March 2013 Update

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Hi All

Thanks very much for your interest in More Trees BANES.

Firstly, we’re delighted to announce a new member of our team. Alan joins us as Treasurer, and brings with him a wealth of experience within financial management in the public and charity sectors, so we’re honoured to have him on board, and feel sure he will help us achieve our aims.

On that note, we’re delighted to say that we’ve planted over 3,000 trees over the last 5 years. Thanks very much for your contribution. We’ve set ourselves an ambitious target to plant another 13,000 by the end of the 2016/17 planting season. It doesn’t take a maths genius to see that we’ve got our work cut out :-)

So we’re upping our game and setting our sights higher. We’re casting our net far and wide across BANES to see where we can plant trees. Over the next few weeks and months, we will be getting in touch with everyone we know to see where we could plant. So if you have an idea of somewhere where a tree could go, maybe a copse or even a whole woodland – get in touch.

Once we’ve scoped that out, we’ll need to price it all up and then we can see how much money we’ll need. Of course, we’ll need help with that and so we’ll be in touch with details of various fundraising initiatives. One idea is a hyper-local carbon-offset scheme, where we plant trees close to where the donation has come from. Ideal for the individual or family who want to offset their shiny new 4WD or that flight to the Costa Blanca, or for the business owner who believes in sustainability …

Neill & Tara were our two intrepid runners in the Bath Half Marathon who helped us raise £653 in sponsorship donations! Slightly short of our £750 target, so if there is anyone out there who would be willing to get us a little bit closer, we’d be really grateful.

Once we’ve raised as much as we can this year, we’ll see which projects we can deliver and will put some planting dates in the diary. This is another opportunity for you to help – elbow grease! What is better than a morning’s hard work in the great outdoors, meeting like-minded people and getting the sun (rain/snow!) on your face while you are part of something as important as tree planting?!

On that note, we’re going up to one of our favourite planting sites at 10:00 on Saturday 30th March – Weston Park East. We, and the council, have planted hundreds of trees up there over the years and we’re going back to ensure they’re all getting off to a good start. This will involve carting wheelbarrows of mulch around and spreading it around the trees. Come along if you’re free for a couple of hours, and if you have your own wheelbarrow, you may just become our new best friend. Details here: http://www.facebook.com/events/524896084228424/

Thanks again for all your support. Please pass this on to anyone who you think might be interested.

Adam

PS Did you know that climate scientists believe this abnormally cold weather is due to the dramatic arctic ice loss, please see http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/mar/25/frozen-spring-arctic-sea-ice-loss. Yet another reason for us to hurry up and get as many trees in the ground as possible.

Snow Photo Competition Results

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Wow – we were blown away by the entries for our recent Snowy Tree Photo Competition!  Thank you to everyone that entered and/or voted.

We had several entries, and asked people to ‘RT’ or ‘Favourite’ on Twitter, or ‘Like’ on Facebook.  The person posting the most popular photo wins a free tree.

Please note that the competition has now closed (although feel free to post up any pics at anytime on our pages).  You can view the entries here:

http://www.facebook.com/moretreesbanes

https://twitter.com/MoreTreesBANES

Dotty's picture

Dotty Ryder touched everyone with this beautiful picture, and her plans to dedicate any tree she won to her late friend.  With 32 likes, she won hands down!  We have a particularly special tree for you Dotty, so please get in touch.

We were so blown away at the quality of the pictures entered, and by everyone’s enthusiasm for the competition, so we’ve decided to give everyone a free tree! So, please can the following people get in touch to claim their prize:

Hannah Banana Southworth

Simon Durrant

Dotty Ryder

Agi Agnieszka Lewkowicz

Charlotte Gray

Clare Hughes

Lorna Abrahams

@fifi3chui

@SnowflakeSusie

@sharongball

@seanlibdem

 

Have we missed anyone?

 

:-)

More Trees get Marathon Sponsorship

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Two Bath residents are combining a love of exercise and the environment.

Tara Gretton and Neill Gretton, members of More Trees for Bath and North East Somerset, are in strict training for the 2013 Bath Half Marathon which takes place on March 3rd 2013 (see http://www.bathhalf.co.uk/ for full details)…and they need your sponsorship to raise funds for the tree-planting not-for-profit group.

More Trees for B&NES has ambitious plans to plant more than 16,000 trees by 2017. So far the group has planted over three thousand trees in the region and it has many other plans in progress.

Comments More Trees’ Chairman, Adam Gretton: “It’s brilliant that Tara and Neill have chosen to run for our group – please everyone go out and support them on the 3rd…and also sponsor them so that we can help plant trees everywhere: in woodlands, along streets which used to be tree-lined, in community orchards, in schools, residential gardens and public spaces.”

