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Month: Mar 2024
Establish an Irish Forest
More than 500 million trees planted by Green Belt
When you plant a forest or woodland, you are making a huge contribution to the environment. Woodlands and the long term products created from forests and woodlands store CO2. It’s really important to remember, you always own the trees and the land.
Planting a forest is extremely rewarding. When you consider planting a forest, Green Belt and our team of professional foresters will guide you through the full application process through to establishment and through the lifecycle. Considering forestry is an important life choice and there are many positive benefits and gains to be made – the obvious financial gains, of course whereby there is a full grant to cover the establishment costs. Additionally, there is an annual premium, paid to you as landowner, directly, for 20 years as a farmer (15 years for non-farmers).
The annual premium is available for the forest owner for 20 years, and valued up to €1,103 per hectare depending on the species selected – important to remember we plant The Right Tree in the Right Place, for the Right Reasons. Green Belt works with the forest owners (you!) throughout the lifecycle of the plantation and we advise on all aspects of forestry estate management. Our focus is on managing the plantation to fulfill its potential – for some it’s financial, for others it’s an amenity. Regardless, each forest is important and adds so much to the local community and the private estate in Ireland.
Reporting for companies on their environmental impact of their actions (or inaction) and investments is increasingly important and beginning a compliance issue. Frameworks including the Taskforce for Nature Based Financial Disclosures (TNFD) has “developed a set of disclosure recommendations and guidance for organisations to report and act on evolving nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities”. Green Belt provides Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) services to companies working to actively be Nature Positive. The projected launch of the Carbon Removal Certificate framework will also allow Carbon to be traded or inset versus emissions
Company Reg. No. 227708 Green Belt Ltd., Main Street, Virginia, Cavan, Ireland
Green Belt are currently working towards certification under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
Mycelium
Do you know what mycelium is?
James Cameron who created ‘The Avatar’ movie knew it.
“Mycelium, or mycorrysis, is a fungus that expands underground creating a network of connection between all plant species, something like the internet, that allows them not only to communicate, but also to take care of themselves, protect themselves, feed themselves and stock up on water.
When a tree from the forest is cut down, this mycelium communicates to many trees in the forest that one of them is dying and all the other trees through the mycelium begin to care for the remaining trunk to try to save that life. They feed it water it protect it because that dying log is part of the forest family.
Everything has a language It’s the universal language.
We learn to reconnect with this non-verbal language, understanding that we are all part of the same thing. We are neither superior nor inferior We are like children who still have a lot to learn from our elders, from the trees and the forest and above all from Our Mother Earth”.
The Garden Alchemist and Teaista facebook page.
That Acorn Already Knows….
“Each of us is born with an inner acorn encoded with our destiny.
That acorn already knows…
All we need to do is allow it to guide our growth and we will become as majestic as the oak.
Experience convinces me that saying yes to your intuition, your inner voice is saying yes to your greatness, whatever form that might take.
And your greatness is not just a gift for yourself.
It graces everyone that loves you, the community you live in, and the larger world that surrounds you.
You, the real you, is the gift.”
~Blake More
Art | by Peter Gric
Giant redwoods: World’s Largest Trees ‘Thriving in UK’
Giant redwoods – the world’s largest trees – are flourishing in the UK and now even outnumber those found in their native range in California.
The giants were first brought to the UK about 160 years ago, and a new study suggests they are growing at a similar rate to their US counterparts.
An estimated 500,000 trees are in the UK compared to 80,000 in California.
However they aren’t yet as tall. In California they can reach 90m-high, but in the UK the tallest is 54.87m.
But that’s because the introduced trees are still very young. Giant redwoods can live for more than 2,000 years, so there’s still plenty of time for the UK’s trees to catch up
“Half a million trees is quite a lot to go under the radar until now, but it’s when you start looking for them in the landscape, and compiling these datasets, that you realise how many there are,” said Dr Phil Wilkes, one of the authors of the study, from Kew’s botanic garden at Wakehurst in Sussex.
