the sustainability team) and although I would never admit it to his face (duh?), I think what he does is pretty darn cool. In fact I think he’s the best thing since sliced bread. Period. Yes, you read that right. I’m dating someone. SuD me sideways…

Steering away from my emotions and back to SuDS.

So how do these bad boy drainage systems work then? Allow me to enlighten you. SuDS use a sequence of measures that work together and form a management train. They control flow velocity (attenuate) and remove pollutants as the surface water flows through the system. They also provide natural contours to store water and can be used to allow water to soak (infiltrate) into the ground or evaporated from surface water and lost or transpired from vegetation (evapo-transpiration).

In conclusion; SuDS are often regarded as a sequence of management practices, control structures and strategies. They are designed to efficiently and sustainably drain surface water, while minimising pollution and managing the impact on water quality of local water bodies. This is becoming increasingly important in areas where infrastructure is shooting up all over the place. We need more green infrastructure such as SuDS to be implemented into policy in order for built up areas to cope with surface water and to protect our TraC (transitional and coastal) waters and tributaries.

Some example of SuDS:

Close your mouth, dear.

References:

https://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/engineeringGeology/urbanGeoscience/suds/what.html

Always Check One’s Surroundings…

April 10, 2019

Having recently returned from Tanzania; I was reminded of a situation I somehow got myself into during my first trip to Tanzania (2008) when I was just eleven. We were on safari in the Serengeti and I was in urgent need to disperse of my urine… Yes, I was in desperate need for a toilet. The nice man driving the Land rover pulled over next to a hippo pool, so I could hop out and scamper behind a bush. Now, going for a wee behind a bush is hard enough when you’re female – let alone trying it in Africa’s wilderness.. Trying to avoid all the African thorns (which for reference are fucking huge!), I went for wee. Half way through this much needed wee, I heard a loud gasp coming from the Land rover which was parked in the near distance. “Girls hurry up!! Quickly, quickly!!” Running back to the truck, still pulling up my trousers, I turned around to realise that I was peeing a few meters away from a rough 4m long crocodile!! Yup.. a flipping 500kg animal that could kill in one smooth, swing of a bite. I’ve since learnt to check my surroundings when peeing in the great outdoors.. You know, just in case there’s a pervert crocodile lurking nearby…

Nurture by Nature: What is Rewilding?

April 4, 2019

Rewilding. A hot term currently being thrown about a lot. But what does it mean? Read on to get clued up on the ‘hot’ topic of the year. And yes, global warming is very much a part of it.

Rewilding means restoring and encouraging more of, our depleted natural spaces.

Carbon dixoide will have to be removed from the atmosphere for us to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. It is already causing problems on a vast scale; Animal populations have decreased by 60% since 1970 alone! And if that isn’t truly terrifying enough, this statistic suggests that a sixth mass extinction of life on Earth is under way.

Not only do trees and plants provide vital habitat for animals, these clever clogs also suck carbon dioxide from the air as they grow – pretty amazing stuff, aye?

Can you guess where this is going?…

There are two increasingly big existential crises that threaten the world. First is the climate breakdown and second is ecological breakdown. Neither of these frightening occurrences are being dealt with with the urgency needed to prevent our life-support systems from collapsing.

“We are championing a thrilling but neglected approach to averting climate chaos while defending the living world: natural climate solutions. Defending the living world and defending the climate are, in many cases, one and the same.”

A decade of ecosystem restoration was announced at the start of March by the United Nations.

“The degradation of our ecosystems has had a devastating impact on both people and the environment,” said Joyce Msuya, the head of the UN Environment Programme. “Nature is our best bet to tackle climate change and secure the future.”

Recently published research indicates that about a third of the greenhouse gas reductions needed by 2030 can be provided by the restoration of natural habitats (rewilding). Blooming marvelous if you ask me – BUT such positive solutions have only attracted just 2.5% of the funding for tackling emissions. Come on now….. Let nature help us. Let us help nature.

Tooby x

Information source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/03/let-nature-heal-climate-and-biodiversity-crises-say-campaigners

Protection, protection, protection – or will the quality of our lives disappear before us?

March 28, 2019

I consider myself to be a relatively positive person however, lately all I can think about is how our current actions are seriously detrimental to the worlds natural places. How awful that is. I am certain that if you were to do a poll on how much we value and enjoy our natural spaces, wherever you are in the world, that a majority of us would agree they need protection. Wild places are proven to be incredibly beneficial to both our mental and physical health! So why do we pretermit when it comes to joining hands and efforts and looking after these marvelous habitats? I say habitats because one MUST NOT forget the importance of these spaces to the rest of the worlds inhabitants such as the wildlife that thrives in them.  I believe it is crucial at this point in the post to point out the incredible efforts of organisations and individuals who already work tirelessly to protect these habitats. Their work is invaluable. A joined up approach i.e. a collaboration of efforts is going to have to be the way forward in the future, in order to make change.

Air pollution, litter, oil, building, plastic. These are just a few examples of how we are causing harm to the environment. Building I am aware is a risky subject to bring up. Although I am currently living in London, my home is rural Devon, being born and raised there. Over the years I have suffered in seeing the natural spaces I hold so dear to me being unruly destroyed. Housing estates popping up next to the beautifully wild habitats that sit opposite rivers. I do not mean this in any elitist way, for I understand that many people are still suffering without homes and more AFFORDABLE homes are needed. But the homes I see being built everyday in the area I was so privileged to grow up in are by no normal citizen’s means, affordable. Most starting upwards of £350,000. I am also very much aware that Devon is considered a highly desirable place to live, but let me tell you that if all these areas are to be developed as quickly as they currently are being, Devon will not be a desirable place to live. I use Devon as an example, yet I am aware this is happening all over England.

We need/have to act now to make a difference. Species richness across all corners of the UK is in critical decline – 44 million birds have disappeared from the UK countryside since 1966!! Staggering. Frightening.

So what can we individually do to help?

  • Build ponds, whether it be a washing up bowl on the patio with rocks in (so the wildlife doesn’t drown), or a big sunken pond in a space you have available. Ponds are possible with or without a garden and are hugely beneficial to numerous species.
  • Encourage your local council to stop mowing the wild flower verges and cutting down trees in towns.
  • Encourage children to get involved – we need the next generation to put the environment first. Gardening and bug hunts are a great way to get kids involved with nature.
  • Build a hedgehog home or bird box!
  • Get involved with, or organise your own beach cleans, woodland cleans and clear-ups.
  • Campaign! The Wildlife Trusts currently have a #WIlderFuture campaign – link: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wilder-future

If we all work together, we have a chance. So let’s get on with it.

Video I recommend watching (have some tissues present…):

 

Thames Site Visits

March 21, 2019

Cool morning out and about on the Thames Estuary doing some site visits for the Thames Monitoring Project. I likey like.

I also learned today that you can get married on The London Eye! You say your wedding vows whilst going up, kiss at the top and then it’s all down hill from there…..ttp