Book Review - The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole

Our Green Book Group chose to read this because the author used to work for Friends of the Earth! Guy Shrubsole is a similar age to me so his memories of coming to environmentalism through campaigning to save the rainforests as a child in the 1990s were very familiar. Like him, I drew pictures of tropical rainforests at school, replete with monkeys, vines and parrots, and thought that the rainforests were all in South America. What we missed back then is that Britain has its own temperate rainforests, although only fragments remain.

The western parts of England, Wales and Scotland have high rainfall and therefore provide the perfect conditions for woodland to become rainforest, where mosses, lichens and ferns festoon the trees as epiphytes (a.k.a. plants growing on other plants). The author explains that these rainforests feature in our folklore, like the Welsh cycle of stories known as the Mabinogion, and our modern mythology, like the Lord of the Rings. This shows that they were once more widespread. However, they've mostly been cut down and prevented from regenerating by the overgrazing of sheep and deer. The fragments that persist are often still not protected properly and hadn't even been mapped until Guy Shrubsole crowdsourced information through the Lost Rainforests website and created an incredibly useful Google map. 

Through the book, the author visits many of these rainforest fragments and talks to the people trying to protect them, to learn how special this habitat is. However, their ecological importance has often been overlooked. One horrifying chapter tells the story of a couple who bought an estate near Totnes in the early twentieth century and cut down an area of rainforest to replace it with 'more productive' conifer plantation! To add insult to injury, their estate manager lobbied the government to encourage more landowners to do the same. But there are also stories of hope; the overgrazed gulley of Lustleigh Cleave re-grew its rainforest in a few decades when the commoners removed their animals, thanks to a dormant seedbank waiting in the soil and the industry of squirrels and jays. Nature can recover, when it is allowed the space.

The photos in the book and the lovely descriptions of mosses and lichens left us all wanting to visit one of Britain's rainforests. We're now planning to get a guide to temperate rainforest plants and go on a Leicester Friends of the Earth road trip!

Book Review – Back to Nature, By Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin

This book was written by Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin during lockdown. It is a book describing how Chris and Meghan feel about nature through some personal stories and it is interspersed with scientific information about wildlife.

It contains lots of interesting facts about Roundup and pesticides which I think, as a group, we can use for reference. He also discusses how Monsanto (the company that owns Roundup, now Bayer) lobby politicians and other officials to make sure they approve its use. How annoying!

Chris discusses National Parks and how they are not national and governed by local landowners so often work to benefit themselves and their estates – not particularly working for the good of the environment and nature. He relays information about shooting regulations on some big estates in the parks and how inadequate they are in our country – not being as regulated as in other countries which of course leads to a bit of a ‘free for all’ and a lot of abuse by landowners. The other annoying bit of information I learnt here was how we subsidise the medicals for gun licences as the people applying for the licences don’t need to pay!  Goodness knows why not when most of these people applying are from the richer portion of our society.

In the book Chris explains how he became an environmentalist – the route that led him to where he is today. He rants a lot in the novel at the establishment but he does say he feels that people are waking up to climate change and becoming more aware of its problems.

Finally, Chris explains in the book how during lockdown he couldn’t travel. He said how in the past he had ‘travelled to the plains of Africa and the jungles of South America or the frozen north or south of the planet.’ He continues how lockdown made him realise that to access the ‘purest exultation that the natural world had to offer’ he just needed to sit in his garden ‘for an hour with a handful of dirt and a dandelion.’

I think there is a lesson here for all of us on how we need to get ‘Back to Nature’ to save the planet and in effect save ourselves.

A very thought-provoking read.

Ask your MP to vote for Ten Minute Rule Motion on peat ban - Tuesday 16th April

The government promised to ban the sale of peat by the end of 2024 but they are dragging their feet and show no signs of introducing legislation. Theresa Villiers is introducing a Ten Minute Rule Motion on Tuesday 16th April that would force them to take action if enough MPs support it. Please contact your MP and ask them to vote for the Motion!

