26
@RobGMacfarlane
The fight hots up to prevent landowners the Darwalls from blocking the right to wild camp responsibly on parts of Dartmoor.
Case goes to the High Court on 12 Dec.
We'd love to gather more stories, photos etc of those who've camped out on Dartmoor.
Pls RT & add to thread below. 🙏 twitter.com/RobGMacfarlane…
27
@RobGMacfarlane
"England is one of the few countries where water is fully owned by private companies, [who] answer to investors based 1000s of miles away from their customers."
Huge piece.
Ownership structures & fiduciary duty are at the heart of England's river-death.
theguardian.com/environment/ng…
28
@RobGMacfarlane
Wow. That red spike.
Huge auroral activity potentially visible rn *anywhere in the UK*.
If you can get anywhere highish & dark & away from artificial sky-glow, look north!
Thanks for the tip-off @robsaintjohn.
29
@RobGMacfarlane
The fight is gearing up against the Darwalls, the wealthy landowners who are, appallingly, trying to shut down the right to wild camp on Dartmoor.
The case goes to the Royal Courts of Justice on 12 Dec.
Come join the rally in support of @dartmoornpa & the right to wild camp.
⛺️ twitter.com/Right_2Roam/st…
30
@RobGMacfarlane
A month now until our 12-part audio-drama adaptation of Susan Cooper’s great novel The Dark Is Rising begins on @bbcworldservice…
Short film & link to Ep 0 are out today 👇
Can you complete these lines from the novel?
“Tonight will be bad, and…”
“When the Dark comes rising…” twitter.com/bbcworldservic…
31
@RobGMacfarlane
This is an excellent decision on mountain-naming, which will help the Welsh language thrive within & without Cymru/Wales.
Really well explained in Peter’s thread.
“Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind.” (Wade Davis) twitter.com/GillibrandPete…
32
@RobGMacfarlane
This is “inosculation”, where two trees rub branches, roots or trunks together until they conjoin vascular systems, melting into one another.
Latin in+osculari, “to kiss inwards”
AKA: a long, slow, beautiful interspecies tree-snog, beech on birch & back again.
📷 @JohnnyFlynnHQ
33
@RobGMacfarlane
Conservation good news: the collapse of California’s Mono Lake has been reversed.
How? Stream rehabilitation & limits on water diversions (cc @Feargal_Sharkey).
“The lake is now an inspiration for efforts to heal degraded ecosystems worldwide.”
💥 insideclimatenews.org/news/30102022/…
34
@RobGMacfarlane
"5 yrs later, the River Roding Trust has planted 100s of trees, removed 1000+ bags of rubbish & 75 shopping trolleys...the river's polluters are being exposed & challenged for the first time in decades."
This thread👇
So inspiring.
Real change on the ground, community-led.
YES! twitter.com/jm0ses/status/…
35
@RobGMacfarlane
...The Dark Is Rising begins on Midwinter Eve, 20 December, and then unfolds over the following days, at roughly a chapter a day.
The first episode of our adaptation will be broadcast on 20 December, and go out for 12 days, so you'll listen in the 'real time' of the novel...
36
@RobGMacfarlane
Hello -- some news!
I've adapted Susan Cooper's cult-classic novel, The Dark Is Rising, for a 12-part audio drama/podcast on @bbcworldservice.
Dir. & co-adapted by @SimonMcBurney.
Starring Toby Jones, Harriet Walter.
Music by @JohnnyFlynnHQ & more.
#TheDarkIsRising
Brief 🧵
37
@RobGMacfarlane
“Certainly it is in October that one may see the skeins of geese arrowing their way south…Primeval forces are there, made for a moment visible.”
(Nan Shepherd)
It’s bird migration time of year again; the skies are on the move.
Who’s arriving & who’s leaving where you are? twitter.com/jake_fiennes/s…
38
@RobGMacfarlane
New gov't policy is an #AttackOnNature, in an already acutely nature-depleted country.
