"Earth calling Hartshill..."

Hartshill Park really needs to boost (or boot) its communications manager. Friends of Hartshill Park Events and Meetings Web page... stuck in 2014. Main top car park noticeboard box... empty. Facebook group... seems to lack an Admin to admit new members or to post events details.

Restoring small urban 'pocket' woodland

I've been watching a few documentaries and reading a few articles and PDFs on restoring and managing urban 'pocket' woodland, especially that which is fairly young (50 years or so, maybe effectively abandoned in the 1960s). It might be on a fairly small patch of former industrial brownfield land, with a limited number of mature trees. Perhaps partly on a slope, even, and/or alongside a railway or old factory, which may have prevented development. The basics ten steps can be summed up as follows:

1. Pick up all the litter in the late winter / early spring. Every scrap of it. Then pick it up weekly or monthly, if you have an ongoing litter problem.

2. Put in a half-dozen bird boxes, fixed to the north-east side of the trunk, at just above six foot height. Higher, if yobs are likely to tear them down.

3. Add large chunks of nicely rotting wood from other sites, if not present. Place these in parts sheltered from the wind, if possible. Also consider transplanting sections of earth containing woodland fungi mycelium — half the wood is actually beneath your feet.

4. In November plant early spring native flowers for ground-cover, as bulbs and self-seeding seed. Plant the bulbs deeper than you might in a garden border, at three times the depth of the bulb length.

5. In a dark wood strategically clear bracken and bramble tangles, and lightly prune off the fingers of overhead branches, to create the first open sunny glades within the wood. But keep in mind that direct midday summer sun will blast and wither tender woodland plants - so "dappled light" should be the aim in your selective pruning. Consider adding a small water source in a glade, such as a large old sink or half-butt, half buried.

6. Raise the woodland 'canopy' from the floor by removing selected lower branches and suckers from all the larger trees and bushes. This lets more light reach the ground.

7. Contrary to popular opinion ivy is good for trees and wildlife, very good. Keep it, and encourage its progress, within limits in terms of it swamping the ground.

8. Discourage or prevent all dog walkers — research shows that the mere occasional presence of dogs in a nature reserve scares away a third of all the birds. Not to mention the health problems arising from dog shit, or the bizarre and disgusting practice of hanging little bags of dog shit from bushes and fences.

9. In an urban environment, take measures to discourage teenage yobs, scrambler motorbikes, outdoor sex enthusiasts ('doggers'), illegal fishermen, etc. Don't add any type of seating, for instance, or it will act as a magnet for anti-social behaviour. Clean up the 'territory marker' type of litter and graffiti immediately. In a larger wood add heavy tree-boles or ditches to discourage motorcycle 'scrambler' paths from forming.

10. Define a main path, but naturally close off others by encouraging their overgrowth and thus 'natural closure'.

Dry stone walling training

Dry stone walling training, Churnet Valley, throughout 2015.

Not 'the litter election'

I've just gone through all the UK political party manifestos in PDF, looking for keywords: litter / flytipping / fly-tipping / or rubbish. Obviously it's not seen as much of a national issue, despite litter and dog mess being a hot doorstep issue, and despite a major Parliamentary cross-party committee report in March. At least the Conservatives manage to have a lone new election promise on the issue...

* Conservative Party: "Building on our introduction of a five pence charge on single-use plastic bags, we will review the case for higher Fixed Penalty Notices for littering and allow councils to tackle small-scale fly-tipping through Fixed Penalties rather than costly prosecutions".

* UKIP: No mentions.

* Liberal Democrats: No mentions.

* Green Party: No mentions.

* Labour Party: No mentions.

Buzzing and flying

Everything buzzing and flying today, apart from some ducks dozing in the grass by the side of the canal. Bumble bees bumbling out, a few gnats already flying, even a Red Admiral butterfly perched on a littered Ribena carton in the sun. The big hawks are back again, on Hartshill Park. Saw a big one slowly circling over the rail yards on the west side of Lock 38, presumably to see if the bunnies were out and about yet. Good to see that the post-industrial ecosystem is getting strong enough to support top-level predators year after year.

[Update: Hawks confirmed. I saw both of them riding the thermals above the Park, the next day]

"Litter Pickers" documentary from 2009

Positive little 10 minute radio documentary from Ireland, "Litter Pickers" (2009). (.mp3 link)

"One day, reporter Ronan Kelly came across a priest with a bike walking along beside a busy road in Dublin picking up litter. They spoke and Ronan thought little more of it until he came across a woman picking up litter on a football pitch... and then a man walking a dog picking up litter in a park... and another man with a bike picking up litter behind a supermarket. Soon Ronan had picked up enough litter pickers to make a report..."

Litter reports

There's a major new British Parliament cross-party committee report on Litter and fly-tipping in England (Web version with witness statements), also as a PDF version (no witness statements).

Also some recent UK think-tank reports on the topic:

A Clean Sweep: rethinking the way we tackle litter.

Exploring the Indirect Costs of Litter in England: Final Report to Keep Britain Tidy.

Scotland also has a rather dull 2014 National Litter Strategy.

Bill Bryson on Britain's Litter Problem (2008)

Bill Bryson: Britain's Litter Problem (2008) and part two and part three...

Thanks to Crosbyeyes for keeping this otherwise unavailable Panorama programme online via YouTube.

