Newsletter - Issue 1
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Below is an online version of the first issue of our newsletter - 'Word From The Wood' (see also issue 2 and issue 3). The paper version is being produced primarily to allow those without Internet access to stay informed about the project and so much of the content is duplicated elsewhere on the website. We hope to produce the newsletter about four times each year on a seasonal basis or whenever there is especially interesting news. (there is no PDF version of issue 1 - sorry)
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WORD FROM THE WOOD The Steward Community Woodland Newsletter Issue 1 - Autumn 2000 An introduction to the project Steward Community Woodland is an exciting new permaculture project being set up to demonstrate the value of integrating conservation woodland management with traditional skills and low-impact sustainable living. Planning permission permitting, the project will provide new public access and woodland walks, demonstration permaculture gardens, low impact dwellings, craft workshops and courses, a visitors centre, a tree nursery, compost toilets, a picnic and play area, a community composting scheme, a forest garden and orchard, a low intervention wildlife zone and examples of renewable energy. We bought Steward Wood in December last year and we have started our four season survey of the land and its wildlife. This information will be used in formulating our woodland and other management plans and the permaculture systems that we set up to sustainably meet our needs.. Planning progress We submitted our planning application for change of use to agricultural/forestry enterprise with educational and residential elements on the 7th July. Permission for change of use will simply allow us to be resident on the land - buildings other than temporary structures will require further planning permission. Living on-site is essential if this sustainable project is to be viable. Living in conventional housing in nearby towns and commuting to the site could only be supported by having full-time jobs elsewhere, leaving us with no time to carry out the project. In the woods we are also able to reside in low impact dwellings (which are temporary and biodegradable) and utilise renewable sources of energy while reducing our fossil fuel and vehicle use to an absolute minimum. In addition to the functional reasons for living at the woods, it is an essential part of our philosophy and management technique to be living close to nature, observing the land throughout the year and in all weather conditions. This is the way woodland workers have traditionally lived and worked for centuries. The application was considered by the Dartmoor National Park Authority planning committee on the 1st September. There was a significant amount of support from the committee members for the project, which would help the Park to meet its Agenda 21 commitments (these stress the urgent need to promote and support sustainable development and environmental improvements. If put to a vote, it appeared that temporary permission would have been given to allow the project time to prove its viability. However the decision was deferred to allow the committee members to visit the site, see what is being done and hear what is intended for the future. It will then go to another meeting at the start of November. Appeal for support... We need your help! Demonstrating the level of support, especially from the local community, will be highly influential in the decision-making. Letters supporting the application can still be sent and wil be counted in the total received. Letters from within Moreton Parish are especially valuable. If you feel permission for change of use to agriculture/forestry with educational & residential elements should be given, please write a letter of support. If you have already written, you might like to write a follow-up stressing your local connections, adding to and expanding on your original points, for example why on site residence is essential for the project’s viability. Please also talk to your friends, neighbours and colleagues to see if they could also support the project. If you or anyone you know has any concerns about our proposals then please do contact us. We would be pleased to discuss our plans in detail and we’re happy for anyone to visit the wood and see what we are doing (please ring us first to arrange a convenient time)
Moretonhampstead Carnival The local extravaganza that is Moreton carnival took place this August, and we were pleased to be able to take part in it. We had a stall at the Summer Fair on the Sentry where we demonstrated greenwood crafts, making tools and benches, as well as providing cycle powered internet access and rag rug making workshops. It was a great day, the sun blessing us with its presence for a welcome change. On the Monday night we held an evening of ‘Music round the campfire’ in the woods. We put up a marquee (wary of Dartmoor rain) and provided food and drinks for donations. Moreton can be proud that the donations covered the costs of the cider and chilli pittas! Local acoustic musicians entertained everyone until the early hours of the morning and the starlit musical night seemed to go down well. There was a lot of interest in what our settlement looks like, and people were invited up to look around. It was a