Science & Nature

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It features a restaurant, food market, butcher, bakery, cheese counter, bottle shop selling wine local cider, and beer, a gift shop with independent-label gifts and healthy food to go. A healthy kitchen will serve nourishing plates from across the region. We can’t wait to welcome you, through our doors to sample the local produce and enjoy the orchard. If you fancy a trip out with a friend or an alternative to shopping in the supermarkets this is a great destination worth exploring.

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ACTION STATIONS

Nick Sinfield, Teals

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As I stood listening to Greta Thunberg at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, I found myself wondering how many of those 1000s gathered together for those 15 minutes in that sunny field would go on to answer her call for immediacy of action. I wasn’t hopeful.

For although there was a remarkability about Greta that day, it was (for me) in the gaping contrast between the tininess of her form on that epic stage and the almost unbearably enormous scale of the challenge she so regularly asks us all to meet.

I understand the message and she communicates it with brilliant consistency. And yet for all its earnestness what was missing that afternoon was connection. I needed something (or someone) to help connect me more emphatically to Greta’s undeniable single-mindedness and anger and provide greater tangibility to the call-to-action. Instead, I left hungry for next year’s primetime slot to deliver far greater impact beyond the Somerset skyline.

In contrast, Michael and Emily Eavis’ solstice gathering was remarkable for its sense of connection.

Between tent neighbours, between people and the land and most noticeably between performers and their audiences. Starved of this scale of crowd through the pandemic, the level of emotion in performances extended beyond the well-celebrated highs that Glastonbury so often delivers. The connection, realised in all the joy and tears, was next level.

As a pending B Corporation* we have admired the Glastonburys of this world that have chosen to become a force for good and, like them, we hope to achieve this through the impact we too can make on people and planet.

Our ‘home’ on the A303 at North Cadbury was built with materials that tread lightly on the environment, our solar panels carry the weight of much of our electricity and we don’t use gas. In time we’ll have electric vehicle chargers sitting alongside our bike hoops. We work hard to find good local people to work with, seek out small producers and makers from the region to represent, and cook with locally sourced ingredients from scratch.

And yet we still wonder how much we matter? Do our guests recognise Ed Hawkins’ climate graphic behind our counter for what it is or do they just think it’s nice wallpaper? Have we done a good enough job informing our guests and where is the line between informing and pushing?

Ultimately to matter more we’ve decided to set out this year to build an even greater connection between our team, guests and the spirit of our region. We now have a little gang of ‘B Keepers’ from all parts of the team. One afternoon this month they gathered amongst the trees in the orchard and worked up a list of tangible immediate actions we could take to improve our impact, along with a few slower burns.

Last week the first of those became a reality – our used coffee grounds now go to Tom at The Apothecary Garden in Butleigh, to produce compost that will feed Somerset beds, at the same time reducing the volume and cost of our recycling collections.

So was this Greta’s hope and aim? That even though the bigger challenge feels almost insurmountable, those listening to her go on to affect small behaviour changes (like compost recycling) that combined, add up to meaningful difference and by extension help to maintain awareness of the bigger challenge.

Some lucky businesses are born to change the world. Belu (pronounced ‘blue’) encourages its restaurant partners to sell water and give 50% of the income back to them, which in turn they pass to Wateraid, who provide important respite to underserved communities in the developing world. By extension, we and our guests make a valuable contribution and are positively reminded of the difference we collectively make to that cause.

Other businesses are founded on a purpose and use it to build communities of like-minded people who together create change. Finisterre, the Cornish cold water surf brand, famous for its wetsuits made from recycled materials, continues to break new ground in the remarkable development of clothing and accessories produced better by people and for the planet. As with Patagonia, their voice is clear, well directed and impactful.

In this respect at Teals, we anchor more strongly in ‘purpose’, than pure sustainability, seeing sustainability and community as important outputs of purpose. If we are purposeful in balancing the interests of all stakeholders, rather than simply owners or shareholders, we know the business of doing business can lead more readily to positive impact.

Relationships with guests that are personal, informative and enriching, lead to more sustainable levels of loyalty and appreciation, which in turn preserve jobs and supply chains.

