• the River Avon at South Brent.
• The Wray Brook at Lustleigh;
• the West Dart Headwaters around Princetown

The South Brent days will be on:

• Wednesday 19 June;
• Wednesday 26 June;
• Thursday 4 July;
• Thursday 18 July;
• Thursday 25 July;
• Thursday 1 August;
• Thursday 8 August;
• Thursday 15 August;
• Thursday 22 August.

Please let Mervyn know (preferably by e-mail) if you would like to volunteer for any balsam days/half days – invasives@dartmoor.gov.uk or call 07927 045042, and he will send you the joining details.

Dress for Dartmoor and bring gloves, drinks and lunch.

See: https://mailchi.mp/dartmoor.gov.uk/lend-us-a-hand-with-balsam-bashing

The work follows the survey conducted by ecologist Mervyn Newman Mervyn for Dartmoor National Park to help plan for the control of invasive alien species such as Himalayan Balsam and ‘American Skunk-Cabbage’.

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.

We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”

Arundhati Roy (2020) from ‘The pandemic is a portal’

See also digital conversation from the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm for Earth Day 2020 (22 April) between Greta Thunberg and Johan Rockström.

There will be a Dartmoor Local Plan Consultation Drop-in Event on Tuesday 1 October 2019: from 4-7pm at the Old School Community Centre, South Brent. The Local Plan is an important document which sets out what type of development is and isn’t acceptable in the National Park. It is what DNPA will use to decide planning applications and sets out where future development may take place. You will be able to chat with DNPA staff about the plan and how it might affect you and the local community. The final draft of the plan is published for public consultation from 16 September – 1 November 2019 and is available to view and comment on at www.dartmoor.gov.uk/living-and-working/planning/planning-policy/local-plan-review, as well as at Parish Councils and visitor centres across Dartmoor. FFI see: www.dartmoor.gov.uk/localplanreview, email forwardplanning@dartmoor.gov.uk, or tel 01626 832093.

(Similar drop-in events are taking place in Buckfastleigh Town Hall on 19 September, Horrabridge Village Hall on 24 September and Endecott House, Chagford on 26 September – all from 4-7pm).

• The following week sees the UN Youth Climate Summit on Saturday 21 September and UN Climate Action Summit on Monday 23 September 2019.
• South Brent Parish Council, which declared an ‘Environment and Climate Emergency’ in May, will be discussing the next steps for the development of its ‘Environment and climate change working group’ at its meeting on 23/09/2017. The South Brent Zero Carbon Group established in May by SSB will work with the Parish Council in the establishment of the new group. South Hams District Council, Devon County Council and Dartmoor National Park Authority have also declared climate emergencies, and all are part of a Devon Climate Emergency Response Group (DCERG).
• If you would like to hear or learn the song ‘We’re standing here’ written for climate action by Owley Dave and arranged by Helen Yeomans – click here.

A film by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and Guardian journalist George Monbiot says that we are ignoring natural climate solutions and that nature must be used to repair the broken climate. Click here to see the video; and click here to read the article.

Make the most of the long summer days by joining some of the Devon Bat Project’s events. For information on local events see: https://devonbatproject.org/events/ or see Facebook: www.facebook.com/devonbatproject/

This year’s Bat Festival runs from the end of August until the end of September. Read more about the Bat Festival at https://devonbatproject.org/bat-festival-2019-events-announced/ (More events may be added so keep checking back!)

You can take part in the Devon Bat Survey – for more information about how you can become involved or hire a bat detector see http://devonbatproject.org/devon-bat-survey/

The Devon Greater Horseshoe Bat Project is led by Devon Wildlife Trust and is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which covers around two-thirds of the cost of its bat conservation work across Devon. Donations can be made via https://www.devonwildlifetrust.org/make-a-donation (choose ‘Devon Greater Horseshoe Bat Project’ from the drop-down box).