@nationaltrust @WildlifeTrusts & @Natures_Voice (total membership 8m) are mobilising in resistance.
Pls share to show @ranil the no. of votes & depth of feeling at stake bbc.co.uk/news/science-e…
39
@RobGMacfarlane
This is extraordinary.
Stay the course.
Life! twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl…
40
@RobGMacfarlane
Hello -- 5 years ago today, a book called The Lost Words by me & @JackieMorrisArt was published.
Here we are, nervous & young(er), on that day.
In our wildest dreams we couldn't have guessed what the planting of that acorn would cause to flourish.
Thread...🧵🪡
41
@RobGMacfarlane
160,000 Woodcock are shot each year in the UK.
UK population is c. 130,000.
Shooting season opens now, meaning UK breeding pop gets shot through Oct.
Best of all: stop shooting Woodcock.
Second best: push start of season back to Dec 1.
Sign below, follow @WildJustice_org. twitter.com/WildJustice_or…
42
@RobGMacfarlane
The symbiosis between Jay & Oak is in full swing right now.
One Jay can hoard/bury 5000+ acorns each autumn; those they forget become saplings by spring.
Garrulus glandarius = Chattering acorn-gatherer.
Yes, Jays are bright-backed, blue-winged forest-makers.
Photo: Andy Morfeww
43
@RobGMacfarlane
The English Oak (Quercus robur) supports an astonishing 2300 species, of which 326 depend on it for survival.
716 lichens, 108 fungi, 1178 invertebrates, owls, bats, wood warblers, butterflies...
I hold in my hand not a single tree, but a community-to-be, a world-in-waiting.
44
@RobGMacfarlane
Good news is hard to find rn.
Here’s some: the Elk, Beaver, Wolf, Brown Bear, Bearded Vulture & even Humpback Whale are making strong comebacks across Europe’s land/seas.
Meanwhile, our new gov. plans further devastation of our shattered biodiversity.
theguardian.com/environment/20…
45
@RobGMacfarlane
“What the Government has proposed potentially tears up the most fundamental legal protections our remaining wildlife has.”
Please, please read & share this @RSPBEngland thread about the huge intensification of the war on nature that’s beginning under Truss. twitter.com/RSPBEngland/st…
46
@RobGMacfarlane
Hello parents, teachers, children—to mark #NationalPoetryDay there’s a Lost Words spell-poem writing competition launching today.🖋🪄
I’ll be judging the entries.
Open to 7-12 yos.
Enter! Spread the word! Write on!
Details here & below:
nationalpoetryday.co.uk/the-lost-words…
47
@RobGMacfarlane
Questioned for holding up a blank piece of paper; would be arrested for expressing polite public dissent from the (absurd, oppressive) principle of hereditary monarchy.
WTAF? There is *so* much wrong here. twitter.com/paulpowlesland…
48
@RobGMacfarlane
A few years ago I wrote a poem called “Heartwood” for the people of Sheffield, during the tree wars in that city.
Artist Tim Chalk has just beautifully lettered a couple of lines from the poem into this split trunk (heartwood is the darker central core, sapwood the paler outer).
49
@RobGMacfarlane
The near-future of many of the world’s forests will be decided in the next 48 hrs by MEPs.
It’s utter madness to think of forest biomass burning as carbon-zero.
Forest biomass must be removed from the renewable energy directive.
👇👇👇
theguardian.com/world/commenti…
50
@RobGMacfarlane
“We're deep in ‘salt-water syndrome’: the things we’re using to cure our hunger & thirst are making us hungrier & thirstier."
Richard Powers––writer of The Overstory & so much more––is fascinating as ever in this new interview with @india_bourke.
newstatesman.com/encounter/2022…
@RobGMacfarlane
Books: Is A River Alive? (WIP) Underland, The Lost Words, The Old Ways, etc. | Films: River, Mountain, Upstream | Nature, climate, people | Prof @Cambridge_uni