[Andrew K Fletcher (OP)]

A Pocket Full Of Acorns in the Local News:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/857639/a_pocket_full_of_acorns/

Download the original Leaflet here: http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb31/Andrew_K_Fletcher/Trees/APocketFullOfAcorns.jpg

Please adapt this project as your own and distribute in your area or email it to a friend: It Works!

A Pocket Full Of Acorns

The messenger
In 1995 while driving home on a dual carriageway in Torquay, Devon, I saw
what appeared to be an injured bird three cars ahead. The cars in front of
me drove over the bird but did not hit it. Having pulled over and picked up
a beautiful green and red male woodpecker, I put him on the passenger seat,
ignoring the beeping horns of impatient drivers. Continuing home hoping that
I would be in time to save this unfortunate chap, I looked into his eyes as
they rolled back in his head as he gave his last breath. I held one hand on
his motionless breast in the hope that he still had some signs of life.
Saddened and angered I continued to drive.
About four or five minutes later, I caught a glimpse, In the adjusted
mirror, of what appeared to be a breath from the injured woodpecker, then to
my astonishment he began to come around dragging himself over and placing
his head on my lap, staring directly into my eyes. Jan, a friend who knows a
bit about wounded animals, nursed him back to health and we eventually
released him into a copse in the Westerland valley near Paignton in Devon. I
still to this day hear a woodpecker in the copse and wander if it is the
same chap that rested his head on my lap.
The message was very clear that day and will stay with me forever and is the
reason for the following offering.

A Pocket Full Of Acorns

Having recently been told the story of the old shepherd and a soldiers
chance meeting in France, during the war, I would like the chance to share
it with you.

The soldier watched as the shepherd attended his sheep, and was curious as
to his habit of dropping something into the soil and heeling it into the
soft earth. He was in fact planting acorns as he tended his flock, and had
been doing so for many years. As the soldier looked around him, he noticed
that all the trees he could see were in fact oak, from mighty oaks to
saplings. He later found that the old shepherd was entirely responsible for
the creation of this magnificent oak forest and all it's inhabitants.

One cannot help wandering why the human race does not see the wisdom in
replanting the trees that we have squandered. "For man has no deeper or
older debt than the one he owes to the tree.
In addition to mans devastation natural disasters frequent the Earth, like
the Dutch elm disease or the recent fires in Australia, Spain, Burma,
Indonesia and the USA. Or floods, mudslides and storms-often amplified by
the absence of trees wreak havoc as they level the last remaining remnants
of once great woods and forests. One such storm visited the UK one-day in
1987 and left a trail of destruction with the loss of over 19 million trees.

How simple it would be to follow the wonderful example of the French
shepherd and carry a forest in our pockets. Full of acorns, or cherry,
chestnut, horse chestnut, maple, beech, hazel, apple, or any other kind of
native tree seed we could turn this tide of destruction. Locating suitable
sites, even in built up areas is very easy, gaining permission to create
woodland takes time, but you will succeed if you are persistent. Use the
media to encourage landowners to join you and to invite people to bring and
plant their seeds and saplings. Design and Display a "Pocket Full of Acorns"
sign at the entrance to your site to indicate that this particular area is
to be transformed into woodland or forest.

Each time we visit the English moors to revel in the barren wastelands that
we call our "National Parks?" We should remember that these were once great
forests, teeming with life. Wild boar, bear, deer and wolf, to mention a few
all roamed what was once great forest. Our ancestors whose epitaph lays in
the stone remnants, littered all over these lands used fire in order to
drive the animals out of the trees so they could be killed in comfort, with
no regard for their actions or the future of our planet. Grasses were
planted to feed domesticated animals and to make bread, spelling doom for
all trees until the land became so impoverished man was forced to abandon
it.
Today in certain parts of the world like Indonesia this strange tradition is
still implemented. But I wander how many of us realise that the moors are
still moors because they are still burned in the same way. Perhaps not for
the same reasons but with the same devastating results!
Farmers in the UK are now forbidden to burn straw because of its affect on
our environment. Sooner or later all burning must stop. I have recently
visited Snake Pass in the Peak District, only to find dead and dying trees
and vast areas of soil erosion.
The native Australians like the ancient Egyptians have continued to burn
their land and have succeeded in reducing almost all of their land to
desert. When we realise just how simple it would be to take a pocket full of
seeds, from a tree, with us on our day out and heel them into the soft
earth, just like the old shepherd in France. I can't help wandering how long
it would take to re-forest the barren hills instead of trampling the fragile
earth with our designer walking boots.


Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat

Soon we will be thinking of Christmas. The Christmas trees are already
growing and will be ready for harvest, to adorn with decorations and take
pride of place in our home for a few weeks. When the feasting is over they
will be dumped in country lanes or tossed aside like the unwanted puppy.
Why don't we care for these trees that have been tended for so long?
Purchased with their roots intact, placed in a pot and kept moist over
Christmas they could easily be re-planted, so that in time we could visit
our Christmases past with pride knowing that they will remain long after we
have perished.

THE MEDIA should now realise that this is quite within their grasp to make
this happen. All it would take is a small announcement and who knows where
it will lead us? It has been known for sometime that violence can be linked
to the viewing of violence on t.v. There is nothing to say that the reverse
will not happen when viewing hope on our screens.
The press should also realise that in order to print future editions,
guarantees must be fixed in place now to ensure that timber supplies are to
be available into the next century. A commitment by Europe to replace it's
forgotten forests may go a long way to show by example, the futility in the
constant destruction of our environment. Or perhaps by replacing our own
forests we may reduce the demands imposed on the last remaining tropical
rainforest in the developing world. "Please find it in your hearts to give
it a try this year.

The vision

I can see school projects springing up everywhere around the World,
cultivating saplings and organising school trips to the peoples new forest!
In Britain we could visit the Dartmoor New peoples forest. Now that would be
something to be proud of.
Instead of a paper-chase, (a race where paper is left in a trail for others
to follow), we could leave a trail of tree seeds and instead of picking up
paper we could tread the seeds into the soil and leave a trail of trees
behind us. Remember though, not everyone is interested in our environment,
so be sure to gain permission before planting trees in sensitive areas.
The human race (which incidentally is being lost), has an in-built fear of
the forest and its darkness. Perhaps it is for this reason that we are
reluctant to allow its natural regeneration? Or perhaps we still hold the
miss-conception that greater profits are achieved by exporting live
horseflesh. Or perhaps hunting down stags in plus fours and high-powered
rifle is easier without the foliage for them to hide in?

The last fifty years or so have left nothing but devastation for our
environment. It need not be this way. All it will take is a little
understanding that a few seeds will make our world a better place for all
our children. It may yet even redeem us from going down in history as the
most destructive species of all time.
What can I do to help?
First and foremost, the next time you see a native tree full of seeds grab a
handful and give Mother Nature a helping hand. God knows she needs it now
more than ever before, (try not to plant damaged seeds).
You may edit and use this message to encourage the planting of trees. If you
are from another part of the world, translate, edit and reproduce this
message to suit your native species of trees. Or simply print it and
photocopy it. Distribute it by including it in your web page, or Email it to
everyone you write to.
Ask your school to locate some land and plant a woodland reserve. Ask your
local press, television and radio if they can help to locate land and spread
the word.
If you know of or are a member of an environmental organisation, contact
them and ask them to join us. The first such group to join is Surf To Save
in Cornwall.
"A Pocket Full Of Acorns is limited only by your imagination and other than
a few stamps and the odd photocopy will not cost you a penny. However if you
do not wish to take part in this project, then simply recycle this leaflet
by giving it to someone else, or pin it up on a school notice board, or
place it in a shop window. Please don't throw our planet away, it could
literally cost us the Earth!

Initial endorsements by the Devon Tree Bank, The World Conservation Union,
and the Forestry Commission.
Andrew Fletcher, 26 Berry Drive, Paignton, Devon, TQ3 3QW.From the
Originator of OASIS Irrigation.

[Andrew K Fletcher (OP)]

Another view of the effects of planting trees.

Planting trees may create deserts
00:01 29 July 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Fred Pearce
Related Articles
China: A land turned to dust
04 June 2005

Forestry Research Programme
Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Planting trees can create deserts, lower water tables and drain rivers, rather than filling them, claims a new report supported by the UK government.

The findings - which may come as heresy to tree-lovers and most environmentalists - is an emerging new consensus among forest and water professionals.