Giant redwoods (Sequoiadendron giganteum) were first brought to the UK by the Victorians. They were the ultimate botanical status symbol, typically planted in the grand estates of the wealthy.
Today, some form sweeping avenues while others stand in ones or twos. But they’re easy to spot: their dense, cone-shaped crowns stand proud of everything around them.
To assess how these towering giants are adapting to their UK home, scientists selected a sample of nearly 5,000 trees to study at Wakehurst, Benmore Botanic Garden in Scotland and Havering Country Park in Essex.
They used laser scanners to measure the heights and volumes of some of the trees – it’s also a way to weigh the trees without cutting them down.
The researchers found that the trees were growing about as fast as the giant redwoods in their native home in the mountains of Sierra Nevada. The UK climate seems to suit them, says Dr Wilkes.
“Where they grow in California, it’s cooler and moister than you would typically envisage California to be,” he explained.
“And we have a reasonably similar climate here – it’s very wet and they need the moisture to grow.”
The scientists also looked at how much carbon dioxide the trees were absorbing – trees soak up and store the greenhouse gas and planting more trees can play a role in helping to tackle climate change.
The researchers found that because of their sheer size, giant redwoods can lock up large amounts of carbon dioxide in their wood – although not as much as their US counterparts.
The trees at Wakehurst, which are about 45m tall, have about 10 to 15 tonnes of carbon stored in them, Dr Wilkes explained.
“But compare this to the largest tree in California, which has about 250 tonnes of carbon stored in it, and they’re quite small. But you know, these could get as big.”
The scientists involved in the research are quick to point out that planting forests of giant redwoods would not be enough to significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But these majestic giants can play a part in a mixed forest plantation with a variety of other trees, both native and imported.
In California, the natural wonders are under threat from climate change – they’re not faring well with hotter and drier weather and more intense wildfires.
So could the UK become their new home?
In an avenue of trees originally planted as a grand entrance to a now demolished mansion in Havering Country Park, Prof Mat Disney, from University College London, says he thinks it’s more than possible.
“In terms of climate, it’s probably the case that they’re going to have a less pressured existence here than they do in California,” he said.
Although he pointed out that conditions are also changing in the UK with climate change.
Giant redwoods are being planted as saplings all over the country, often by local authorities in public parks or recreation grounds.
Prof Disney says they have a long life ahead of them – and they won’t stay small for long.
“They’re very fast growing, and they grow large. Once they reach about 60m, they will be the tallest trees in Britain, and then they will keep on growing,” he said.
However, while the trees are doing well in the UK, there’s little chance of them taking over our native forests any time soon – they’re not reproducing here as they need very specific conditions to take seed.
The study is published in the Royal Society journal Open Science.
Fury in Germany as 120k trees in fairytale forest felled to make way for wind farm
Conservationists are up in arms and have branded the move a “fatal development”.
Conservationists in Germany are incensed as 120,000 trees in an ancient forest have started to be felled in order to make way for a wind farm.
The forest in Sababurg, Reinhardswald, which is in the central German state of Hesse, is said to be an inspiration for the Brothers Grimm mythical tales, but now it’s being destroyed to facilitate the country’s latest green energy project.
The site of the tree-toppling is next to the famous Sleeping Beauty Castle, which takes its name due to its fairytale architecture and its proximity to the mystical forest.
However, now the castle will be in close proximity to a field of wind turbines.
The Reinhardswald forest in northern Hesse is something very special, and not only because it’s the largest in the state. One of its characteristics is that it belongs to the general public. But that could be its downfall, because the coalition state government (consisting of the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Green Party) is planning to build industrial areas right in the middle of it.
The reason is the government’s ambitious goal of reserving 2% of the state’s land area for wind energy. But in Hesse, there’s only enough wind — when there’s any wind at all — at high altitudes. And since most of the high lands are wooded, almost all new wind turbines are built in forests.