If you don't have your MP's contact details, you can look them up on the Write to Them website. We've written a template email below. Do add a personal comment if you can, as that will make it more powerful. Are you a gardener who uses peat-free compost? Have you ever visited a peat bog and been awed by the biodiversity? 

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Dear [MP's name],

I am writing to ask you to vote to support a Ten Minute Rule Motion secured by Theresa Villiers on Tuesday 16th April, calling for the end of peat use by the public. 

The government promised to end the sale of peat in 2024 by introducing legislation. They have told organisations like Friends of the Earth that they will introduce measures when parliamentary time permits. However, time is running out and no measures were mentioned in the King's speech. The Ten Minute Rule Motion provides a crucial opportunity to get the issue debated and voted on in Parliament. If it is voted through to a second reading, Defra would have to draw up a legal framework for a Bill and the government would have to fulfil its promise.

Over the last 10,000 years, UK peatlands have sequestered 5.5 billion tonnes of carbon - nearly 40 times the amount of carbon stored in our woodlands. Peatlands contain about half of the UK's stored carbon. Globally, peatlands store about half a trillion tonnes of carbon, trapping organic matter underwater. Digging up the peat enables oxygen to get to it, so the organic matter starts to decay, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The environmental damage caused by extracting peat for compost is immense. It releases huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Peat bogs are also excellent areas of biodiversity, so peat extraction contributes to habitat and species loss. You can read more about the importance of peatlands for biodiversity on the Wildlife Trusts' website.

Using peat in horticulture is completely unnecessary. There are more sustainable alternatives to use in bagged compost. Gardeners including Monty Don and the organisation Garden Organic advocate growing without using peat and provide information for gardeners on how to do that. We shouldn't be destroying a valuable habitat and an important carbon sink for our gardens.

The text of the Motion as it appears in the House of Commons order paper is as follows:

HORTICULTURAL PEAT (PROHIBITION OF SALE): TEN MINUTE RULE MOTION

Theresa Villiers

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to provide for the prohibition of the sale in England of horticultural peat by the end of 2024; to provide for certain exemptions from that prohibition; and for connected purposes.

Notes: The Member moving and a Member opposing this Motion may each speak for up to 10 minutes.

I hope you will be able to support this. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

[Your name & address]

Survey reveals love of parks in Leicester

We have spent the last few months analysing the data we collected in our park users survey last summer and the results are clear: people in Leicester love their parks.

We questioned 157 people using seven medium-sized parks in Leicester: Appleton, Willowbrook, Stokeswood, Evington, Hamilton, Humberstone and Spinney Hill Park (the same parks we were assessing for our nature-friendly park award). The majority visited their local park at least once a week, with many people visiting every day. The people interviewed were broadly representative of Leicester’s population, with 49% female and 46% male, a range of ages from 16-75+ and 52% of Asian heritage. 

People were asked to name the four things they liked best about their park and aspects of nature were mentioned most often - greenery, trees, water sources and wildlife. 

The parks provide people with access to nature and greenery, in contrast to their urban surroundings. We know that having access to nature is important for people’s physical and mental health. People felt that the parks are open, friendly, peaceful places. They are drawn to them for exercise but also to watch wildlife and relax. 

The City Council use chemical pesticides as part of their management of the parks, to control vegetation. We asked people how they felt about that and over two thirds (68%) were opposed to it. They were opposed to the use of pesticides in principle and felt they damage the environment and cause harm to wildlife and people. A majority of interviewees (85%) supported the Council using more natural methods. 

We’d like to see the Council listen to people’s views and stop using these harmful chemicals in Leicester’s parks and green spaces. People go to their parks to connect with nature. More wild plants mean more insects, more birds and more life! 

The survey also revealed that people want the Council to develop the parks with more information provision and more support for wildlife, with things like bird and bat boxes. 

The full report and the appendices are both available to download.