The season's winter work began in earnest this weekend with dedicated environmental do gooders doing good in Wick Wood and on Hackney Downs. On Sat a hard core of HMUG veterans built a stylish 'S' shaped 50m dead hedge in a clearing in the woods. Plenty more sustainable housing for wood mice, wrens, mini beasts and fungi. A lovely mild sunny morning made the work much more like play.
Then today TMs were out on the Downs planting hornbeam and native black poplars and filling in gaps in a hedge with dogwood and buckthorn. The black pops were grown at the community tree nursery on the marshes from cuttings taken in Wick Woodland in 2005. Around 40 of these rare native trees have been planted in Hackney in the last 5 years. If you know a space big enough for a really big tree we still have about 30 in the nursery looking for good homes.

To find out more or get involved visit the TM and HMUG website at: http://www.hackneyenvironment.org.uk/

A ugly picture is beginning to emerge of what the LDA (London Development Authority) are planning as 'legacy' in the so called post-Olympic 'park'. Neo-con insanity necessitates the inevitability of yet another property development scam but on Monday (9/11) I discovered a detail that helps bring it all into perspective. In making various calculations about where to site wind turbines the busy Olympics brains have worked out that the NW corner of East Marsh is the only possible place, chiefly because regulations require it must be at least 250m from any housing. A combination of the illegal St. Teresa Terrace housing estate on Main Marsh, requiring its own 250m exclusion area, and air flow to the other turbine at Eton Manor make the NW corner of East Marsh the only place left. When I enquired why the turbine could not go elsewhere on the Olympic site (i.e. south of the A12) I was told there was so much housing planned for the site there is NOWHERE that will be 250m from a flat!
So the sustainable, green, games and legacy park just means another massive residential development. Hackney will apparently get back a modest park (the size of London Fields, says LBH 2012 officer) for the destruction of Arena Field, White Heart Field, St Theresa Terrace and other encroachments. Whilst the vast bulk of the Olympics site will be more concrete boxes of unsustainable housing. Sure there will be some greenwash, e.g. better than average energy efficiency, and it will all be sold (in every sense of the word) as essential to meet the demand for housing. But the same dishonest greed that gave us the sub-prime banking catastrophe is feeding this whole game. The real housing crisis is in over crowded B&Bs, privatised council stock and increasingly on the streets. None of those people will be re-housed in the profit led orgy that will be the Olympic legacy. What is more none of the well paid LDA/ODA/LBH engineers, bureaucrats and consultants or the aspiring politicians bother to analyse anything long enough to realise they are stoking the boiler of another berserk carbon frenzy. The Olympic games will cost 4m tonnes of CO2 and that excludes the legacy development. People need to believe there is some hope so after the great New Labour fraud of 1997 and 30 years of corrupt, free market, capitalist ideology even the propaganda can be out sourced. Atomised individuals lying to themselves, constructing personalised justifications for whatever they can get, desperate to believe its OK.
So if you want some hope amidst the reality of environmental mass suicide, don't construct threadbare rationalisations to fill the gaping holes in the lies they keep telling you. Get out and do something positive. Plant a tree, feed a bird or hug a friend in need. We are our only hope but only when we start thinking and acting for ourselves, our communities and our planet is there any chance of avoiding climate disaster. Trust me, it may be a painful journey but you will feel much better.