wonderful night which we hope to repeat. For the carnival procession itself we were all a bit exhausted, and plans of woodland pixies, bicycle floats and giant caterpillars did not come to fruition. Fortunately (?) enough another group had entered the carnival for us, but had clearly never visited the site or they’d know we don’t drink Fosters Lager... World wide web in the woods The decentralised, cheap, accessible information system (as long as you have access to a computer…) that is the internet is one of the tools we use at Steward Community Woodland. Unlike a lot of our tools, it isn’t rusty and we didn’t find it in a car boot sale. Whenever we have enough cycle, solar or battery power we update the site from our woodland office. At the moment the site contains a weekly diary, details of our planning application, a project photogallery, a links page, survey results, various how-to guides and other information about the project. You can find the ever evolving cycle powered website at www.stewardwood.org. Moretonhampstead library offers free internet access for 20 minutes a time. What is permaculture? Permaculture is a design system for sustainable development. It is based on a set of ethics and design principles which give practical ways to plan and act for both immediate and long term beneficial effects. It integrates sustainable land use, energy efficient building, appropriate technology, legal structures and financial systems for community and economic development. The word is a contraction of ‘permanent’ and ‘agriculture’ - because it advocates increased use of tree crops and other perennials, decreased reliance on fossil fuels and rebuilding rather than mining of soil and water resources. It also stands for culture because a society can only be stable if it meets people’s needs in a fair, humane and sustainable way. Permaculture goes beyond conservation to regeneration, repairing degraded land and reviving depressed communities. There are permaculture projects throughout the world, both urban and rural, in many different cultures and climates. Permaculture can be applied at domestic and local scales and on broader bioregional and international levels. It stresses cooperation rather than competition to achieve a state that is ecologically sound and economically viable. Working with nature not against it, permaculture design offers people positive solutions which bring a sense of hope and purpose. For more information on permaculture philosophy, practice or courses, contact: Permaculture Association 01654 712188 Permaculture Magazine (£3 quarterly)
and other permaculture books - Permanent Publications, The Permaculture Education Project (information
about local courses) - Patsy Garrard For lots of website links to these and other permaculture pages, visit the linkspage on our website. Woodland Diary highlights Our full weekly diary is available on our website (www.stewardwood.org). The following is edited monthly highlights. April - Eleven of us arrive at Steward Wood and set up tents and a field kitchen. Much time is spent reinforcing the paths to keep them from getting too muddy in all the April rain. There are problems with the website and mobile phone reception, which are eventually ironed out. A green wood workshop with a pole lathe is built. Two planning officers from Dartmoor National Park Authority pay us a visit. May - Raised beds are made in the growing area and many annual seeds and seedlings are planted. Our canvas tarpaulins arrive and the field kitchen is enlarged and made drier. We get a phone line put in, to our joy, and we are contacted by Carlton South West television, who are interested in featuring us in a documentary. A local log cabin designer asks us if we are willing to sell him some of our Larch trees. Unfortunately we have to turn him down as we feel it is too early to make any big changes to the site, habitat and canopy. June - The first stage of the longhouse is completed (half its length). We now have a large canvas covered space with a dry, carpeted flat floor. We christen the 'long' house by watching a movie on our solar powered laptop computer. We receive a reply from our letter to the planning authority informing us that we need to put in our planning application by the 7th July, so we step up the priority of preparing this. Work starts on our website photogallery with our new digital camera. We also build an open air bath, heated by a fire directly underneath the tub. July - A great deal of time is spent finishing off the planning application, which is submitted on the 7th July. The long house is finally completed - the canvas is up, the carpets are down, with beds and a sofa installed. The first two individual dwelling spaces are also constructed. A cycle powered generator is built using an old exercise bike - this allows us to use the computer even when we have completely flattened the battery and the sun isn’t giving much power. Most of the group goes to Wiltshire for the Big Green Gathering. August - The growing area is now providing quite a range of food - lettuce, broccoli, courgettes, french beans, potatoes, sorrel and various other herbs. We have been putting forward conditions to accompany any planning permission - these will ensure that the woodland is protected from high impact unsustainable development in the future. The deadline for letters regarding our application passes and