Relationships with producers and makers that balance the interest of guests, producers and retailers enable all parties to benefit productively and improve the chance for producers to grow and create new jobs. Connecting producers with guests develops a stronger awareness and appreciation of the specialness of a region and builds community.

The remaining days and hours in that field just south of Pilton were some to cherish. In the 5 days around the festival, the Eavis’ succeeded in connecting their guests to not only great music and performing arts, but also to nature, heritage and, most of all, community. Through their ongoing generosity and constant innovation, the annual pilgrimage to The Land of the Somer people brightens the lives of 1000s in fields and living rooms, builds important movements and raises millions for charity.

What better example of using business as a force for good, what better platform for Greta to share her message. There’s definitely hope after all.

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*B Corp Certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. bcorporation.net

Marek R. Swadzba/Shutterstock

DRAWN TO THE LIGHT

Scarlet Tiger Callimorpha dominula Gillian Nash

The aptly named Scarlet Tiger is one moth you are very likely to see as it flies mainly in daylight hours on sunny days as well as at night. Its weak, uneven fluttering flight often results in what appears to be a fall to the ground or into vegetation with little attempt to conceal itself. Strikingly white, orange, yellow dotted and blotched jet black forewings and truly scarlet black banded hindwings are revealed in flight to deter predators. Other rare forms with yellow or black hindwings are occasionally observed. The adult moth is particularly attracted to the nectar of knapweeds and valerian. Planting these species in gardens will certainly offer opportunities to see this beautiful moth during its early to mid-summer flight season.

The equally attractive day-feeding larvae has black background colour with jewel-like bands of yellow and white dots creating a vivid image as it feeds its way through an extensive range of plant species. Newly hatched larvae feed on common nettle, bramble, comfrey, hemp agrimony and various other wild and garden plants. In its final stage of growth its diet may also include woody hedgerow plants and trees.

Partially grown larvae overwinter at ground level, emerging the following May to resume feeding and complete this larval stage prior to pupation.

Found mainly throughout varied habitat in south west counties of England and Wales, the Scarlet Tiger moth is frequently encountered locally, with numbers boosted in some years by immigration.

Statistics indicate increasing numbers since 1990 with many reports of its spread northwards.

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WILD BROWNSEA

Nicki Tutton, Wild Brownsea Project Officer, Dorset Wildlife Trust

Summer solstice sunrise 2022 Image: Nicki Tutton

When summer starts to turn towards autumn, the wildlife on Brownsea Island is as spectacular as ever. In August, the Brownsea lagoon starts to undergo significant changes as the breeding terns leave the nesting islands, where they have spent weeks raising their young in a cacophony of noise. The juvenile birds will follow their parents, learning to fish and to feed themselves, before departing for the warmer climes of south and west Africa for the winter.

Wading birds will start to return at this time of year, with numbers of black-tailed godwit, redshank and dunlin slowly rising. Common sandpiper are routinely sighted in the harbour and lagoon, and spoonbill start to make a more regular appearance.

During the summer holidays, the Wild Brownsea team organise a wide range of activities for families varying from pond dipping to bug hunts, guided walks and self-led activities. Wild Brownsea is a three year programme of investment in infrastructure and engagement funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to enable people of all backgrounds and abilities to enjoy this special place.

Once the holidays are over, the Brownsea team focus on the autumn tasks, such as mowing the flora-rich wet meadow, preparing it for the winter and for next year’s growing season, when the southern marsh orchids and other plants which grow there will flourish once again.

By September, the red squirrels will be thinking about the autumn, and will be moulting into their darker coats. This is actually one of the easiest times for visitors to see them, as they finish their breeding season and start to prepare for winter. In fact, September and October are an ideal time to visit Brownsea when there are less people but still plenty of wildlife around.

There’s always something to see on Brownsea as the wildlife and the island itself change through every season. Visitors can follow our twitter feed @DWTBrownsea or speak to staff and volunteers on the day to find out the latest sightings and what they might expect to spot.

The Dorset Wildlife Trust nature reserve on Brownsea Island is open until Sunday 30th October 2022 - please visit dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/Brownsea for more information.

dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk

• Kingfishers start to return from September, having spent the summer at their breeding grounds further inland. • As the autumn birds start to arrive, there will still be butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies on the wing. • Red squirrels can often be on the ground in September, searching for food, caching supplies ready for winter.

