Free oak saplings

If you’d like to take advantage of this offer, Councillor Jackie Boakes is coordinating responses for our parish. You can contact her by email: cllr.boakes@datchworth-pc.gov.uk

It was reported in The Times recently that 750,000 2 year old oak saplings are due to be destroyed.  The saplings were grown in response to government indications that they will subsidise land owners to plant trees.  However, the demand has not materialised as of yet and the nurseries cannot keep these unwanted trees.  So, they will be going to the mulcher unless they can sell them this summer, at a discounted price or £300 per 1000 (including £50 delivery charge).  This is an appeal to find homes for these saplings which I am happy to provide to you for free.

My name is Adam Biggs, Some of you may know my brother Scott, who is very active in your cricket club.  I live in Herne Hill, South London.  I am a member of Extinction Rebellion and in particular, XR Lambeth group.  I guess many people will know XR as the rebels who have held up the traffic and caused chaos for many travellers last year.  Many may disagree with our methods and that is understandable.  But our reasoning is that we cannot see another way to bring this issue into the political and social spotlight and raise it up the agenda to its rightful position at the top.  We do what we do in a serious and caring effort to highlight the very damaging consequences of the climate emergency caused by rapid destruction of the natural world, pollution, rampant fossil fuel extractivism and overall unsustainable consumption.  We are not young upstarts with no idea about how hard life is for the majority of working people, we are a broad spectrum of people who really care about our, our children’s and our planet’s future.  Moreover, we do not only take this rebellious course of action, we are involved in many things, for example, less assertive campaigning, local politics, committees trying to address local air pollution and many other things.  We also have planting and public space gardening groups trying to improve local areas by planting and growing things.  It is this group who decided we would like to buy a thousand of these saplings (1000 is the minimum order quantity), the original idea being that we would try and find sites in Lambeth to plant them.  But Lambeth is a very urban area and it’s tough to find the sites.  That’s why I have come to you with this idea.  We are buying the saplings from our own funds and we are happy to pass them on to you for free.  They will come to us bare rooted and will need to be planted within 7 days so it may be that I will have to pot them, as I can’t guarantee I will get them to you and that  recipients will be able to plant them in time.  I am happy to do this and look after them and will bring them to Scott or preferably to a different drop off point of your choice, asap after receipt and the lockdown allows.  The saplings will vary in height but all will be less than a metre I understand.  If people can let me know how many they want I will try and organise it.  My email address is adam@mrblueski.comor if you prefer to phone, my number is 07958 339220.
 
As I say, I am happy to pass them on to you free of charge but in the event that anyone feels they would like to donate: either to XR in general, they can do that by following the links on www.rebellion.earth, or to XR Lambeth, in order to directly contribute towards the cost of trees, please let me know and I will send you a reminder of your offer once we have supplied the trees with details of where to send your donation.  But, as I say, this is completely up to you.

Think creatively, these trees don’t have to go in your gardens.  They can go anywhere, public spaces or in the wild.  But don’t put them where they might get mown or trimmed and don’t put them within 20m of a building.  They will be mostly small so you shouldn’t need to dig that deep but obviously be aware of the likelihood of underground services.  They are best planted out in the autumn when the soil stays moist.  The following summer, they might benefit from watering during dry periods too, if you can.  These are beautiful English oak, we would love to see some pictures of your planting, please send your pics to xrlambeth@protonmail.com.  If you would like to name and label your tree/s with your name and where you are and be in the photo with your tree/s, we would love that too, but no pressure if you don’t want to.

If you feel inspired to try and do more about the climate crisis, please join XR, you can take as little or as much part as you like.  By just signing up, you will be adding your weight to number of members, by giving a small regular donation, you will be helping enormously.  Anything else you can do, will be fantastic but no pressure.  There’s lots more info on the website, www.rebellion.earth.  We will not bother you if you just request some trees.

It would be great to hear from you.

Adam

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