John Muir latest

You can follow what the respected John Muir Trust has been doing lately by looking at its Newsletters.  You can read them here. One of its current campaigns relates to footpath restoration on majestic Suilven (pictured).  This is a community-owned mountain in Assynt, whose ancient geological features are recognised within Scotland’s first European Geopark.

UK Soil Observatory

The UK Soil Observatory has a map viewer that helps you explore the soil environment where you live and puts soil maps at your fingertips. You can select from over 100 map layers contributed by a range of data providers, covering topics such as soil carbon content, moisture, texture, chemistry and geophysics. You can also search…

The Countryside Classroom

The Countryside Classroom was launched last week. We tried out the Places to Visit page, which says: “Countryside Classroom helps you to arrange high-quality class visits that enhance learning about food, farming and the natural environment.  You can use the filters on the left of this page to help you find the perfect venue in…

Organic News

Here are a few recent updates from the Soil Association: 1. In his new book, Everyday Superfood, Jamie Oliver has championed organic food.  He says that rather than being an unaffordable luxury, organic is just another word for natural.  See: Jamie Oliver  2. On November 5th the Soil Association will hold its 7th annual Soil Symposium. This…

Awards for outstanding contributions to LOtC

The Awards for outstanding contributions to learning outside the classroom recognise some of those committed to ensuring that young people benefit from engaging and motivating learning outside the classroom. The Awards celebrate the richness of experience which LOtC offers young people, and the some of the many fantastic people involved.  The shortlists for each award are here.  Voting…

Greening the locality

Do you live in West Yorkshire or Greater Manchester? If so, you can apply for two £10,000 grants to help green your neighbourhood.  The grants could be used for any ‘urban forestry’ initiative such as planting street trees or creating an urban orchard. The grant is part of the TD Green Streets initiative – a partnership between Leeds’ based TD Direct Investing and…

OUP’s missing words

Did you read recently that the Oxford University Press has been steadily removing (over the last few years) nature-related words from its Junior Dictionary?  Examples include: acorn   blackberry   buttercup   fern   heather   minnow   moss   sycamore   willow An OUP spokesperson said the dictionaries are “designed to reflect language as it is used,…

3,000,000,000,000 trees on Earth

Climate Action reports a Yale University global survey of trees. This says that there are just over three trillion trees on Earth which is eight times more than previous estimates. Yale combined ground survey data with satellite imagery giving the new total that is equivalent to about 420 trees for every person.  About 43% (1.39 trillion trees), are…