Hesse’s economy minister, Tarek Al-Wazir, made a noteworthy promise in 2015: “Important recreational areas and forests in Hesse are out of the question for wind energy use.” Three years later, however, it’s not clear how much weight those words really wield. The Kassel regional council the state of Hesse is divided into three such regions has designated seven wind priority areas in the Reinhardswald. In each area up to 20 wind turbines can be built.
The Reinhardswald’s old beech forests are home to many species, but above all to strictly protected bats that only live in forests with very old trees and a high proportion of deadwood. The Kassel regional council insists that protected beech forests are “just as excluded from wind energy use as the areas of the oak primeval forest,” and that it’s considering locations that are “less sensitive from a nature conservation point of view.” And yet, the wind priority areas border directly on the natural habitats of wild fauna and flora, in which bats have found a rare refuge.
Unlike birds of prey, small birds and flying animals such as bats are not killed by the rotors. Instead, their lungs burst due to the vacuum behind the rotors. The planners have placed one of the wind priority areas exactly between the natural forest and the Friedwald, a cemetery in the forest, the first of its kind in Germany. And two wind priority areas even enclose parts of the forest that have long been designated as protected.
“It makes no sense at all,” says Niehaus-Uebel. “It’s the headlong and forced adoption of wind power in Hesse, no matter the consequences. Nature conservation no longer plays a role. And all this from an environment minister from the Green Party. That’s astonishing.”
But Hesse’s environment minister defends the plans. “Wind energy is very important for climate protection because we have to achieve the energy transition,” says Priska Hinz. “We will not conserve the forests if we do not focus on renewable energy and thus on climate protection, because otherwise we will no longer have the forests as we know them in 30 years’ time and even less in 50, 100 years.”
You could argue that forests serve to protect the climate and biodiversity. Why else would German politicians like to point out the importance of their primeval forests to their colleagues in distant or nearby countries like Poland?
“We haven’t planned to build in the entire Reinhardswald.” says Hinz. “Just in a small part. This is no way comparable to large-scale deforestation.
For nature conservationists, it’s disastrous. “The Reinhardswald is one of the last largely unexploited forest areas,” says Gabriele Niehaus-Uebel of the Oberweser-Bramwald citizens’ initiative. “We don’t have many of these anymore. This habitat must be protected as such.”
The country’s five biggest environmental associations have a similar view and, in their Wilderness in Germany initiative, included proposals for forest protection areas in Hesse. Reinhardswald tops the list. The plan is to more than double the protected surface in the Reinhardswald forest and reduce the amount and kinds of trees that can be cut so as to limit the impact on the local wildlife.
Wind energy is very important for climate protection because we have to achieve the energy transition.
Birds and Bats
A short drive a few kilometers further south, in the Kaufungen forest, gives us an example of what this means in practice. There are 18 wind turbines at the state border between Hesse and Lower Saxony in the middle of an official natural habitat of wild fauna and flora. It is also a flying route for flocks of common cranes and, partly, a drinking-water protection area. The turbines rise to more than 200 meters into the sky, and for each of them, foundations of about 1,000 cubic meters of concrete were injected into the ground.
Wind turbines of this size can only be installed with gigantic cranes that require one hectare of forest to be razed, not to mention the wide paths that need to be cleared for the transports of such heavy material and for later service transports. Between the installations, the remaining trees are largely bent. The windthrow is the result of storms caused by the clearings.
According to the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, Kaufung Forest is considered a “hotspot for biodiversity.” This also applies to the Reinhardswald. “As a natural area, it’s outstanding not only because of its size, but also because of its biological provision,” says Jochen Tamm, a biologist from the Hessian Society for Ornithology and Nature Conservation.
Tamm has been working in the Upper Nature Conservation Authority of the Kassel Regional Council for 20 years. He also advises citizens’ initiatives such as the one led by Gabriele Niehaus-Uebel. The definition of wind priority areas is the responsibility of regional authorities just as Kassel Regional Council and it can help limit the uncontrolled expansion of wind energy. For that, justified objections by nature conservationists are supposed to be taken into account. In practice, though, such objects seem to be increasingly ignored because they endanger the expansion targets.
