Harvesting hill streams of Wales for hydropower

Thousands of untapped streams pouring off hillsides hold the promise of generating clean energy and income for local farming communities

The little stream bubbling off the Black Mountain and tumbling 300ft down to the river Towey in the Brecon Beacons has no name and is far too small to feature on most maps. But for Welsh hill farmer Howell W illiams , over whose 290 acres of steep and boggy pasture land it flows, it is an unexpected pension and a simple way to keep rural Wales populated.

Directing just some of his stream’s water down a six inch pipe and into a turbine all constructed for about £50,000 generates nearly 18 kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity at peak times, and earns him £10-15,000 a year.

Williams has dubbed his stream “Try dwr” – or “electricity from water”. “You work long hours on the farm and do not earn much at all, but my small stream works 24 hours a day, even when I am sleeping. The price of lamb is down this year and the European grant has decreased so these are difficult times,” he says.

Helping to harvest Wales’s abundant rainfall should be a priority for any government, he says, because there are thousands of untapped streams like his pouring off hillsides in the Brecon Beacons, Snowdonia and the Berwyns.

“I would say micro-hydro beats farming. This is the best pension we could possibly have. Most farmers put all they earn back into the farm but have to leave when they cannot go out in all weathers ... Now I get paid to do nothing!”

Read more here.

David Suzuki: Aboriginal people, not environmentalists, are our best bet for protecting the planet

Using DNA to track the movement of people in the past, scientists suggest our species evolved some 150,000 years ago on the plains of Africa. That was our habitat, but unlike most other animals, we were creative and used our brains to find ways to exploit our surroundings. We were far less impressive in numbers, size, speed, strength or sensory abilities than many others sharing our territory, but it was our brains that compensated.

Over time, our numbers increased and we moved in search of more and new resources (and probably to check out the Neanderthals with whom we crossbred before they went extinct). When we moved into new territories, we were an alien creature, just like the introduced ones that trouble us today.

George Monbiot of The Guardian makes the point that we can trace the movement of our species by a wave of extinction of the big, slow-moving, dim-witted creatures that we could outwit with even the simplest of implements like clubs, pits, and spears.

Our brains were our great evolutionary advantage, conferring massive memory, curiosity, inventiveness and observational powers. I can’t emphasize that enough. Our brains gave us a huge advantage and it did something I think is unique — it created a concept of a future, which meant we realized we could affect that future by our actions in the present. By applying our acquired knowledge and insights, we could deliberately choose a path to avoid danger or trouble, and to exploit opportunities. I believe foresight was a huge evolutionary advantage for our species. And that’s what is so tragic today when we have all the amplified foresight of scientists and supercomputers, which have been warning us for decades that we are heading down a dangerous path, but now we allow politics and economics to override this predictive power.

Read more here.

This ancient liquor popular among Vikings may be the answer to antibiotic resistance

Scientists in Sweden are launching their own mead — an alcoholic beverage made from a fermented mix of honey and water — based on old recipes they say could help in the fight against antibiotic resistance.

Together with a brewery, the scientists, who have long studied bees and their honey, have launched their own mead drink: Honey Hunter's Elixir.

Lund University researcher Tobias Olofsson said mead had a long track record in bringing positive effects on health.

"Mead is an alcoholic drink made with just honey and water, and it was regarded as the drink of the gods and you could become immortal or sustain a better health if you drank it," Olofsson said. "It was drunk by the Vikings for example and other cultures such as the Mayas, the Egyptians, and it was a drink that was regarded as a very beneficial drink."

Read more here.

Maasai women are the new solar warriors of Africa

The Maasai are a semi-nomadic pastoral tribe spread across Kenya and Tanzania, and globalization has not been kind to them. Vulnerable to wildlife that steal their livestock and powerless after the sun goes down, many Maasai often have to walk many kilometers just to charge their phones. But a new project spearheaded by Green Energy Africa has brought solar energy to 2,000 homes in Naiputa county alone, and put new power into the hands of women who sell affordable solar installations.

Green Energy Africa started the 7-month Women Entrepreneurship in Renewable Energy Project (WEREP) in September 2014 with a goal “promote inclusive participation of women and youth in development through solar energy” while bringing much needed energy to people living in Kenya’s Kajiado and Makueni counties.