Red squirrel Sandwich tern chick Image: Nicki Tutton

Image: Nicki Tutton Black-tailed godwits Image: Kevin Cook

THE RE-FLOWERING OF SHERBORNE

Simon Ford, Land and Nature Adviser and Gardener

Compared to many similar-sized towns, Sherborne is lucky to have a significant amount of ‘green space’, both within the town and also at the fringes. Parks such as Pageant Gardens, Quarr and Paddock Gardens immediately come to mind, along with the playing fields at The Terraces. However, there are also a large number of undeveloped areas, ranging from verges and meadows, to small plots of grass.

These areas have traditionally been mown on a regular basis, creating a tidy but sterile area of lawn, which may be green in colour, but does little for the environment and wildlife. With a small shift in mindset, these areas have the potential to do something special.

Following similar projects in nearby villages, Nigel Spring of the European Conservation Action Network, (EUCAN) eucan.org.uk and his colleague, Adam Gale agconservation@outlook.com has been working with various landowners to provide advice on bringing back

flower-rich turf. EUCAN has already been doing some sterling work on the slopes around the Dancing Hill junction and at the Quarr Nature Reserve as well as at St Cuthbert’s Old Church at Oborne and Wheat Hill Meadow and East Hill at Milborne Port. After a bit of planning and some site visits, they identified some areas which had real potential.

Many people will have noticed travelling around Dorset, that the County Council has been relaxing the management of many verges and there are colourful signs, saying ‘Pollinators, not Pollution’. Sherborne is following this approach, aiming to create a series of ‘stepping stones’ to help flowers and insects thrive. In the past, all of the meadows would have been full of wildlife, but sadly now many of these are devoid of flowers, meaning we need to look after these small pockets of land.

Many of you reading this article may have tried the initiative known as ‘No Mow May’, where you leave the lawnmower in the shed and allow flowers to grow. This is not very different to what is happening in the Sherborne area. It is surprising what might still be lurking in the mown grass, waiting for a chance to flower and set seed without being regularly decapitated!

I recently visited some of the areas within the scheme, such as at the top of Castle Town Way, Horsecastles, Wheathill Meadow and East Hill in Milborne Port, Lenthay Field, St Cuthbert’s Chapel, the verge beside Gryphon School and Dancing Hill near The Terraces – it is remarkable what can be found. Beautiful pyramidal orchids are now flowering on a number of sites and there are even amazing bee orchids growing in several areas. Golden bird’s foot trefoil, yarrow, red clover, ox-eye daisies, ladies bedstraw, field scabious and cowslips are now growing where before there was 1cm long grass. On a few areas, yellow rattle is thriving (it parasitises grasses and reduces their vigour).

Of course, once you have wildflowers, then bees and butterflies will arrive and we saw marbled white, meadow brown, orange tip, small tortoiseshell and comma butterflies, burnet and cinnabar moths, honey bees, carder bees and buff-tailed bumblebees and even a red-tailed cuckoo bumblebee. Flying over the meadows were house martins, swallows and swifts, feasting on the insects.

The long grass provides a perfect habitat for small mammals such as short-tailed field voles, bank voles and common shrew, which in turn are food for birds such as the barn owl and kestrel. In some areas such as The Terraces, yellow meadow ants have created mounds colonised with wild thyme and marjoram as well as chickweed, trefoils and medicks. These anthills are a favourite of green woodpeckers.

In some areas, paths have been mown to allow people to enjoy the display and where it is next to a road, a narrow strip has been cut to help maintain access. In the late summer (once the flowers have set seed), the areas will be cut and raked which helps reduce fertility and will encourage more wildflowers the following year. It is even hoped that in due course, there may be a chance for the local community to come and learn to use a scythe. In addition, there will be opportunities to collect wildflower seeds to use to create more areas of wildflower-rich areas.

Nigel and his volunteers, will harvest wildflower seed from some sites, as well as distribute yellow rattle seeds, which can be used to make other areas even more diverse in coming years. Maybe you will have areas that can be managed in a similar manner to help re-establish a patchwork of nature-friendly sites?