is then extended by the DNPA. Our campfire music evening is a great success and the Summer Fair stall on the Sentry goes down well. The cycle generator is improved, and becomes our main source of power for computers and phones. September - The month starts with our planning application being considered - for more details see pages 1 and 2. There are some visits and interviews with the newspapers, TV and radio around the meeting. We also find time to demonstrate our crafts, network and share leaflets and information at Green Fairs in Exeter and Tavistock. Affinity Woodland Workers Cooperative - a history The group came together in 1998 after some friends had been inspired by the plans and vision of ‘Plants For A Future’ and other land based projects. We had for many years been actively involved in various environmental and social justice campaigns but felt that we didn’t want to spend our lives shouting about what was wrong in the world but instead actually walk our talk and live sustainably. A meeting was arranged and advertised between friends with the idea of seeing what interest there was in setting up a low impact settlement based on permaculture principles. Monthly meetings thrashed out a common vision and a set of guiding principles. During the first couple of years we did a lot of research into land prices, planning issues, intentional communities and permaculture. We formed a housing co-op as the legal structure of the group and later a workers co-op to buy the land. We issued zero interest loan stock certificates in order to raise the money to buy the land and started searching for suitable property. We came pretty close to buying some land near Calstock on the Cornwall/Devon border, but fell in love with Steward Wood and haven’t looked back since. The vision became reality as we moved onto the land on April 22nd - Earth Day 2000. Previous jobs for group members have included technician, web designer, care work, lawyer, campaign manager, and graphic designer. Three of us lived on a smallholding for 20 years and many of us have lived outdoors and close to the elements for long periods before. Members of the group have also spent time working for the following organisations - Amnesty International, London Greenpeace, Campaign Against Arms Trade and Friends of the Earth. As a group we have volunteered at Tinkers Bubble- a similar low impact project in Somerset - gaining experience in coppicing, felling, snedding and other woodland skills. We have also visited and learnt much from other intentional communities and permaculture projects such as Findhorn, King's Hill, Monkton Wyld, Plants For A Future, Brithdir Mawr and Brickhurst Farm. We have also visited the Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales. A day in my life at Steward Community Woodland - by Clare I am usually woken early by the dawn chorus, when the woods are alive with the sound of birds, and a friendly Robin often comes into the long house looking for crumbs. By eight most of us are up, visiting the compost loo and starting the fire in the kitchen . Most mornings (except for Wednesdays when we have a business meeting that can last all day) we have a 'morning meeting' at which we discuss our plans for the day. We discuss what needs doing and see who wants to do what.
Today looks like it's going to be warm and sunny, the weather has been like this for several days now, so I want to go and see if anything in the growing area needs watering. Ben and several others are going to visit the re-cycling centre in Newton Abbot to see if they can find anything that we could make use of. Water tanks and pipe are required to set up a water supply to the growing area. We also need more large metal boxes which we often find at the recycling centre and have found are good for storing food (because rodents can't get in). Katrina has been doing a survey of the trees, so Pete and her are off to explore the top area of the woods. Last week I helped her survey the trees along the disused railway track that runs along the bottom of the woods, we were both surprised and delighted at how many young oak trees there were. I head off down the hill with a bucket full of kitchen scraps for the compost bin. I pass Dan with some visitors from Buckfastleigh who have arrived while he was collecting the post. At the growing area I empty the bucket into the compost bin and cover the kitchen scraps with grass cuttings. The growing area looks fine, only the comfrey cuttings, which are in pots, need watering. Everything is growing really well, we ate our first own grown lettuce the other day, it tasted wonderful. The potatoes are flowering, so they should be ready soon, and the nasturtiums are all flowering. Nasturtium flowers and leaves are both edible, so as well as bringing some colour to the garden, they also add colour and a peppery flavour to salads. We are planning to plant a herb garden near the kitchen, so I spend the morning weeding and taking cuttings from some of our herb plants. There is little shade in the growing area and the sun is really hot, so it is a relief to walk back up to the kitchen in the shade of the trees at lunchtime. I pick some spinach and sorrel to have for lunch. On the way back up the hill I see a bird that I can't identify and try to remember to look it up in a bird book later in the day. In the kitchen Pete is burning citrus peel. We prefer not to