“It was when I stopped searching for home within others and lifted the foundations of home within myself I found there were no roots more intimate than those between a mind and body that have decided to be whole.” – Rupi Kaur
The root chakra (Muladhara) is associated with the earth element and thus, has grounding energy. This energy center is responsible for how safe, secure, and centered we feel, and when in balance, it keeps you grounded in the physical world. One of the best ways to balance and heal the root chakra is to reconnect with mother earth through nature walks and “earthing,” which means walking barefoot.
Stunning display of photographs and artwork of trees dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II to go on display at Sotheby’s as King Charles unveils nationwide network of ancient woodlands
King Charles unveiled the nationwide network of trees and woodlands yesterday
It is dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II in celebration of her platinum jubilee year
People can see photos and artwork called the Queen’s Green Canopy in Sotheby’s in London,from December 10
It comes after King Charles III, who is patron of the QGC, unveiled a nationwide network of 70 ‘irreplaceable’ ancient woodlands and trees yesterday that are dedicated to the Queen in celebration of her Platinum Jubilee.
The Queen’s Green Canopy organisers said: ‘Established over hundreds of years, these precious and irreplaceable habitats are rich in their natural and social history and ecology and have formed the backdrop to important moments in the history of our four nations.
‘The chosen locations span the landscape and exist for everyone to enjoy. ‘They can be found in rural and urban spaces, from National Parks to housing estates.
‘All have a unique story to tell – some are famous specimens, while others have local significance as natural wonders throughout our neighbourhoods.
‘By sharing the stories behind the woodlands and trees, as well as the incredible efforts that are made to protect them, The Queen’s Green Canopy aims to raise awareness of these treasured habitats and the importance of conserving them for future generations.
‘The Ancient Tree dedication marks the start of a long-term project to propagate material to ensure that the genetic resource and unique characteristics of some of the UK’s most important trees is preserved.’
Coille na Glas Leitir is a temperate rainforest adapted to the cool, wet climate of north-west Scotland, a habitat rare across the world.
The ancient Caledonian woodland here is believed to have been present continuously throughout the last 8,000 years.
Llangernyw Yew Common yew (Taxus baccata) St Digain’s Church Yard, Llangernyw, Conwy
This ancient yew tree is in the churchyard of St Digain’s Church in Llangernyw village and is thought to be up to 5,000 years old.
Legend has it the church is home to an ancient spirit called Angelystor, which is Welsh for Recording Angel or Evangelist. At Halloween the spirit supposedly cries out the names of all the parishioners who will die in the next year.
Crom Yew Common yew (Taxus baccata) Crom Castle, Newtownbutler, County Fermanagh
This drawing by Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis of shows the Crom Yew, which is actually two yews entwined together
The Crom Yew is actually two yews entwined together – one male and one female. The larger, older female yew is of a considerable age, although how old exactly has been the subject of debate with some estimates of 800 years old.
As if that wasn’t romantic enough, legend has it that Hugh O’Neill, the 2nd Earl of Tyrone, bade farewell to his lady love beneath the ancient yew at the time of ‘The Flight of the Earls’ in 1607.
Beinn Eighe and Loch Maree Islands, Wester Ross
Beinn Eighe was the first National Nature Reserve to be declared in the UK, in September 1951 and was established originally to protect Coille na Glas Leitir (The Wood of the Grey Slope), the largest fragment of ancient Caledonian pine wood in north-west Scotland.
The Florence Court Yew Irish yew (Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’) Florence Court, Enniskillen, County Fermanagh
This Irish yew is considered one of the most important trees on the isle of Ireland and represents the origins of the Irish yew cultivar.
As a female specimen of a dioecious genus, the only way for this plant to reproduce is through cuttings. As a popular cultivar this has impacted the figure of this yew at Florence Court, though it is now mother to millions of offspring across the world.
Brocton Coppice Brocton, Cannock Chase Country Park, Staffordshire
Brocton Coppice is a beautiful fragment of the original Forest of Cannock, which once covered 200 square miles.
