A civilised society

Civilisation.

Where forests - carbon sinks, oxygen sources, habitat, water regulation, firewood, medicinal plants, huge biodiversity - are felled in huge swarths to provide bare land for building, or growing crops or animal feed.

Where we've "moved on" from eating edible plants to selecting vast monocultures of crops to grow. Where the soils have been depleted and natural resistance eroded, so we apply sticking plasters of toxic fertilisers and pesticides to prop it up for one extra season at a time. Where the natural balance of variation, and its benefits not only for biodiversity but also for food production, are ignored.

Where, to grow our crops, we remove trees that would provide alternative food sources, shade, natural soil binding and nutrients, and firewood for fuel. Where our soil, now empty and near-lifeless, washes into rivers.

Where we want driveways for our cars, or paved areas so we don't have to cut the grass, and so we pave over the soil. We cover the ground, and then bemoan the flooding that ensues. The flooding that is already worsened by the removal of riparian woodlands, and of wetlands that should be slowing the water rushing down the rivers.

Where conservation of the natural world, and all that it gives, has to fit in with the economy. Where we should be grateful for people "compromising", and leaving a bit of greenery whilst the rest is destroyed in pursuit of profit.

Where the belief is that everyone makes money and everyone's happy. Everyone can buy bigger houses, more material goods, flasher cars, and no-one loses. Well, only those people in sweatshops making the material goods. Only the environment, resources plundered to produce raw materials for goods. But that's irrelevant, as long as the money keeps flooding in.

Where its more important to 'fix the economy' and push the green agenda down in importance - it's all good to make vague promises about carbon reductions, but that's second place to making more money. All hail this artificial construct of the economy, of the stock market, of "the markets" that seem to rule all of human society. They're not even real, yet we worship them above all else.

Where we drive to work, drive home, shop at supermarkets, eat food of questionable origin, whilst we forget about who lives around us. Where we know more about what goes on in social media than we do about our neighbours' lives. We forget that our meat was once an animal, often maltreated and suffering before being slaughtered just for us.

Where we turn a blind eye to everything collapsing around us, and carry on as normal - make money, consume, repeat. Where we ignore the warning bells of a world pushed to the limit by our selfish, greed-driven behaviour.

Where corporations - businesses, mere businesses - now have the power to sue entire countries if they won't allow resource exploitation on their land

Sometimes it's hard to feel positive about 'civilisation'. I feel like we've taken a wrong turning somewhere.

BCEP in the woods

An environmental charity that my friend works for have recently taken over management of an urban woodland in Bradford, and he asked me if I'd be willing to do a bit of volunteering to help with the practical side of the woodland management. I must admit to missing the sunny days out in the woods and so happily said yes. So far, I've spent a couple of days there this summer, carving a fallen sycamore into a play feature for children and thinning out some dense sycamore over the footpath, to make it less gloomy and foreboding.

Partway through, with "steps up"
made along one co-dominant stem

  

A probable factor in the tree falling?
Dryad Saddle fruiting on the stump

Criss-cross cuts to make it less slippery

The finished piece...

Also spent a while thinning an area dominated by birch, where the charity hope to create a forest schools area for local pupils.

Before...

...after

In a geeky way, I find something so
aesthetically pleasing about birch logs!

There's still work to be done, and more thinning, but it's a nice project to be involved in and a way to hopefully utilise a slightly neglected and overlooked woodland.

New discoveries

A handful of more unusual trees that I've seen over the past wee while, mostly from Sheffield Botanic Gardens.

Cyprus cedar (Cedrus brevifolia) - a bit like an Atlas cedar, but with super small needles:

A strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) - after seeing this, I recognised another on the same street as my girlfriend's house:

 A purple-leaved variety of Katsura (Cercidophyllum japonicum), one of my favourite trees due to its lovely, caramel smell in autumn. I think the variety may be 'Red Fox'?

Styrax japonicum - a snowdrop tree:

Whilst it is a native tree, I don't think I've ever seen a wild service tree (Sorbus torminalis) outside of collections. The craggy, patchwork brown and grey bark is lovely.

And, from Paignton Zoo in Devon, a cork oak (Quercus suber):

Finally, mulberry trees (Morus nigra) must be like buses - been looking for ages, and then have seen three this year. Even ran around one of them.