Tree Amble

Rivers / River Restoration / Habitat Creation / Fish / Climate Change 

In this episode of Tree Amble, the first of Series 4, we meet George Heritage who has made a career out of understanding rivers and now works to restore them for biodiversity and water management and we go out to the riverside with a team from West Cumbria Rivers Trust and volunteers to monitor a stretch of river for its fish population. Jonny and Ruth use a method call "eclectro fishing" to count fish of all sizes in a stretch of river and then, through repeat surveys see how fish populations change over time and over the catchment. They can easily see the effect of poor habitat or pollution incidents and then work to change it with farmers and land owners. 

In other words this one is all about rivers and what we can do to help restore and revitalise them. Have a listen!

Landscape Scale Restoration / Community Projects / Upland Scotland / Rural Community 

In this Tree Amble episode we hear from a range of great people engaged on landscape scale restoration in North West Scotland - notably on the Assynt Foundation land and the Woodland Trusts Loch Arkaig woodland restoration project.

We hear about community engagement, tree planting and woodland management, specialist kit removing timber across lochs, living and working in remote communities and wild life management. 

We hope you enjoy this Tree Amble into the far north west! 

Organic Dairy / Milk / Manging Organic Land / Bore Place 

In this Tree Amble we meet Dan Burdett who is the farm manger on the 500-acre regeneratively managed historic estate of Bore Place, an hour south London. Dan is an experienced organic dairy man with his feet in two farms - we meet him at work at Bore Place. 

The farm's focus is on organic farming and regenerative land management whilst supporting people to live happy, fulfilling, and sustainable lives. It offer educational programmes for school children and young people, holiday stays, group retreat accommodation, marked trails to explore the estate and farm, and a programme of public events.

The recording on this podcast is a little marred by the dairy chiller in the back ground.. but, hey ho - it shows we were where we said we were! 

Trees / Veteran Trees / Ancient Trees / journey on foot 

Martin Hügi took a four-month sabbatical to walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats. Dubbed the ‘Tree Pilgrim’ he set out to meet thousands of incredible trees on his special journey. He wanted to spend time connecting with some of our oldest living things in the countryside - to learn more about them and the people and landscape around them and to bring about a greater level of protection for them. Martin accepts that he is obsessed by trees.

Did he get to John O'Groats... well no... he didn't but he had an amazing journey none the less...!

Soils / Earth Worms / Fungi / Compost / Nematodes 

In today's episode we meet Kate Roberts and have a brilliant conversation about what is going on beneath our feet! Kate is delightfully obsessed by how soils work and what drives fertility at a soil and then field level. She has created her own "not for profit" to train people in the diversity of life below the soil surface and in what we can do to increase and look after it - we talk about nematodes, arthropods and earthworms as well as composts and compost teas. This conversation was a real eye opener for Tree Amble!

Emergency medicine / nature / wellbeing in nature / gardening / swifts and swift boxes / tree planting 

Emergency doctor and nature lover Beanie Merson is more than an inspiration! This episode is about how anyone can pick up the nature bug and start with small scale projects that help transform an area. 

Beanie came into practicing medicine during covid - she was one of a generation of doctors who came out into the world at a time of massive stress and when we needed them like rarely before. We met Beanie when she stared talking to people in her village about conservation... then got some folks on board to plant trees in their edges.... then went on to create a swift project locally.. and now campaigns for swift protection and gets her husband to make swift boxes.

Arable Farming / Grants / Agri-envirnoment / Minimum Tillage 

In this episode of Tree Amble we headed off to Norfolk to meet Gavin Lane to talk about his efforts to change farming practices on the two holdings he manages. We talk about reducing tillage and the the use of agri-environment grants as a route to fund changes in approach, Pete admits to being a bit out of his depth on this one - not knowing the ins and outs of the arable sectors as well as others, but we hope its an interesting listen! 

Lake District / Farming / Food production / Food Supply / Rural Jobs 

Tree Amble went to meet the team at Lake District farmers for a chat about their role in bridging the gap between quality meat production in Cumbria's Lake District and markets for that meat further south. The company was set up to create a value chain which brought back more income to the upland farmers of Cumbria and which created a sustainable quality meat supply. 

As Pete is a vegetarian - and has been for over 3 decades - this might be a difficult place to go for a conversation. But the aim of the podcast is to talk about good land management and how we get there using all the tools we have and maintaining rural livelihoods and cultures. Animals are now and will always be par of this landscape - it is how we manage and value them which is key. Have a listen and enjoy!

River Restoration / Natural Flood Management / Biodiversity / Salmon / Ponds / Water 

Danny Teasdale is one of those characters who pops up in a a generation for whom a pathway was not built for them but somehow the life before leads to the life after... as a mechanic and very capable machinery man he spent his youth chasing after salmon in streams and rivers around Ullswater in the Lake District of northern England. I have worked with Danny on many small projects over about 12 years but after major flooding in the Lakes in 2019 he managed to bring his love of rivers and streams and his ability with machines into a small business doing river restoration, pond building and habitat restoration around water -Ullswater Catchment Management CIC was born! Amazingly even in Cumbria over 75% of our water courses have been changed by people - deepened, dredged and straightened - losing much of the naturalness which supports insect and fish populations.

In this episode Danny and I tale a walk along a beck (the name for a small stream in Cumbria) where he has worked with landowners to restore natural features ...... and we find spawning salmon! 

Organic Vegetables / Mental Health / Wellbeing / Tree Planting / Pond Creation / Flower Growing / Community

We spent a lovely morning with Abby and some of the local community who come together, when they want to, to grow veg and cut flowers on this amazing small plot of land in North Yorkshire. I met Abby a few years back when she had just started the project by buying a bit of land from a neighbour and inviting local folks to help plant trees and a hedge. Since then this project has grown into Holme Grown Eastby which now, in the summer, supplies veg boxes to 2 villages along with lovely cut flowers - producing food and importantly bringing isolated local people together to work as a team - its a brilliant wee project!