Thanks to a very poorly attended consultation event at the Town Hall this evening (9 members of the public) I think I now understand why East Marsh was chosen as the location for the 2nd Olympic turbine (another is to be built at Eton Manor in Waltham Forest). Evidently 'our' turbine will not be operational before Nov 2013, too late for the Olympics; but it must be within the Olympic site to satisfy a planning condition for Olympic legacy renewable energy. East Marsh is deemed to be inside the Olympic site even though it is supposed to come back to Hackney in 2013.
The turbine cannot go elsewhere in the Olympic site because the plan is for so much residential development in the legacy 'park' that anywhere else would be too close to housing (I think 250m is the exclusion zone). That should give a fair idea of the sort of park it will be. It cannot go elsewhere on East Marsh because it would interfere with wind flow to the Eton Manor turbine.
So the raison d'etre is to comply with a planning condition for 20-35% (the figure seems to vary) renewable energy for the legacy development. However the ODA/LDA now say they may not need the turbine to achieve this figure so Hackney gets to decide whether or not it goes ahead. So it's an Olympics turbine that's not an Olympics turbine. Still with me?
Carefully sifting through Charlie Foreman's spin (LBH 2012 officer) it appears the site of the turbine has been moved away from the Old Lea river, further into East Marsh, because of concerns raised in bat and bird surveys commissioned by the ODA. I think I persuaded Mr. Foreman and those present from the ODA to make public those surveys.
Other data gathered: it's a 2kw turbine, will take 9 months to repay its carbon build (it's 120m of steel on a big concrete platform); some other output data went over my head/wasn't explained.
I did however learn the Olympics carbon footprint, excluding legacy developments, is 4m tonnes!
Consultation ends 14 December.

One of the many issues not discussed in the Hackney Pravda advert for an Olympics wind turbine on East Marsh is why the turbine is not on the Olympics site. It is an Olympics project, i.e. ODA (Olympics Delivery Authority). The primary reason for building it is to create the illusion that the 2012 games will be Green and to help meet the 25% renewables condition of the IOC (Int. Olym Cmte) award.
Rather than debate whether a turbine on East Marsh is a good or bad idea we should be asking why it is not on the Olympic site. If it is to power the Olympics,the closer the better. Remember Hackney lost 10Ha of open space to the Olympics (Arena Field, White Hart Field and part of the east corner of Main Marsh) and will not receive any exchange land. So the very least that could be done is to put the turbine on what was Hackney land and then pay LBH rent for the site. What we are actually being offered is another land grab for the Olympics with the fig leaf that LBH can charge the private energy provider some ground rent. So no I don't want a wind turbine on East Marsh. Instead lets have 3 on the Olympics site, the one at Eton Manor (in Waltham Forest), the one the ODA are trying to export to East Marsh, and another one for good measure!
Once we have a wind farm legacy on the Olympics site and compensation for the 10Ha of stolen land, then we can discuss the merits or otherwise of further turbines on other sites.

I spend many hours hiding in Abney Park's woodland and when there this summer had a wonderful encounter with a butterfly. I watched as a Holly Blue fluttered around a muddy patch on the path one hot day. I wondered if it was thirsty and looking for water. Taking out my water bottle I sprinkled some water on the path. My friend came and went and came and went. A short while later it came again and instead of going to the water on the path it sat on top my water bottle! We then spent several minutes together as it refreshed itself as my guest. I then picked up the bottle, butterfly attached and managed to unscrew the cap. I put a drop of water on my thumb and amazingly the butterfly walked from the cap to my thumb to drink!
I have a video I will post once I've reduced it in size.
Close up, deep connections with Nature are possible, even in Hackney. You just need to be still and sensitive to wild spirits.

South Millfields maintenance
Sunday 30th August 2009

Seven TMs spent the afternoon maintaining South Millfields arboretum. We weeded inside the guards, removed tight tree-ties, re-fixed and straightened loose and damaged guards, crown-raised some trees with damaged or vulnerable lower branches (so that they will now grow to be 'standards') and installed name labels to replace and supplement the original labels - many of which were damaged or absent.

One species, a Chestnut-leaved Oak Quercus castaneifolia may grow to a considerable size; despite having been decapitated some years ago, it has recovered remarkably well, so watch that space! More information about Chestnut-leaved Oak on the Kew Gardens website:-
http://www.kew.org/plants/trees/chestnutoak.html

We have a planting plan of the arboretum and will be producing an online version in due course, to complement those of Millfields Community Orchard.

Thanks to Alana, Christine, Eugene, Mike, Pauline, Russell and Tim.

Prior to the meeting, two of us met with friends of the late Prue Poulton to discuss possible sites on Hackney Marsh for some memorial trees, which will be planted this Winter. Prue died quite suddenly in July; she was a key figure in Hackney's environmental scene and is much missed. You can read obituaries to her at:
http://www.hackneyenvironment.org.uk - there is a link under News & Events.

