Go seed gathering with the Tree Council this weekend
The Tree Council’s Seed Gathering Season starts this weekend, Sunday 23rd September and runs until 23rd October. This is a lovely Autumn activity for all the family, and is important for conservation too.
Gathering seeds now ensures the survival and continuation of all the species of trees and plants we have come to know and love in the UK. Seed Gathering season encourages everyone, especially schoolchildren and families to go for long walks in their favourite places to pick up seeds from their favourite plants. The seeds can then be used in your garden at home, at your school, to replace old hedgerows, trees that have been blown down, or planted on pieces of land which are bare.
The Woodland Trust, local Tree Wardens, Wildlife Trusts, and the Hedge Tree Campaign can all help with places to plant the seeds you find if you haven’t room in your own garden. The Good Seed Guide is a great resource for identifying the seeds and places suitable for growing them, and it’s a great way to have a walk, but with a useful aim.
Permalink |
digg this | del.icio.us this
| 
Stumble It!
At long last, the Whitehouse is admitting what the rest of the world has known for years. Professor John Marburger, president Bush’s top scientific advisor has come out and said that it was more than 90% likely that global warming was caused by mankind and that the Earth may become “unlivable” without cuts in CO2 emissions. Prof. Marburger told the BBC: “I think there is widespread agreement on certain basics, and one of the most important is that we are producing far more CO2 from fossil fuels than we ought to be… And it's going to lead to trouble unless we can begin to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we are burning and using in our economies.” He went on to say: “The CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere and there's no end point, it just gets hotter and hotter, and so at some point it becomes unlivable.” 
In a landmark ruling, the state of Vermont has won its legal case against a consortium of US and European car manufacturers, making the state’s emissions regulations legal. The car makers sued the state of Vermont for setting emission targets that are stricter than the national levels set by the president, in their view over-riding federal law. This follows the US Supreme Court’s official recognition of global warming earlier this year, thereby allowing individual states to set their own emission levels, which means it is out of president Bush’s hands now. California has the strictest emission controls in the world, limiting the sale of polluting vehicles. California’s governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said the Vermont ruling is an "important victory in the fight against global warming." 
Shopping on-line and having your groceries delivered to your kitchen has always been a greener option. One delivery van can replace 20 car journeys, so the saving in fuel and CO2 emissions is obvious. Ocado, the delivery service of Waitrose supermarket, are raising their game when it comes to being the greenest grocery delivery company. They are investing in a TV advertising campaign for the first time in a bid to win our hearts and minds. They already offer a ‘green’ delivery slot on their website, which means you can choose to use a delivery van that is already scheduled to deliver in your area, therefore saving even more fuel and emissions. Ocado already offers a carrier bag return and recycle service, but it is now introducing a brand new recycling centre on its warehouse site at Hatfield. 
It’s great to hear some good news on the environmental front for a change. It seems that Bengal tigers, thought to be extinct in the region for almost thirty years, have suddenly been discovered alive and well. It’s hard to make an exact count of the wild tigers and numbers of other species of tiger have been over-estimated on occasions, but up to twenty of the Bengal tigers seem to have been spotted in the mountainous Maharashtra state.
You still have a chance to register for the Tree-athlon events in 