Many objections concern strictly protected species whose habitat lies in the vicinity of planned wind turbines. Experts estimate that wind turbines kill hundreds of thousands of bats and thousands of birds of prey every year throughout Germany. ABO-Wind, the wind power project development company that is planning to apply for a building permit for the Reinhardswald forest, disagrees. “There’s no reliable evidence,” it says.
And yet, a “Progress Study” financed by the federal government shows that birds of prey do collide with such installations, and with disproportionate frequency. The further expansion of wind energy could endanger entire stocks, among them red kites. In fact, collisions against wind turbines is “the main cause of death for red kites,” says Torsten Langgemach of Brandenburg State’s Institute for Bird Protection. In his database, he has countless pictures of dead birds of prey sent by outraged citizens.
“The red kite is one of the few large birds that can only be found in Central Europe,” says Jochen Tamm. “Germany is home to more than half of the world’s population, so it has global responsibility for this bird. And it’s precisely in this central habitat where wind turbines are increasingly being installed now.”
Ralf Paschold, a wind energy entrepreneur, pointing at the wind farm site from the castle, told Deutsche Welle: “For the next 30 years. I will produce energy there.”
Responding to the claim that his development will destroy the natural environment, he said: “The dormouse, the bats, the birds, the small salamander. I will protect them. Because my heart is beating for them. But we can bring all these things together. It’s easy.”
However, campaigners are not convinced Mr Paschold will adequately maintain the local ecosystem.
Annette Müller-Zietzke, an occupational therapist and member of the campaign ‘Save the Reinhardswald’ told the same outlet: “Legally, this area is forest as long as all of this is here”
It was noted that visitors aren’t even allowed to pitch a tent in the forest due to the risk it poses to the habitat of the animals living there.
Miss Müller-Zietzke added that no human would willingly choose to live directly under a wind turbine.
She went on: “And then, for these species that are even more sensitive than we are, we just say, ‘It probably doesn’t matter.’ In times of probably the greatest loss of biodiversity since the extinction of the dinosaurs, this is a terrible, fatal development.”
Conflicts between the wind industry and nature conservationists aren’t happening just in the state of Hesse. More and more wind farms are being built in forests all over southern Germany. The state of Rhineland-Palatinate, for one, has been leading the way under Eveline Lemke a former Green Party minister (2011-2016) who is now on the supervisory board member of ABO-Wind.
The relative silence of climate activists regarding the destruction of the woodland in Hesse comes in stark contrast to their response over the felling of a 3km stretch of the Dannenröder forest in 2019 to make room for a highway.
Then, thousands of environmentalists vehemently opposed the plans, occupying trees and going to the courts in their bid to stop the project. They erected barricades and treehouses and violent clashes with the police ensued. Law enforcement operations at the time were said to have cost up to €36 million.
Similarly, there were strong protests against the felling of a 230-metre area of trees in the Fechenheimer forest.
The 2.7-hectare forest, which is surrounded by highways and industrial areas and already 98 per cent destroyed according to the environment ministry, was described by activists at the time as “the most species-rich forest in Frankfurt and the surrounding area”.
When wind turbines are involved, climate activists seem to bite their lips. The fact that 29 hectares of an ancient forest will be destroyed to build 14km of roads for 18 huge wind-power constructions, each with a blade diameter of 150 metres, does not seem to be an issue.
The apparent acceptance of habitat destruction in the name of wind power seems to be inspired by Berlin, which wants a transition to low-carbon energy after it ended the use of nuclear power.
For conservationist and Federal Cross of Merit recipient Hermann-Josef Rapp, the deforestation is a tragedy. He has been working in the forest since 1972, first as a forester and in retirement as an expert who has led around 1,000 guided tours. He is regarded as the “voice of the Reinhardswald”.