The group reports only 23 percent of Kenyans have access to the national electricity grid, while only 5 percent of rural communities are connected. To make up for this energy shortfall, people like Jackline Naiputa, who was featured in a Reuters story about the program, have to rely on expensive kerosene or cut down trees for fuel.

Naiputa heads the Osopuko-Edonyinap group, one of the five women’s groups who purchase solar installations from Green Energy Africa at a discount and then transport them by donkey across villages and sell them for a 300 Kenyan Shillings or $3 profit. The proceeds are then stored in a fund which is used to purchase more solar panels, batteries and lights.

Read more here.

Rethinking waste: Transforming problems into solutions

There's an argument to be made that the only time something is actually waste is if we don't know how to put it to work, and that by making an effort to recognize so-called waste items as really being resources, we can improve our lives, our homes and communities, and perhaps our entire world.

For instance, in many places, our streets and curbs and stormwater systems are designed to remove rainwater from the streets and neighborhoods as quickly as possible, and to shunt it to downstream. But because rainwater (actually all fresh water) is a precious resource, that "free" water that falls from the sky could be used to make landscapes more sustainable, if we would just make allowance for it and slow down its passage through our neighborhoods. By integrating some commonsense adjustments to roads and sidewalks, such as curb cuts and infiltration basins, in order to slow down that runoff so that it can soak deep into the soil and support the growth of trees and other landscape plants, we could generate shade, cooling, biomass, habitat, and even food, using less municipal water and fertilizers as inputs.

A few other common "waste" items from homes are grass cuttings, tree prunings, and fall leaves, all of which often get hauled offsite to be disposed of, yet could be put to work increasing soil fertility, as well as reducing evaporation (which decreases the demand for some water inputs to the property) and mitigating erosion. But if we haul off these renewable, biodegradable, and free materials, we then have to pay to bring in mulch, more water, and more compost or other soil amendments, so keeping them and using them onsite makes so much more sense.

Read more here.

Practical guides for community economic change

A trio of ‘how to guides’ has been launched by the REconomy Project. Focusing on running events, starting enterprise and resourcing core activities, these booklets have been designed for use by Transition Initiatives and other groups working on local economy projects and other related activities.

The guides have been researched and written using experience from active projects and community groups around the UK. Each contains experience, advice and easy-to-follow charts and resources. As well as using the guides from front to back, people can also pick and mix the sections within that most support the work they do. With tried and tested methods as well as new ideas and experimental approaches, they will be of use to those already working in this area or those keen to start.

Read more here (and download guides)

Perennial Vegetables: Grow More Food With Less Work

Combine permaculture gardening techniques and edible landscaping ingenuity in your garden by growing perennial vegetables. You’ll be surprised by how little work garden perennials require when compared with the work you expend growing annuals. Plus, our list of best perennials and resources guide will get you started with this sustainable, practical gardening technique.

Suppose a new agricultural breakthrough promised higher yields, a longer growing season and much less work. These claims can become real benefits for those willing to make a change to a way of gardening that more closely mimics nature.

Nature’s ecosystems always include not only annual vegetables, but also perennials — edible roots, shoots, leaves, flowers and fruits that produce year after year. Besides fruit-bearing trees and shrubs, more than 100 species of perennial vegetables grow well in North America.

By growing perennials, you’ll create a more diverse garden that ultimately needs less from you: You’ll spend less time working and more time harvesting.

“It’s as close to zero-work gardening as you can get,” says Eric Toensmeier, author of Perennial Vegetables. “Our perennial vegetable beds planted 11 years ago still bear food, and all we do is add compost and mulch once a year.”

What’s more, growing perennials extends the harvest season without a greenhouse, cold frame or other device. You can harvest Jerusalem artichokes all winter as long as you mulch enough to keep the ground from freezing.

Read more here.

Belfast-based designer transforms oil barrels into bright furniture

At the annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City, one of the things I look for is creative re-use. The Urbanite Home, a Belfast-based interior furnishings studio, is a particularly attention-grabbing example at this year's show. The collection’s brightly colored chairs and tables are made from repurposed oil barrels.

Designer Phil Davidson said he began working with barrels after learning that they weren’t being recycled in his area from his brother, who works in an auto garage. So, Davidson began collecting the barrels from small businesses like the one where his brother works. The design studio drains and cleans out any residues, which are then made into red diesel for agricultural use. Once clean, the barrels are cut into new forms to make furniture, and any smaller leftover pieces can then be recycled.