“Common but misguided views about water management,” says the report, are resulting in the waste of tens of millions of pounds every year across the world. Forests planted with the intention of trapping moisture are instead depleting reservoirs and drying out soils.

The report summarises studies commissioned over the past four years by the Forestry Research Programme, funded by the UK government’s Department for International Development.

It agrees that, in some places, the environmental nostrum works: trees trap moisture from the air and bind soils that prevent floods, store water and nourish the environment. But it says that in other places, trees suck up moisture from the soil, evaporate water from their leaves, lower water tables, empty rivers and create deserts.

This matters especially when trees are planted specifically to protect water supplies, says chief author John Palmer of the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich, London, UK. Often, he says, “projects intended to improve water conditions in developing countries may be wasting massive amounts of money”.

Steady flow
Panama is currently seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from the World Bank to plant trees to increase water flow into the reservoirs that feed the Panama Canal. There is, Palmer says, no scientific justification for this plan.

But not everyone agrees. Robert Stallard, a hydrologist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama backs reforesting the canal’s watershed. He says forested watersheds may deliver less water, but they deliver it in a steadier flow.

Forests are not always bad, the authors concede. “We’re not saying they never produce water benefits or that they don’t have an important role in the ecosystem,” says Ian Calder from the University of Newcastle. “But if we are trying to manage water resources effectively, the simple view that more trees are always better is bad policy.”

Hurting not helping
The studies found that in the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, when fields were converted to forests to provide more water for reservoirs, they actually reduced water yields from the land, by 16% and 26% respectively.

In South Africa, the spread of foreign pine and eucalyptus trees across the country has cut river flow by an estimated 3%. The country is currently employing some 40,000 people to uproot many foreign trees. And it taxes plantation owners for their hydrological damage.

High in the mountains of Costa Rica, researchers found that forests do not harvest moisture from the clouds, as previously supposed. Chopping them down in many places barely alters rainfall, according to Sampurno Bruijnzeel from the Free University of Amsterdam, who contributed to the project.

Now it does not take rocket science to see who has a vested interest in propogating this absurdly biased view, What it fails to recognise is the locations in which trees are planted. No trees on the coastline means no moisture crossing onto the land and falling as rain = tinder ry trees inland and depleted ground water levels. Plant trees from the coastline working progressively inland and the rain will follow!!!!! Do scientists deliberately ignore the way that nature works or are they just dumb schmucks?

This picture shows clouds which have crossed from the ocean onto the land very close to the remaining few trees around the coast of Algeria which incidentally are ablaze.

[neilep]

Fantastic posts Andrew...thank you.

I too wonder why people just chuck away their Christmas trees...I find it distasteful to see them hewn all over the pavements for the dustmen to collect.

Thanks for the thought provoking posts.

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[Andrew K Fletcher (OP)]

Thank you Neil, have I inspired you enough to go out and plant a few trees with your children though? Or to pass on the project to your childrens school perhaps?

If everyone planted a single tree we would have 60 million new trees, just one tree in their whole lifetime would suffice

"The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."
K.I.S. "Keep it simple!"

[neilep]

Well, yes..I do feel inspired...you'll be pleased to know, we laready have trees planted on our behalf and I will most certainly do my best to spread the word.

Thanks

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[ukmicky]

I had a moment of inspiration about three years ago when i chopped down a tree that was blocking the veiw from my kitchen window

How bad do i feel now[] Don't worry though because the tree got is own back.

The ladder slipped as i was removing a branch that got stuck between a pipe, and i broke my shoulder.


PS
If it can be helped never break your shoulder, its bloody painful,

All the hospital doctors did was give me a sling and a prescription for nerophen.
I would of thought that in this day and age they would have something a bit better than a simple sling to keep your shoulder immobile

Michael                                      

[VAlibrarian]

As a crazy tree-hugger, I will also point that there is a corolary to the concept of restoring the function of natural systems by planting trees. That related concept is to avoid the elimination of large areas of forested land without a very good reason to do so.

