WEA North East Green Branch

🌿 Join WEA online or in Newcastle on Saturday 4th March for their annual Green event discussing the future protection and accessibility of water 🌿

🌿 The event will run from 10:30am -1pm. Tickets are FREE, lunch is provided (for those coming in-person), and guest speakers will include Chi Onwurah MP, the CEO of Tyne Rivers Trust, and the Head of Innovation for Northumbria Water 🌿

See here for more information and to book your ticket: https://thewea.info/green_conference23

BIODIVERSITY CELEBRATION 22.pdf

The Fabulous Flies - A talk by Dr Erica McAlister From farmers to medics, explorers to astronauts, detectives to engineers – there is a whole lot more to know about our fabulous flies.

Immerse yourself in the dawn chorus, next sunday the 10th April, 6.30am – 10.30am. Myself and Beth Currie are leading a 4hr session on connecting with nature and particularly bird song at Abundant Earth, a beautiful farm 2 miles west of Durham.
Come and sit overlooking the valley, and listen to the birds concert, better than The Sage! Hot Cocoa provided to keep you warm.
After spending time listening to birdsong in different habitats on the farm, we will have breakfast cooked by Lauren over an open fire, then warm up in the cosy cabin, where we will learn more about birds, their song and ecology.
To secure your place click here https://forms.gle/Nz1UxyutgqNLhbz
Some participant comments from last time
‘A very positive, uplifting experience’
‘Delicious food’
‘I’ve loved the encouragement to connect with nature and natural environment’
(I can give a lift to 3 people leaving from Stanhope street, Newcastle, NE4 please email [email protected] if you would like a lift)

This is not a WEA Green Branch activity but something I thought people here might like.

Connecting with birds

Delightful offerings to embrace the spring birds and the spring within us.

Sunday 13th March 6.30 am - 10.30 am with breakfast!

Sunday 10th April 6.30 am - 10.30 am also with breakfast!

Saturday 30th April 4.30 pm - 8.30 pm with supper.

To secure your place go here go here https://forms.gle/Nz1UxyutgqNLhbz66

Together we will catch glimpses of our feathered friends, tune into their song, discover more about their habitat, food and behaviour.

Dusk and Dawn are magical times in nature and we will immerse ourselves here as the light changes our inner and outer landscapes.

The location; Abundant Earth, (2 miles West of Durham City in Broompark) offers us woodland, pasture, scrub and river habitat.

We will be nurtured with hot drinks, breakfasts and suppers. Blazing outdoor fires and cosy warm shelter in the little wooden house.

Together we will explore what life as bird is like, through science, poetry, music, meditation, drawing and more….

We openly welcome and want to include people from all walks of life regardless of your financial and ethnic background, neurococktail, gender, and sexual orientation. Sadly we are unable to provide access to some people with specific physical challenges due to the nature of the landscape. E.g it is not wheelchair accessible . Do contact us if you wish to discuss access.

To secure you place go here https://forms.gle/Nz1UxyutgqNLhbz66

Who is making these offerings:

Ruth Hayward

As an experienced practitioner of environmental education with adults, one of the most fulfilling things that I do is to help people learn about, and engage with the beauty of, the natural world. In this time of ecological crisis it is really important for as many of us as possible to gain knowledge of ecology and learn the skills to observe and appreciate the natural world, both to improve our mental health and so we have the knowledge to help protect it.

I have spent a lifetime gaining knowledge of the natural world, both academically and in practice. My most recent work was as project officer of the Wild West End project for Greening Wingrove helping residents to learn about, survey for and protect hedgehogs, swifts, housemartins and bats, and the associated habitats that support them. https://greeningwingrove.org.uk/wild-west-end-2/

Beth Silverbirch

Every January/ February I delight as the bird orchestra starts up again. I try to remind myself that the fullness of this piece is only really heard until summer solstice when it drops away… so I try to absorb as much of it as I can. I have lived off grid and very in tune with the seasons for about 25 years and try my best to move not too fast (not always easy!) so that I can really engage with my natural surroundings. Enabling others to take the slow time and be nestled in our home, the earth, really matters to me…I hope these offerings can bring joy, beauty, communion with nature, deeper connection with self and a delight in a shared experience with others. I am a co-director at Abundant Earth.

