Trees for Transition and Big Society?
By Ben Brangwyn 25th January 2011
Remember that windy woodland walk in Devon at the UK Transition Conference 2010?
Robin Walters’ woodland ramble was a highlight of the conference for many people. There’s a real hunger out there for people to understand woodlands and trees in general and how to work with them and help them thrive.
Robin has just launched a new website and service called “Trees for Transition” – check out http://www.trees-for-transition.co.uk/.
It draws together many features of trees which support the work of transition – carbon management, agroforestry, watershed protection, trees for health, as well as all the traditional uses like timber, biodiversity and fuel.
He’ll also be teaching a course on Woodland Management in Dorset on 25/26th April and possibly another in Shropshire in May.
There may even be a dedicated “Trees for Transition” course in Shropshire too – keep an eye out on the website for that.
Big Society?
With the sell off of national forests/woodlands as part of the govt’s vision for Big Society, perhaps more knowledge in these areas could open the doors for communities to start putting in bids for these places. Better the local people become stewards of these natural systems than big timber companies.
It doesn’t take a genius to realise that we need to figure out better ways of relating to the natural environment as we go through this transitional period, particularly with regard to trees and soil, and this looks like really helping us do that.