In Virginia, USA, I have noted that we sometimes get into big arguments about ideas such as wind turbines- large structures which harness wind to generate electricity. Some of us (not me) argue that these structures are eyesores and should not be built.
But when the Department of Transportation knocks down a hundred miles by 30 meters of forest to build a superhighway, who among us call it an eyesore? Well, me. And I also call it an inappropriate construction effort which destroys too much wildlife and watershed and replaces it with something which will result in the burning of millions of gallons of fossil fuel per year so that vehicles will travel at very high speeds, thus getting poor fuel economy and thereby contributing to global warming. All in the name of convenience and "economic development". The cost is too high. The trees would have done more for the human race than the highway ever will, if we had left them there.
I realize that this viewpoint will be considered silly by many. But please consider, If we knock down a million trees and plant a thousand, do we solve a problem?

chris wiegard

[Andrew K Fletcher (OP)]

Hi Chris. As one tree hugger to another, The recent mudslides in Guatemala echo many simmilar events from the past. And the general consensus is the trees were removed and hillsides were farmed, which amplified the loss of life.

Trees hold the fragiles soils on hillsides together, preventing mudslides.

Up the road from me there is a high sided embankment next to the road, which has been ok for around the last 18 years. Overgrown with trees, the roots hold the soils together.

Along come the local Council and remove the trees. I said to my wife, it won't be long before the bank collapses now, and sure enough it did, spilling out a large amount of red soil onto the pavement and into the road. Then along come the council again to slear the mess up. Some people have not got the brains they were born with!

In India, the Chipko Movement recognised their inevitable fate when the rains began to fail and rivers stopped flowing. This was due to progress, in the name of ripping down all of the forested area. The women chained themselves to trees, knocked spikes into the trunks to make a chainsaw useless, and literallly throwing themselves in front of the massive trucks that were being used to strip the hills of vegitation. Some women hung onto the lorries and were dragged down the road with bleeding feet. But they held firm.

The two legged termites, sent in armed people to threaten them and this also failed. Eventually, they backed off and the government withdrew its assault on thier lands. Now the Chipko movement has been actively reforesting the areas and the trees are once again establishing the canopy, and sure enough, the rains have fallen and the rivers and streams now flow all year round again.

Environment and Sustainable Development
Brief Description
From their origins as a spontaneous protest against logging abuses in Uttar Pradesh in the Himalayas, thousands of supporters of the Chipko movement, mainly village level women, have won bans on clear felling in an number of regions and influenced natural resource policy in India. The name of the movement comes from a word meaning "embrace". The women practiced satagraha - non-violent resistance, and interposed their bodies between the trees and the contractors' axes, thus becoming the environmental movement's first tree huggers. [Note: Did not participate in Study Conference in New York, 22-24 Sept. 1995]
Click here for a more detailed look at this community.

Contact Information
Sunderlal Bahuguna
Chipko Information Centre
P.O. Silyara via Ghansali
Tehri-Garhwal,U.P., 249155 India
Fax #: Delhi 91 11 4364914 or 4360784 Tehri 91 1376 84566

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002553186_floods11.htm
Mudslides devastate Mayans in Guatemala

By Krissah Williams

The Washington Post


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MOISES CASTILLO / AP

Two women cry in Panabaj, a traditional community of about 3,000 subsistence farmers in central Guatemala that was destroyed in last week's mudslides.
 


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PANABAJ, Guatemala — With a machete in one hand, Candelaria Ramirez Tiney, 67, chopped at the dried mud surrounding her small adobe house yesterday, trying to salvage whatever she could before abandoning the village where two of her eight children had been swallowed up and killed five days before.

With the other hand, Ramirez held a cloth to her worn, toothless face to block out the smell of rotting flesh. Her traditional Mayan cotton skirt and dress, hand-woven of bright blue, purple and pink threads, was caked with mud.

Nearby, two vultures waited on a field in this Mayan village where as many as 500 people, including entire families, are believed to have been buried alive early Wednesday when heavy rains following Hurricane Stan let loose an avalanche of mud, rocks and trees from three volcanoes surrounding the village.


"The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct."
K.I.S. "Keep it simple!"

[Andrew K Fletcher (OP)]

A Pocket Full Of Acorns

Soon there will be seeds on the trees again as Autumn Draws near.

