From Change.org…..From ‘Emergence’ Magazine……From Hugh Warwick….
by Bernie Bell - 09:12 on 16 November 2023
From Change.org…..
“Earlier this month, the police made 2 new arrests in relation to the felling of the Sycamore Gap tree.
Nothing will bring the tree back, but specific legal protections for the UK’s trees could stop this happening again. Will you add your name to this petition?
Protect our trees! Increase legal protection for ancient and non ancient trees.
The UK’s ancient trees have no automatic right of protection. There is no equivalent to Scheduled Ancient Monument status, which important archaeological sites have. They often remain completely unprotected from destruction. They can be permanently damaged and even lost to a culture of safety and ’tidiness’.
Everyday trees are felled to make way for developments or destroyed by vandalism. With no real legal repercussions, trees are left vulnerable.
Trees, woodlands, and forests, play a vital role in local biodiversity, housing many species and supporting whole eco systems as well as having a real positive effect on people’s sense of well-being.
Our most powerful weapon against climate change are trees. Trees are the ultimate carbon capture and storage machines. Like great carbon sinks, woods and forests absorb atmospheric carbon and lock it up for centuries.
Sign this petition to demand legal rights of ancient trees in line with ancient monuments and create local community legal rights to appeal against the felling of trees more than 40 years old.
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From ‘Emergence’ Magazine…….
“The Stories I Haven’t Been Told
by Jamie Figueroa
“How do our inheritances shape our lives? In this week’s narrated essay, Afro-Taína author Jamie Figueroa brings her pen to the erased and fragmented pages of her family’s history, exploring writing as a tool of revelation and reclamation amid a legacy of assimilation into white colonialist culture. As she works to uncover the inherited wounds of her ancestors housed in her own bodily cells, she also reaches for a deeper remembering—writing her way into the landscapes and the cultural memories that bring together pieces of her identity. “
Available on
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From Hugh Warwick….
“Cattle Grids - can you become a ramp ranger??
Back in 1982 Major Adrian Coles found a hedgehog, trapped in a cattle grid on his land. He rescued it using a saucepan – but realised that if there hadn’t been a Major on hand with kitchenalia, the hedgehog would not have survived!
He used his position as a County Councillor at the time to get Shropshire Council to install escape ramps in all its grids. The resulting publicity was so vast that he realised there was a great appetite to help the humble hedgehog in the UK; and so, the Society was founded. I remember seeing something about this probably on John Craven's Newsround - or maybe Blue Peter!!
The campaign lead to the creation of a British Standard escape ramp for cattle grids, these are only included with newly installed grids. (BS 4008:2006)
An escape ramp for hedgehogs and other small animals is nothing elaborate. Escape ramps for small animals should be provided in at least one but preferably two corners of the pit (preferably “outer” corners i.e. corners to which the cattle/sheep do not have access). Ramps (150 – 200 mm wide) can be made of concrete, wood or metal, should not have a smooth surface and should have a slope not exceeding 1 in 2. The pit should be adequately drained. If it is impossible for an animal to gain access to the whole of the pit i.e. if it is sectionalised, more ramps would be required.
The BHPS is currently gathering data to measure the impact of this original campaign – and see if the cattlegrids are still problematic for hedgehogs.
They are collecting and collating data to inform our work on hedgehog conservation – but need your input!
How can you help?
Look out for cattlegrids when you’re out and about – and to make a note of the following:
- Where is the cattlegrid? (note the grid reference or use what3words)
- Is it on private or public land?
- Does it have a ramp for wildlife to escape? If so, please describe the ramp.
- Take a photo if you can!
- Are there any hedgehogs (alive or sadly dead) trapped inside?
If a live hedgehog is trapped, please rescue it if it is safe to do so & call us on 01584 890801 or click here for first aid advice.
Please send your findings to nicky@britishhedgehogs.org.uk with ‘Ramp Ranger’ as the subject.
And while we are on the subject of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society ... how would you like to combine your Christmas Shopping with helping hedgehogs?? If that is the sort of person you are then I can think of nothing better than a dive into the Hogalogue ... all profits go to the BHPS to help run their conservation campaigns.
If you have any spare change left after a visit to the hedgehog shop - and you have already got all of my books (don't forget the Water Voles and Beavers!) ... then, well, here is a good place for it!”
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My tuppenceworth…
Years ago, before we moved to Orkney, a neighbour asked us to keep an eye on her house & garden while she was on holiday - which we did.
In her garden she had a small pond made from moulded plastic, newly positioned with little vegetation and with steep sides. Whilst checking the garden, I noticed that a hedgehog and two mice had fallen into this pond, and drowned. Mike and I fished them out and disposed of them, then we got some stones and bits of wood and made a temporary ramp so that it wouldn’t happen again.
When she got back I told our neighbour what had happened and she was mortified. She’s a lover of all things wild, and had purposely made the pond to encourage wildlife to her garden – she just hadn’t thought it through.
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Here’s one I made earlier…. https://theorkneynews.scot/2022/01/05/the-last-time/
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