“It is the treasure house of European forests. An ensemble in a class of its own. You can’t sacrifice it to the greedy wind power league.” Rapp said, who is involved in the “Save the Reinhardswald” initiative.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1875454/Germany-wind-farm-Sababurg-forest
https://brusselssignal.eu/2023/12/german-fairy-tale-forest-to-be-felled-for-wind-turbines/
Pollen Pat’ reveals how pollen would have helped her track down vandals of Sycamore Gap Felling
A forensic ecologist claims she could have solved the mystery of the Sycamore Gap felling by examining a ‘halo of pollen’ around the tree to help track down vandals.
Professor Patricia Wiltshire, known as ‘Pollen Pat’ to Met detectives, has helped police in more than 300 criminal investigations since 1994, by examining soil or plant samples taken from crime scene.
Last year her services were recommended to police investigating the mystery of the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree which was chopped down in the middle of the night. But she says she wasn’t called to investigate.
Speaking to The Times, Ms Wiltshire said she could have traced the culprit in this case and said: ‘All I would have needed to do was take [a suspect’s] shoes and some samples from the scene.
‘Sycamore pollen doesn’t go very far. There would still be a halo of pollen around the tree. The person or people responsible would have got it on them.’
The world famous tree, located next to Hadrian’s Wall, appeared in Kevin Costner’s 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and was a much-loved tourist destination before it was chopped down in an ‘act of vandalism’.
The iconic tree was thought to be among the most photographed in the world – and when it was mysteriously chopped down it caused national outrage.
In November two men aged in their 30s were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and were bailed.
In December Walter Renwick, 69, and a 16-year-old boy who can not be named for legal reasons were arrested separately in connection with the felling, but police said they would face no further action.
Sycamore Gap: New life Springs from Rescued Tree
New life has sprung from the rescued seeds and twigs of the Sycamore Gap tree mysteriously cut down last year, giving hope that the iconic tree has a future.
BBC News saw the new shoots on a rare visit to the secret National Trust centre in Devon protecting the seedlings.
Millions once visited the sycamore tree nestled in a gap in Hadrian’s Wall.
A national outpouring of shock and dismay followed its felling in September.
Police are still investigating what happened in what they call a “deliberate act of vandalism”. Two men remain on bail.
Just a stump is now left – if it is healthy, a new tree could eventually grow there.
Young twigs and seeds thrown to the ground when the tree toppled were salvaged by the National Trust, which cares for the site with the Northumberland National Park Authority.
It guards genetic copies of some of the UK’s most valuable plants and trees.
Its hall of fame includes copies of the apple tree that Sir Isaac Newton said inspired his theories on gravity, and a 2,500-year-old yew that witnessed King Henry VIII’s relationship with Anne Boleyn in the 1530s.
These are back-up plants – insuring the nation’s heritage in case of an outbreak of disease, a devastating storm, or an attack on the trees.
No-one expected the sudden loss of the Sycamore Gap tree, once one of the most photographed spots in Britain.
Now the green shoots poking through large pots of soil give promise it will live on.
The National Trust is still deciding what to do with them once they are strong enough – schools and communities could be given saplings to grow their own Sycamore Gap tree, explains Andy Jasper, director of gardens and parklands. If the stump does not regrow, one might replace it.
But for now, the priority is nurturing the tiny shoots.
In September it was a race against time to get the seeds and living twigs to this special centre.
“As soon as you cut something down it’s dying,” explains Chris Trimmer who runs the nursery.
When the tree came down, local horticulturist Rachel Ryver sprang into action – climbing over the damaged tree and wall to collect what is called scion – young twigs with buds. This was vital raw material for grafting genetic copies of the tree.
“It was drying out fast – we had to save whatever we could. Hours later I was standing at Hexham post office thinking “nobody knows I’m carrying what’s left of the Sycamore Gap tree”,” Rachel says.
The five bags of twigs, seeds and a few leaves arrived in Devon at 09:30 the next day.
Chris Trimmer was waiting. He has worked with plants since he was 12 – decades later, he is one of the UK’s leading horticulturists.
For him, like many across the country, the story is personal. The first film he went to see with his now-wife was Robin Hood Prince of Thieves – its scene of Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman at Hadrian’s Wall catapulted the tree to global fame.