This is the time to plant trees and seeds and grow seeds on in pots to plant out at your convenience. If every single person in the UK planted one tree in their entire life, we would have at least 60 million trees. And when those trees that we plant self seed and scatter their own seeds or share them with walkers who care about where they put their feet on this fragile earth of ours that 60 million trees could easily be 10 fold or even 20 fold more. All it takes is a little imagination and even the desolation on our huge swathes of moorland can become massive national forests. But this project is not limited to the United Kingdom. Imagine if this simple project were to be adopted by every country in the World. Perhaps we would all share the rainfall rather than some of us experiencing mudslides, others flooding and more and more countries experiencing drought disease and famine. Imagine an Ethiopian child sheltering from the rain while eating a freshly picked apple.
Imagine a desert carpeted in bluebells under the shade of massive woodland and teaming with life. Alas the fact remains that more and more forests are destroyed, more and more concrete and tarmac creating mile after mile of black and grey manmade deserts patrolled by polluting vehicles and even more brick and block built deserts lived in by the two legged termites responsible for felling the forests.

It need not be like this. Nature needs a little help if she is ever going to address the most devastating attack this planet has ever seen.

Please help to plant more trees or at least plant a single tree in your entire lifetime.

Andrew K Fletcher

[DoctorBeaver]

Oooh yes - plant as many trees as you can so I can have lots to eat!  []

Seriously, though, count me in. I shall collect some acorns as soon as I see some & I'll get the kids to plant them.

[Karen W.]

I love trees and planted five big Leland Cypress in the back across my fence line! I planted them in 2004 they are three maybe 4 years Old and they are huge! Way over the tops of my barn! LOL

[Andrew K Fletcher (OP)]

Acorns all over the place now and many more tree seeds in the U.K. This is the time to involve a school for planting seeds for the future so come on guys n gals do your bit to help replace a few trees and print out the Pocket Full Of Acorns Project and take it into school to show your teachers and involve the school.

Mums and Dads, this means you also Grab a handful of seeds and grow a few on in pots for planting out later, or ask a land owner if they have a field that would look better covered in native woodland. We did it in Cockington in Devon! Now we have a woodland 25 feet high. Before it was a field with little top soil and plenty of small rocks. The names of everyone who helped plant the new woodland is preserved in a book at Cockington Manor for all time.

So Get your welly’s on and grab some seeds before the squirrels eat them all .

[Karen W.]

Wonderful stories Andrew!

Cool Idea Andrew the Acorns are ready here in the states also! I love acorns. I used to like to go down under the oak tree and gather acorns..

Their used to be a local tribe who would send someone to school to make something to eat from the acorns that we gathered cookies or something.. I can't remember, but the other thing they made one was like a oatmeal or porridge dish.. very different but not bad! A acorn mush.

[Andrew K Fletcher (OP)]

Now the trees have gone
Roads turn into rivers as people fall and die
The only growth is concrete reaching for the sky
Desert winds blowing fan the mighty flame
Forest but a memory don’t even have a name

Ocean level rising, stinks of rotten fish
No longer do they live here or end up in our dish
Seagulls all live inland and gorge upon our tips
Pipelines belch out sewage exposing telltale slicks

Ever since the oil stopped flowing and gushing from the floor
Fresh water is the reason for which we go to war
Tankers held at anchor await the highest prices
Now the tides have turned and water is the crisis
Author: Andrew K Fletcher



SEED SUCCESS BRINGS GLOBAL BRANCH-OUT
Oak trees will be lining a Churston road thanks to the planting of 4,000 acorns and saplings by local volunteers. The mass planting along the four mile length of Kennals Road was the idea of  ‘A Pocket Full Of Acorns’ organiser, Andrew Fletcher.
   But he was disappointed that no representatives of the environmental groups he invited turned up. Mr Fletcher set up A Pocket Full Of Acorns ten weeks ago after hearing the story of the old French shepherd.
   Each day the shepherd attended his flock, he carried with him a pocket full of acorns, planting them across the mountain side as he went. From this daily exercise a mighty forest grew. Mr Fletcher said: “It’s such a simple way of giving nature a hand. There is nothing cheaper than collecting a pocket full of seeds and planting them.”
   His plan to plant out Kennals Road with local oaks had the backing of Torbay Borough Council. But invited conservation group representatives failed to appear.
Planting success
“All they had to do was to come along, poke a few holes in the ground with a stick and then drop an acorn in,” He said. Nevertheless buoyed by the planting success and an earlier one at Tebbit Copse on Telegraph Hill, Mr Fletcher is taking his green message around The Globe.
   Mr Fletcher said: “With the destruction of the forests in the Third World and the increasing distances that people, mostly women, must walk to collect water and fire wood for cooking and warmth, it would be so easy to pick a handful of tree seeds and plant them on the way back to their villages.”
   Recent meetings with representatives from the Pakistan and Saudi Arabian Embassies were very favourably received, he said. 