Not only is this a fantastic way to help wildlife, but it saves money as the areas do not need to be regularly cut and it reduces emissions from lawnmowers and strimmers. To my mind, it also looks so much more beautiful.

Go and have an explore and see what you can find.

Bee Orchid

Andi111/Shutterstock

SEEDS OF CHANGE

Peter Littlewood, Director, Young People’s Trust for the Environment

Pilling St John’s CE Primary School, Pilling, Lancashire – UK Champions for their project ‘The Seed Bank’.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to find out about the vibrancy of environmental education in the UK’s primary schools.

It’s all because of a competition YPTE has been running, called the Primary Awards for Green Education in Schools (PAGES), which is open to all primary schools in the UK. In its first year, we’ve seen entries from almost 19,000 children and it has been amazing to see all the fantastic work they’ve been doing, both to learn more about our environment and to take action to improve it.

Take for example a school in Kent, where the Eco Team came up with the idea of setting the school a challenge to write the diary of a single-use plastic item. The levels of creativity and understanding shown by children from all the year groups were amazing and in fact, there were so many great stories entered that the school has decided to include them all in a book, which will be available for the parents to buy.

At the same school, the children learned about consumerism and the Eco Team came up with another initiative – a sale of the children’s unwanted toys. Over 500 toys were donated by the children and they raised £500 from the resulting sale. The money is going to be used to buy a shed in which the Eco Team can store the stock for its sales of used fancy dress costumes, football boots and wellies. It will also be home to their reusable party pack – a set of 30 reusable cups, plates and cutlery, along with reusable table cloths, napkins and bunting, which is available for parents to hire for £5. This fantastic initiative prevents huge amounts of unnecessary disposable items being used once for parties and ending up in landfill.

It’s these sorts of simple actions that make a real difference to the children’s attitudes – and that filters down to the parents as well!

Meanwhile, it was a school from Lancashire that took the top spot in this year’s Awards, with a project entitled ‘The Seed Bank’. The inspiration for the project came, as is often the case, from real events that happened at the school. Back from lockdown during the summer of 2021, the children spent a lot of time in the school garden, planting and growing vegetables. They harvested what they could before the summer

Perry Hall Primary School, Orpington, Kent – Southern Regional Champions for their project ‘Marine Marvels’.

holidays, but by the time school broke up, a lot of the veggies were left and ended up going to seed.

At the start of the new academic year, the vegetable seeds were used as a learning opportunity and the children were fascinated to have a detailed look at some broccoli seeds. This led them to thinking: could they start sharing their seeds with their parents and other members of the community, so that more and more people could start growing their own vegetables? That’s how the idea of the seed bank was born!

The Eco Committee ‘hijacked’ an assembly to announce their plan to the school. It caused a lot of excitement and before long, the children had collected a huge quantity of seeds. They sorted them – alphabetically of course! - into a ‘library’ of seeds, ready to send out to anyone who wanted to start growing!

They advertised their free seeds in the school newsletter and online and before long, the orders started to roll in! In fact, they were so successful with their advertising that they received a request for some of their seeds from someone living over 300 miles away. Many of their customers have committed to send back some of their seeds at the end of the growing season, so that the seed bank can be re-stocked for next year!

The children are fully intending that their Seed Bank is going to become an ongoing project, so that more and more seeds can be sent out to encourage people to start growing vegetables each year! This is a great example of how powerful a force for change primary schools and their children can be.

But in judging the Awards this year, I got to see well over a hundred examples of inspirational projects, undertaken by incredibly enthusiastic children and their teachers. Even as schools recovered from the disruption of Covid, the environment has figured strongly in their work this year.

YPTE has created a virtual awards ceremony, which gives details of all of the champions’ projects and you can watch it by visiting bit.ly/3zbHxZk

You can find out more about the Primary Awards for Green Education in Schools by visiting primaryawards4greeneducation.org.uk

AN APPROPRIATE RESPONSE

Paula Carnell, Beekeeping Consultant, Writer and Speaker

Irisha_S/Shutterstock

Anyone involved with honeybees is familiar with the varroa mite. It seriously impacted beekeeping when first reaching our shores in the early 1990s. The latest issue of the British Beekeeping Journal has caused quite a stir with three features (out of their seven) on chemical-free beekeeping. There was another feature on Coloss which is the global network on bee losses led by scientist Dr Peter Neumann. I am often quoting him with his statement that the ‘biggest risk to bees is beekeepers’! Seeing so much evidence and shared experiences of bees thriving without the use of chemical treatments in Wales, Ireland and many parts of the British Isles is so heartening after thirty years of intensive miticide use. The problem has been in trying to kill an insect on an insect. After thirty years, managed bees still have varroa, and the effects of using miticides have been detrimental to male bee fertility.