put citrus peel in the compost in great quantity so we burn it instead. Dried peel makes a very good fire lighter if you can keep it dry but we haven't had much success. Somebody has already prepared some salad and raw hummus so I quickly make an additional dish with the stuff I picked in the growing area and sit down to eat. I am still eating when the phone rings in the long house and somebody shouts that Ben has called to say that they are about to arrive back with loads of stuff from the recycling centre. I quickly finish my food and join the others on the way back down to the bottom to help carry stuff up. On the way past the growing area I grab one of the wheelbarrows to make it easier to take stuff up the hill. The trip to the recycling centre has been quite productive. An exercise bike for converting into a cycle powered generator has been bought, along with several water tanks, a large metal cabinet, some flue pipe and another wheelbarrow. They also visited the fruit and veg wholesalers and have come back with loads of grapes, apples, bananas, melons, cabbage, potatoes and courgettes. We load up the wheelbarrows and stretcher and make our way slowly back up the hill. It is hard and sweaty work on this hot sunny day and it takes two trips to bring everything up, by the end I am really hot and fancy a swim. Other people say they also fancy a swim and before long a group of us are heading off into Moreton along the disused railway track. It turns out that the swimming pool at Moreton is closed so we ask in the Information Centre about the location of the old swimming pool and go there instead. We find that it contains very little water but that doesn't stop Ben and Pete from taking the plunge and the rest of us have enjoyed the walk. Back in the woods we find Jim has made curry and chips so we tuck in then retire to the long house leaving Dan (who didn't even eat the curry) to do all the washing up. I take the opportunity to look up the bird I saw earlier while the others discuss the diary update on the website. As it gets dark Pete brings out his guitar and sings a few songs and I settle down for a well deserved sleep. (this is a fictional account of a typical day constructed from real events. There are more ‘days in the life’ from other members of the project available on the website.) ‘Plants For A Future’ Planning Update After a long struggle this permaculture project based near Holsworthy, North Devon has won planning permission for onsite residence on appeal. For further information - phone 01409 211694 or visit them on the web - http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/ Project news in brief Community Composting We have completed a site assessment with the help of the Devon Community Composting Network and will shortly be submitting our report to the Environment Agency who are responsible for issuing licenses. Expect full details about the scheme in our next newsletter. Woodland walk We had hoped to open the walks this year but we need funding from a Forestry Commission Woodland Improvement Grant which we are not eligible for until we have entered into a woodland management agreement which we can’t do until our surveys are completed next year. Cycle path We have been working with the Moretonhampstead Pathways Trust and Devon County Council on the plans to turn the disused railway track into a cyclepath and walk way into Moreton. We will soon be signing contracts but it could take a couple of years before any actual site work is done. Woodland venue We have offered local theatre companies (MED and Regenco) the use of the woods as a venue for outdoor performances. We have also been in contact with the Woodcraft Folk about local groups using the woodland. How to get involved There are many ways you can get involved with the project. You can come and visit us for an hour or a day or a week or for longer. We welcome visitors for short or long stays, but please phone us to arrange this first. You can also visit us at our craft and information stall at Moretonhampstead’s flea market on Tuesday mornings between 10am and 1pm. You can keep an eye on our ever evolving cycle powered website. You can send us your details and be added to our mailing list – you’ll get details of our upcoming workshops and work parties, as well as future copies of our newsletter. You can also help support our planning application by writing a letter of support, see pages 1 and 2 for more details If none of the above grabs you, then you could always send us a donation - but your participation would be worth far more to us than your money, strange though it may sound. If you don’t want to get involved in our project, or live too far away, you can set up your own project. We’d be glad to offer the benefit of our experiences and information. How to get in touch with the project - We have a woodland phoneline – 01647 440233 or you can try our site mobile - 07050 674464. You can email us or use our virtual fax machine - 07050 674467. We have a cycle powered website – www.stewardwood.org You can even post things to us – Steward Community Woodland, Moretonhampstead, Newton Abbot, Devon. TQ13 8SD Better yet, you can visit
us – the woods are a mile south of Moretonhampstead towards Bovey
Tracey. This newsletter was brought
to you by Pete, Dan, Katrina, Lee, Ben, Merlin, Clare, Beccy and Devin
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