[Andrew K Fletcher (OP)]

Western Morning News   4/11/94
Group sows acorn seeds for future
 Environmental group OASIS has planted thousands of seeds in it's 'Pocket Full Of Acorns' campaign in the WestCountry.
The organiser has had two major planting schemes, one at Tebbit Copse, near Exeter, and the other at Kennals Road Churston in Torbay.
During the latter project which was completed on Tuesday, two and a half thousand seeds and saplings were planted along the road.
But the organiser was disappointed. The scheme failed to attract the involvement of any other environmental groups he had invited which included Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers and the International Tree Foundation (formally Men Of The Trees).
"Where were the friends when the earth needed them"? said Mr Fletcher

[Andrew K Fletcher (OP)]

IUCN  The World Conservation Union       9/2/95
I am replying rather belatedly to your letter last year. I was most interested to read of your endeavours in encouraging tree planting on such a wide front. It is good to have enthusiastic people like you promoting the planting of tree seeds and saplings over such a wide area.
You should be very pleased with the extent of your influence. I have passed your notes on to my colleagues.
On the question of funding, while we are a conservation organisation, we are not in a position to provide funding to individuals. Most of our funds come from donor agencies and they are focused on conservation activities with our members and partners, largely in developing countries.
Many thanks for sharing your insights with us.

Dr Donald Gilmour    Programme Co-ordinator
Forestry Conservation Programme

[Andrew K Fletcher (OP)]

‘A Pocket Full Of Acorns’  HERALD EXPRESS November 8 1994
Another project from OASIS. Trees are disappearing faster in the UK than in the Amazon. How can we lecture the Brazilians on saving their forests when we do not practice what we preach.
During the first world war a soldier was baffled when he observed a shepherd continually stooping as he walked and tended his flock near an oak forest. Investigation revealed he was planting acorns and he and his family were responsible for planting the oak forest over generations. Such sustainable agriculture must be applauded.
Each time we visit the moors here in the UK we are revelling in barren wastelands that we proudly call our national parks, and we should remember that these where once great forests, teeming with wildlife. Our ancestors used fire in order to drive out the animals and kill them in comfort, with no regard for the long term situation. Native Australians have burned their land into a massive desert and this strange custom is still implemented today, and can be seen in practice on our own moor lands.
A Pocket Full Of Acorns is seeking to extend from Devon into Cornwall, and is looking for anyone who has areas of land, large or small, who wish to use it to plant native trees. Unused areas of land or industrial premises on farms or small holdings, or even your own back yard are ideal.
If you wish to join the “Pocket Full Of Acorns Project”, come and see the “OASIS” Stall at Surf To Save.    

[paul.fr]

The names of everyone who helped plant the new woodland is preserved in a book at Cockington Manor for all time.

So they planted new tree's, then had their name preserved in a book. That is lovely, i just wonder if they realised a tree was felled so they could have their name in said book  []

[Andrew K Fletcher (OP)]

Paul I know this is said in humour, but we planted several thousand trees  which kinda makes up for the one page in the book and a little more besides. And none of the people did this because they wanted their name in the book, They did it because they care about the future of our planet and the wildlife habitat we generated in the process. More a jesture or a thank you from the people working from Cockington who incidentally planted many more trees over time. Ever drove along a road and observed a tree full of apples in the middle of nowhere. Chances are someone like you threw an apple core from a car window into the soil by the road and a few years later we now have a regular supply of apples instead.

It is so simple to lend a hand to nature, just a little thought before an action. Farmers are turning away from livestock now with the recnt foot and mouth and blue tongue virus. This could prove a great opportunity to generate more natural woodlands on fields with poor top soil that are unable to sustain crops other than grazing. Trees thrive in these conditions and over time restore the top soil back to the land with foliage composting on the floor beneath them. They also provide timber for the future and can be financially viable with grant support.

Andrew

[Andrew K Fletcher (OP)]

Just in case you might have missed it

A Pocket Full Of Acorns Project in the local news. http://www.metacafe.com/watch/857639/a_pocket_full_of_acorns/