I was therefore interested by the news of varroa mite being found in two government sentinel honeybee colonies in the port of Newcastle, New South Wales. Being the only country in the world so far free of varroa, it was a big shock to beekeepers globally. The bigger shock was their government’s response, to cull every colony of honeybees within a 10km radius of the port, regardless of whether or not they have varroa. This goes completely against the 30 years plus research from the rest of the world. The consequences of this action are devastating for the beekeepers, many commercial breeders and pollinator companies. As spring approaches, like in California, migratory beekeeping for pollinating many of the monoculture food crops would begin, starting with almonds. There will be no bees this season. A ban on movement (which is not a bad thing) and more worryingly, due to the agricultural system, a total lack of native pollinators, crops in this part of Australia will be severely affected. I’d love to think it would highlight the need for more regenerative and chemical-free agriculture, however, it looks like it is almost the nail in

the coffin for any natural food growth as the situation confirms the ‘need’ for lab-grown produce.

The subject is as you can imagine very divisive, even amongst beekeepers, and my heart goes out to all those who will lose their businesses once their colonies are destroyed. I have been listening intently to the debates amongst beekeepers around the world. So many are volunteering to ‘sacrifice’ their bees for the good of the country, yet how will culling honeybees really help? One of the biggest lessons the rest of the world has found with honeybees and varroa is that yes, it destroys honeybee colonies, however, bees do adapt. They develop processes to protect themselves. Teams of scientists around the world, including our own Professor Stephen Martin from Salford University, showed how honeybees actually uncap a brood cell, remove the varroa that was feeding on the larvae, kill it, and then recap the cell! Joe Bleasdale, who is one of my bee team, has been keeping bees for over 45 years and his bees were included in the research. So we know that around Somerset and Dorset bees have evolved to have ‘hygienic behaviour’. I have been watching my own bees groom themselves and fellow bees, as well as removing deformed larvae and debris from their hives. Why then would the Australian Government be taking a ‘King Canute’ style approach? How long before another government sentinel hive is found to have contracted varroa, and another large area of honeybees are culled? The cull includes feral bees, which many have claimed not to be the leaders in varroa survival, but the spreaders of disease. Rewards have been suggested to school children who out walking spot a feral colony in a tree, so that officials may then come and destroy it. What message does that pass onto our youth about nature?

New South Wales may seem like a very long way away, yet we are threatened by the small hive beetle. It is chilling to be reminded that it would only take one government official here in the UK to decide that bees in the west country should all be culled – painful echoes of the TB, Foot and Mouth and BSE disasters that affected so many farmers in the UK during the 1990s. When will we start to have educated debates involving those whom disasters involve, as to the best way forward? I would love to see the beekeepers of the world come together to debate and agree on a free choice when it comes to colony management. Professionals who derive their livelihood from beekeeping need support and more crucially to be listened to. Many commercial beekeepers can no longer earn a living from honey production, unable to compete with the mass importation of cheaper adulterated honey. The pollination of crops is now their main income, a result of the agricultural system destroying native bees and now being dependent on honeybees. So the circle goes around. If we return to regenerative agriculture, restoring wildflower meadows to feed our bees, the pollinators would return, honeybees would be able to make an abundance of honey and they wouldn’t have to undergo the stresses of migratory beekeeping. Keeping bees in one spot would also help contain diseases. More wildflowers to feed the bees improves their nutrition and resistance to pests and diseases.

I cannot even begin to imagine my world without bees, and so I am speaking out to do whatever I can to educate and inform those in positions of influence, which includes consumers. Thankfully I have been invited to speak at the Global Bee Conference Apimondia in Istanbul at the end of August. Let’s hope by then some common sense has prevailed and the Australian bees will be saved.

paulacarnell.com

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