Chris is softly-spoken, talking scientifically about the process. “It’s our job to graft this stuff,” he says.
He unpacked the bags, ran tests to check the material was free of disease, then bleached it for five minutes.
It was quite a moment. “If one had shown disease, it all would have been destroyed,” he says.
By 15.30 Chris was done – 20 pieces grafted. But he was lucky. Autumn is a bad time to do this work – it should be done in January when the trees are dormant. He just about got away with it.
Grafting is an old technique, used by ancient Egyptians and Romans. “It’s a bit Frankenstein-esque – adding body parts onto something else, making a hybrid. But it’s worked for hundreds of years,” explains Andy Jasper.
Using a lime tree as an example, Juliet Stubbington, a propagator who works alongside Chris, demonstrates how it was done. “You have to be confident with a knife,” she says.
Grafting binds fresh roots with living twigs that have buds of the same species. The hope is that the two knit together to make one larger living young tree. This was the only way to preserve the beloved Sycamore Gap tree. “It is the same tree,” Juliet explains.
Her work is not just technical to her. “It’s lovely to help them grow back. Each one of these trees is a story,” she says.
The horticulturalists also successfully planted seeds from the Sycamore Gap tree, now its descendants.
Five months on, they are looking after nine surviving grafted plants and 40-50 seedlings.
“This is literally the first one that came up,” Andy Jaspar says, carrying a small pot with a 10cm green shoot. People have cried when holding it, he says. It’s next to a type of rhododendron seedling that is the only known one in the world.
Juliet says the success rate should be high. Sycamores are famously hardy.
But the sense of responsibility is huge and she has to stop herself fussing over them. “The best way to kill something is to over-care for it,” she says.
Nothing can bring back the tree exactly as it was. It was planted in the natural dip of Hadrian’s wall in the late 1800s – time and the weather moulded it into its famous silhouette.
That shape is gone but what is born from its ruins will have its own story. It will be three years before horticulturists know if the stump is healthy enough to produce the next tree.
Until then, these seedlings hundreds of miles away are primed – each one waiting to see if it could be the next Sycamore Gap tree.
Conservationists are still holding out hope that the stump at the site itself could regrow into a large tree but it is unlikely that it will be the same impressive specimen that it once was.
As a result, officials may decide to replace the stump with a clone of the famous sycamore.
Andrew Jasper, director of gardens and parklands at the National Trust, said: ‘There is an argument that starting from scratch at the site would make a whole lot of sense but it would be 30 years before we see a decent tree and 200 years before we see a replica.
Happy International Women’s Day
Reflection by Archaeology for the Woman’s Soul. By Corina Luna Dea
I LONG TO SIT WITH SOUL DEEP WOMEN
~Happy International Women’s Day 2024~
I long to sit in council with Soul Deep Women. Women who carried burdens and chose to love the wounds until love became the place where peace enters the heart.
I long to be in the presence of Soul Deep Women. Those that sing their heart’s calling in Voices of paradise and feathers surrounding their crown.
I long to cry with Soul Deep Women. Resilient strong sisters nurturing the Wound of the Would. Caretakers of the Light standing like a lighthouse on the edge of humanity.
I long to make magic with Soul Deep Women. Emotional alchemists healing the silence of what hurts inside believing in the magic of forests, rivers and mountains.
I long to walk in the company of Soul Deep Women. Women who have deep convictions. Women of immense courage. Women who seek the truth and stand up for what they believe in.
I long to write in the company of Soul Deep Women. Women who feel the poetry of their hearts. Metaphors-Makers. Dancers. Creators of words.
And yes, so grateful to be surrounded by YOU-Soul Deep Women.
Givers. Nurturers. Healers. True Soul-Makers. Together Making the Soul of the World as We Live our Truth.
You are the Soul Deep Women I long to be with!
Thank you for being part of this community!
Celebrating YOU on this International Women’s Day 2024
Photo: Tamara Phillips Owner of DeepColouredWater on Etsy
Tree Weaver 