Adds Tara Gretton: “Neill and I are active supporters of More Trees BANES, so we decided this would be a good way to raise money and awareness for the group. You can find more details at our web page www.moretreesbanes.org or contact us on moretrees@live.co.uk.”

We’re Looking for a Treasurer!

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This voluntary position is an excellent opportunity to contribute to the strategic direction of this forward thinking group, and to make a real difference to the environment in BANES.

About us
More Trees for Bath and north east Somerset is a not-for-profit community group with the simple aim of increasing the number of trees in the region. We started in 2008 and have planted 3,000 trees so far. We have ambitious plans to plant 16,000 trees before the end of 2016.

We now require a treasurer to help us keep our finances healthy so we can achieve our mission.

About the role
The main duties are to oversee the financial administration of the organisation, review procedures and financial reporting, advise the board on financial strategy, and advise on fund–raising. There are 12 meetings a year which are held in Bath – the Treasurer would need to attend a minimum of 4 per year.

About you
Our finances are simple, so anyone with basic bookkeeping skills will be able to perform the role, although we would welcome interest from qualified accountants!

Ideal candidates will have:

• An interest in trees and the environment
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Analytical ability and good independent judgement
• Capacity for clear, creative and strategic thinking and vision
• A willingness and ability to devote the necessary time and effort
• An ability to be creative about generating funds.

For further information please contact us.

To apply, please click here.

Closing date for applications is 31st January 2012

Splish Splash Splosh: The danger we’re in

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Pulteney weir, without the weir

Have you noticed how the weather is getting more extreme these days?  Hurricane Sandy … Droughts followed by flooding here in the UK …  Landslides in Bath …  Say hello to climate change.

Climate change is the elephant in the room.  We all know it’s there, but we don’t really like talking about it, as it’s so damn inconvenient to admit it’s happening.

It’s time to face up to it.

We are just about to reach a tipping point in world temperatures, and once we go beyond that point it will be very unlikely the scientists and engineers will be able to control climate change, and it is expected to spiral out of control.  We will start to see natural disasters way beyond what we have seen so far, and there will be a very real threat to the survival of the human race.

That tipping point is only 4 years away, which to put into perspective, is before my children go to secondary school.

It’s too late for the polar bear, and its very nearly too late for us.  It’s time to stop procrastinating and take action.

If we carry on as we are, in 4 years time the world temperatures will have increased by 2 degrees. That doesn’t sound like much, but at that point the polar caps will have completely melted, and the permafrost peat bogs will release an unfathomable volume of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.  Once this happens, everything will feed off each other, and temperatures will accelerate faster than ever before.

Humans right across the world will see huge changes in weather patterns.  As an example, here in the UK the melted polar ice will stop the gulf stream, which will actually lower UK temperatures so we become more like Scandinavia.  We’ll get bored of the constant natural disasters playing out on our TV screens.

No-one needs to tell us what to do – these solutions have already been presented to us.  No more waiting for the engineers to come up with a solution. No more waiting for Governments to take control.  It’s down to each and every one of us to take responsibility.  It will mean tough sacrifices now, but not nearly as tough as those required once we go past the tipping point.  Prevention is always better than a cure.

Will you be able to look the next generation in the eye when they ask you what you did about it?

More Trees Moor Fields!

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Councillor David Dixon of Oldfield Ward has used part of his Ward Councillor Initiative Fund to pay for a tree giveaway in Moorfields, Bath. We will be helping him manage this project.

Many of the estates in Bath – including Moorfields – were planted up with cherry trees which generally only last for 50 years or so. Many residents have expressed their disappointment that so many of these trees have died and/or been removed, so there is strong local support for this project.

These trees will have a positive visual impact on the estate, improve air quality, reduce surface flooding, provide habitat for wildlife, provide food for residents and will help the estate cope with the increased effects of climate change, as well as helping to slow down the global greenhouse effect. The south side of Bath has a distinct lack of trees, compared to the north side – this project will help address the imbalance!

Please get in touch if you live in Moorfields and would like a free tree, and of course if you want to help us spread the word and/or plant them – we’d welcome your support.

Where will our 3,000th tree be planted?

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We’ve planted 2,978 trees so far. Wow that makes us feel tired! Phew – that was a lot of work. Luckily, many of you helped us with this mammoth effort – thank you!

We’d like to make a bit of a thing about our 3,000th tree and so have something special lined up.

However, it’s down to you to decide where it goes! We feel it should be in a public location for all to enjoy, so over to you – where shall we put it?

Whether you are a local politician, council officer or resident – please get in touch with your suggestions