Don't Mess With Me: full series on YouTube

Don't Mess With Me is an excellent recent TV series on litter, which has just been re-commissioned for a second series. Here's the first series, free on YouTube:

Don't Mess with Me Episode 1.
Brighton Beach / Birmingham to Lichfield trains / Microplastic pollution in our seafood / Edinburgh street dumping wardens.

Don't Mess with Me Episode 2.
London's Leicester Square / A litter experiment / Canoeist litter picker volunteers on Leicester's River Soar / Collecting litter from inaccessible coastal beaches.

Don't Mess with Me Episode 3.
Birmingham New Street station and approach lines / Northamptonshire fly-tippers / Leicester can collector / A psychology experiment in Hay-on-Wye.

Don't Mess with Me Episode 4.
A poster experiment in Portsmouth / London's Gay Pride march / Underwater litter pickers in Devon / Croydon's cigarette butt wardens.

Don't Mess with Me Episode 5.
Essex fast-food giants / Hampshire dog poo wardens / Cleaning up motorway verges / An experiment in Essex.

Toward a historical timeline of litter in the UK

A quick attempt at a timeline of the history of litter in the UK. This is just meant to quickly capture my recent reading on the topic, in the hope it may help someone researching the topic in the future:

1930s: Council for the Preservation of Rural England (CPRE) is concerned at level of picnic waste from motor-coach 'day trips' excursions, and the then-new rambling groups, from the cities to natural beauty spots.

1930s: Women's Institutes (WI) take up the CPRE concerns, adding urban concerns about Bank Holiday Weekends, and coastal concerns about seaside beaches, etc. The WI lacks national backing or a coherent campaign.

1940s: Intensive recycling during wartime.

1950s: Soft drinks and beer are still sold in returnable/refillable glass and stoneware bottles, on which a cash deposit had to be paid. Lack of a bottle smashing 'yob' culture, outside of small parts of London and Glasgow.

1951-53: Conservatives launch first national anti-litter campaigns.

1954: Keep Britain Tidy Group formed by the Women's Institutes (WI), Queen Mother as Patron.

1958: Government gets behind Keep Britain Tidy. Conservatives propose and passed The Litter Act in Parliament.

1969: The famous "Tidyman" logo starts to appear on some packaging.

1970s: Keep Britain Tidy Group becomes more professional, uses celebrities in TV ads.

1970s: Rise of 'disposable' fast food packaging, non-returnable glass bottles, cans. Spread of fast food franchises.

1970s: IRA terrorist bombings cause the removal of litter bins in some urban public places.

1970s: TV children's series The Wombles (1973–1975, repeats later) introduces a generation of children to litterpicking as a hard but worthy activity.

1974: Keep Britain Tidy Group focussed only on those groups most likely to casually litter: school children, young men, smokers. Schools still able to organise pupils for litter picks.

1983: Conservatives proposed and passed the new Litter Act of 1983 in Parliament. Also the Environmental Pollution Act 1974.

1986: Mrs Thatcher forms a 'Litter Task Force' headed by Richard Branson. Leads to the Tidy Britain campaign, personally launched by Mrs Thatcher.

1980s: New large landfill sites needed across the country, to cope with the vast amounts of litter and packaging being generated annually.

1980s: Dog population starts rising rapidly, from a base of 5 million.

1980s: Spread of large out-of-town supermarkets, and more use of single-use plastic carrier bags.

1980s-2000s: Large increase in heroin addicts and drug dealers, who cause extensive localised crime and litter.

1990: Conservatives bring in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 in Parliament.

1990s: Health-and-safety doctrines prompt councils to move away from roving solo litter pickers, toward more vehicle-based street cleaning services. These then tended to become distinctly town-centre focussed, as the growing 'night-time economy' threw down ever more litter.

1990s: Schools and parents increasingly see litter picking as a 'demeaning' activity. This interacts with the new 'health and safety' doctrine, and some schools stop requiring litter picking by their pupils.

2000s: A growing rift between adults and kids, meaning adults could no longer admonish a kid throwing litter or smashing a bottle. The last soft drinks companies stop offering refundable deposits on glass bottles. Growth of the bottle-smashing yob culture.

2000s: Dog population is now much increased. 3.2 million more dogs are in the country than the late 1970s, meaning much more dog poo. Emergence of the bizzare and disgusting practice of hanging small bags of dog poo on bushes, trees and fences.

2000s: Rat numbers increased by 29% from 2001-2006, feasting on a new type of half-eaten fast-food litter. Consequent rise in the health risks of litter.

2000s: Terrorism fears after 9/11 cause the removal of litter bins in some urban public places, such as train stations.

2000s: Strongly rising population of urban foxes, which find ripping open bin bags at night easier than catching rabbits. This spurs the increasing introduction of wheely bins. This is followed by the rise of kerbside seperated-item recycling boxes for each household, which are often overflowing and/or opened up by high winds/foxes/cats, causing litter dispersal.

2000s: Rise in numbers of 'buy to let' landlords and university students — thus more fly-tipping of the left-behind goods of previous tenants.

Sources:

* "Blowin' in the wind: a short history of litter in the twentieth century"

* The Politics of Expertise: How NGOs Shaped Modern Britain.

* "Number and ownership profiles of cats and dogs in the UK".

* "KEEP BRITAIN TIDY CAMPAIGN AND RATS!", BBC News 30/09/02 and Google Books searches.