If you visit the website, you'll probably notice some changes in its appearance. If you have any comments, please feel free to send them to me. Thank you.

A new programme of events will be formulated soon. We shall also be producing our Hackney Trees Calendar again: this is a major commitment in our year, but gives us wide publicity and (we hope) will generate our basic funds for the coming year. Please support it if you can. We shall be circulating details of suppliers when it has been distributed (probably in late October).

Finally, if you're interested in Hackney Marshes, have a look at some skylines taken this August.

Mike
Tree Musketeers
mike@treemusketeers.org.uk

The Tree Musketeers are volunteers who plant, protect and
help preserve trees in the London Borough of Hackney,
and raise awareness of the benefits of trees to the quality of life.

For further information about the Tree Musketeers, please visit our webpages at
http://www.treemusketeers.org.uk

Last Saturday I attended a very small gathering to commemorate one aspect of Hackney's rich tradition of radicalism. Dignitaries including Diane Abbott MP and Hackney Council Speaker Councillor Muttalip Ünlüer were on Stoke Newington Common to unveil a plaque in memory of all those who campaigned to end enslavement in the 19th century. A cedar tree was planted in March and the plaque stands in front of it. A small crowd listened as people spoke about Stoke Newington notables who campaigned against slavery but it took Arthur Torrington of the Equiano Society (Equiano was enslaved but eventually freed himself and wrote a famous account of his experience) to point out it was those who were themselves enslaved who were the true agents of change. Riots and rebellions in the plantations of the Caribbean made the inhuman trade less profitable, creating the opportunity for legislative reform. The informative and worthy commemoration organised by Hackney Museum was sadly poorly advertised and poorly attended. There followed a walk to Abney Park Cemetery to visit the grave of Equiano's daughter, Joanna Vassa.
The reason for recording the event here is to illustrate how still today the 'Great' depend upon, but do not see, those who really make things happen. The commemorative tree, a fine cedar of Lebanon, was planted rather late in the season and though (unlike many others) it has received some aftercare by way of watering from the Council it would have looked rather sorry were it not for Mike Trier of the Tree Musketeers who has tended it regularly. Without the efforts of this senior TM hauling 50kg plus of water to it every week or so the cedar would not have had fresh green shoots (it might even have died!). Fortunately I arrived in time to ensure Mike got a mention.
Even more fortuitous was the fact that I had rung Michael Dixon the park manager an hour earlier to enquire why the gates to Abney were locked on a Saturday afternoon. He sent a ranger to, no not open the gate, but to lock the Church Street gate! Again by luck someone told me the Church Street gate was being locked and I spoke to the ranger. He agreed a more sensible solution to the problem of a damaged lock at Stamford Hill was to open the other gate there but he had his instructions. Only when I pointed to the poster advertising the Abolitionist ceremony did he decide to seek further orders. Had he not done so, or I not asked, or etc, etc, the Great and the Good celebrating Abolition would have marched to an embarrassingly symbolic locked Abney Park Cemetery. So, though they do not know it, Diane Abbott, councillors and park management narrowly avoided a commemoration in front of a dead tree and a walk to a locked gate!
I cannot help feeling I wish I had not intervened. Not because I have anything against the commemoration but because, as so many of us know, many current problems do not change because invisible people who care enough to act prevent disaster and unwittingly permit our 'leaders' to believe everything is OK. Consequently I felt at least I should record the narrowly avoided fiasco.

Aside from the orgy of residential development grabbing land and destroying trees in Hackney there is now a huge rush to build sports facilities over large areas of park land including SINC (Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation) land of ecological significance.

Proposed Developments

Hackney Marshes - large sports building on south of mainb marsh, sports hub on north of main marsh, 3 cricket ptiches on main marhs (destroying Hackney'smost valauble meadow and scrub).

Mabley Green - all weather footballpitches

Spring Hill - sports pavillion

London Fields - MUGA

Hackney Downs - tennis courts, changing rooms and a MUGA (multi use games area) - Approved

If you don't want more of your parks built on and reserved for sports get involved in the campaigns to protect green space and biodiversity in Hackney.