Read more here.

A lesson in garage sales

I never knew garage sales were such a big deal, until I moved to a small town where there's not much else happening on Saturday mornings in the summertime -- and then I, too, became addicted.

Five years ago I moved to a garage sale mecca. I’d never paid much attention to garage sales in the past, but I quickly realized that, in this little town on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, they are one of the main summer attractions.

Starting on Tuesdays, when the weekly newspaper comes out, there are new listings for all the next weekend’s upcoming sales, with tantalizing descriptions of the goodies on offer. By Thursday, bright-colored signs plaster the streetlights and telephone poles of the town, featuring “Garage Sale!!!” and boldly printed addresses. Early on Saturday mornings, particularly on the long weekends, the streets are busy with cars moving like hounds on a scent trail and excited people infected by the thrill of the treasure hunt.

I remained intrigued but clueless about how addictive garage sales can be until my friends Christine and Laura invited me out one Victoria Day weekend in May, the biggest garage sale weekend of the year, to show me how it's done.

Read more here.

Woodlands

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Throughout history trees have formed an intrinsic and vital part of our cultural landscape. Our woodlands, and woodlands in general, have been managed and worked by woodsmen since antiquity supplying lumber, the most noble of building materials, and firewood for heating homes and cooking food, as well as wood from which to make the majority of products that were being used, from tools and tool handles, to kitchenware, including spoons, plates, and everything else in between.

Growing trees and using their wood is increasingly recognized as one of the most environmentally sustainable land uses. Yet, in recent decades our relationship with our trees and woodlands has waned, with the UK importing an estimated 80% of its timber, whilst only 20% of the country's woods are actively managed.

The Department of Land Economy of the University of Cambridge has been running a long-term study investigating trends in the management of private woodlands on traditional estates in England and Wales. The study commenced in 1963, continued through the 80's and 90's and the findings from the latest survey in 2006, strongly suggested that there has been a deterioration of the financial performance of many estate woodlands to the point where management has been reduced or even suspended.

It is not just the deterioration of the financial performance of the estate woodlands that we must be concerned with but the deterioration of them in general due to the reduction or even suspension of management. And it is not just the private estate woodlands that are thus afflicted. The same goes, maybe even more so, for council owned woods and woodlands. They are all in dire straights.

Wystan Hugh Auden wrote in one of his works “a culture is no better than its woods” and if we look around us today I would say many of our cultures are not worth much, considering the way we treat our “native” woodlands. However, thankfully, a revival of our “woodculture” seems to be on its way and this is to be more than encouraged; it is the way forward, for the new age, the coming age, is the age of wood, or the Wood Age. We have had the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, though, theoretically we are still in that one, even though some insist to call the current age the Technology Age.

Wood, however, is the way forward, once again (we have been there once before, I know) for many of the things that today we use plastic, for instance, and what better than that wood being home-grown, coming from a woodland near you. This would benefit not only the local economy and the local woods – and the woods in this country per se – but also the environment and the Planet.

Wood from local forests and woodlands also cuts down on the so-called “woodmiles” and keeps those to the absolute minimum, and this even more so if the sawmills and other wood-using businesses and craftspeople are local and the products sold on markets as local as possible.

The majority of woods in Britain, whether privately owned or owned by local and county councils are in dire straights and lack of market is but one small reason for this lack of proper management which has caused a multitude of problems. Lack of vision and lack of finance is another big part here as is the fact that there are a multitude of misguided “environmentalists” who believe – and are very vocal about this – that cutting any tree is bad for the environment.

Coppicing, the age-old and time-honored and time-proved method of managing hardwood woodlands, in which trees are cut at a certain age and then allowed to naturally regrow from the root stock, the stool, is not harmful to the environment at all. The opposite rather. It benefits both the woodland and the wildlife. In addition to that bringing our woodlands back into production, primarily by means of coppice management, not only benefits the woods and the wildlife but also the local economy as it will create employment and products. It is a total win-win situation. Realizing it though in the right quarters is an entirely different story.

© 2015

For more on coppicing and why, etc. see “Managing our Woods”, a small book that explains the whys and wherefores of managing our woods in this way and calls for us to return to that way.