Lauren Anderson

A continuous exploratory food journey guided by my intrigue has led me to find my passion about growing food organically, getting my hands (and feet) in the soil, and transforming the harvest into delicious nutritious food. The past growing season I also got really interested in learning and experimenting with fermenting foods (e.g. kimchi, sauerkraut, hot sauces etc), cooking & preserving wild, foraged ingredients and making herbal medicines. Connecting with our earth and all the creatures who inhabit it is very grounding for me so I’m really pleased to be able to contribute to this experience and look forward to providing your food.

To secure you place go here https://forms.gle/Nz1UxyutgqNLhbz

Back to the Land Conference - Trees, Woods and Nature

Free Zoom Conference 1-3pm This Saturday 26th February

Book via eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/back-to-the-land-conference-trees-woods-and-nature-tickets-254531278907
Having more trees can improve biodiversity, help with flooding and improve people’s mental health.

However, there can be downsides to tree planting. Issues such as what trees are planted and where they are planted need to be carefully considered.

As funding for tree planting increases quickly, as the UK government and businesses look to it as an easy way to offset carbon emissions, it is really important that advocates for tree planting understand the complexities involved.

Presentations from:
Our first speaker, Lloyd Jones from Newcastle City Council, will outline the plan for the North East Community Forest, which includes tree planting in urban, peri urban and adjacent rural areas. The North East Community Forest is part of the UK’s community forest network.

Our second speaker is botanist Simon Harrap, publications include Harrap’s Wild Flowers, Orchids of Britain and Ireland: A Field and Site Guide. He has also been involved for many years with the management of Holt Lowes, Norfolk, an SSSI and Special Area of Conservation with extensive areas of heathland and valley mire.

Simon will introduce us to some of the issues that should be considered such as:

What sites may be damaged by planting trees?

· Does it matter which tree is planted?

· Why scrub is so important and the ecological value of ‘edges’.

· Are there times when the best strategy is to let existing woods regenerate surrounding land naturally?

The two Green Branch facilitators will also contribute. Ross Weddle has a background in forestry and Ruth Hayward a background in Plant Biology. Ruth will share some of the threats to existing Newcastle street trees that her work on the Wild West End project has uncovered.

There will be plenty of time for questions and discussion.

Although not covered in this talk, an understanding of the debate over tree planting and climate change is important to those of you becoming more involved in environmental action. Two points in particular; whether tree planting is actually slowing down action on reducing CO2 emissions, and whether there is enough land available on the earth to capture all the carbon we produce through plants.

The George Monbiot article in the Guardian on 26th Jan is informative on the subject;

“There are two legitimate uses of nature-based solutions: removing historic carbon from the air, and counteracting a small residue of unavoidable emissions once we have decarbonised the rest of the economy. Instead, they are being widely used as an alternative for effective action.” George Monbiot https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/26/carbon-offsetting-environmental-collapse-carbon-land-grab

Book for Trees, Woods and Nature via eventbrite

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/back-to-the-land-conference-trees-woods-and-nature-tickets-254531278907

The conference is organised by the WEA North East Green Branch

Back to the Land Conference - Trees, Woods and Nature Back to the Land Conference - Trees, Woods and Nature

Wild West End Wild West End We are really pleased to share with you the results of the Wild West End Project! See our beautiful map! For more illustrated maps and detailed GIS maps see the seperate Bat, Swift/Ho…

Hi all,
some good news :)

New eco-friendly community to fight loneliness 'epidemic' Councillors have backed a 'very exciting' new development that is the first of its kind in the North East

𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱 - 𝟳𝘁𝗵 𝗪𝗘𝗔 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝗘𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗵 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲

Access to green space is incredibly important. There is substantial evidence of the ability of green spaces to mitigate the conditions that compromise health, ease recovery from persistent and clinical mental health challenges and promote better health.

This conference is about walking outdoors. In 2026 the Government will stop accepting claims that Public Rights of Way exist across land. Jack Cornish, from the Ramblers, will talk about their 'Don’t Loose Your Way’ campaign.

Afterwards there will be further discussion about the actions we can promote across the North East.

Conference takes place on 28th May at 1pm.

Book your free ticket here: https://tinyurl.com/3a2etcf4

1000 David Attenboroughs

Aphid Farming!

Did you know that ants keep aphids, a bit like humans keep cows?
They even sometimes milk them!

On the Tansy in my garden there are groups of aphids. When I look closely I can see that ants are there too. (See photo, the ant is circled.) The aphids are protected by the ants from predators such as lady birds. In return, the ants collect and eat the ‘honeydew’, which the aphids produce from eating the sugary sap of plants.

This relationship is called a symbiotic relationship, as it is beneficial to both the aphids and the ants.

https://www.thoughtco.com/aphid-herding-ants-1968237