With around 600 oaks, including some over 600 years old, Brocton Coppice is a beautiful fragment of the original Forest of Cannock that once covered 200 square miles.
It is a special area that supports rare wildlife. The first documented mention of the Coppice is from 1626 and it is clearly shown on the Yates map of 1775.
Small Leaved Lime (Tilia cordata), Prisk Wood, Monmouthshire
This drawing by Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis is of Small Leaved Lime, a type of tree favoured in the Wye Valley due to their fibrous bark’s utility in rope-making.
Prisk Wood is home to this spectacular example of an ancient, multi-stemmed small leaved lime. At first sight the trunks appear to be separate trees but in fact it is all one individual.
Lambeth Palace Fig ‘White Marseilles’ (Ficus carica), Lambeth Palace, London
Another drawing by Mary Anne Aytoun-Ellis on show at Sotheby’s from December 10, this one shows the Lambeth Palace Fig ‘White Marseilles.
This fig tree is of the White Marseilles variety and was given as a gift to Lambeth Palace by the Vatican. Now found in the courtyard adjacent to the Great Hall, it was originally planted in the garden by Cardinal Pole, who was the last Roman Catholic Archbishop from 1556-1558.
The Black Wood of Rannoch Loch Rannoch, Perth and Kinross
The Black Wood is one of the most beautiful surviving areas of the ‘Great Forest of Caledon’, in Scotland.
It has survived largely undisturbed since the last Ice Age approximately 10,000 years ago.
Fellings in the medieval period provided timber for local needs through periods of clan warfare, and more recently Canadian troops exploited the area in WWII. The rich history and biodiversity in the forest denote it as a Special Area of Conservation and it is favoured by researchers.
Queen Elizabeth I Oak Sessile oak (Quercus petraea) Cowdray Park, West Sussex
Estate records show that Queen Elizabeth I rested and took lunch under the Oak in 1591 during a hunting trip to Cowdray Estate deer park.
One of the largest and oldest sessile oak trees in the UK, this oak is still living and is estimated to be around 1,000 years old.
It forms part of the Cowdray Estate Deer Park, which combined with the neighbouring arboretum and benbow pond make it a popular attraction for Midhurst locals and tourists, with stunning views of the South Downs.
Robert The Bruce’s Yew Common yew (Taxus baccata) Loch Lomond, Argyll and Bute, Stirlingshire
It was said that beneath this yew on the rocky outcrop of Loch Lomond Robert the Bruce and 200 of his allies rested in the first days of their 14th Century campaign.
The tree is in Stuc an T’Iobhairt, translated from Scottish Gaelic as the Hill of the Sacrifice. Upper estimates put the age of the tree at well beyond 1,000 years.
Ty Canol NNR and Pentre Ifan Pentre Ifan, near Newport, Pembrokeshire
Ty Canol and Pentre Ifan form a large part of the largest block of ancient woodland in West Wales
Pentre Ifan is famous for its archaeological sites. it is home of Pentre Ifan Cromlech, a neolithic chambered dolmen, which is a portal tomb, that is thought to date from 3,500 BC.
“Standing in the middle of the river of life I am not a young woman anymore, yet I am not fully old. I am the sum of the bits of me that echo through time and find themselves gathering within this body for this life now. This body is a vessel for the expression of artist and healer, sage and scribe, but you will also find me in the forest, in the waters, on the winds. I am the bird on the bough.
I have come to learn that I am a spiritual being and that Nature is the lamp that illuminates my spiritual journey. Spirituality is something where my soul connects with the soul around me, the soul of people, of animals, of places, nature, world soul. Spirituality is the sacred love inside me that connects me to the sacred within you, and to something bigger than all of us.
My wishes are simple. I hope to contribute to the beauty, love, and peace in this world. I seek to live a life with compassion, with creativity and with a deep sense of spirituality, because I believe that this helps navigate life’s journey, life’s beginnings, and life’s endings. Here in the midlife of this body of mine, I am on a spiritual path that the past, the present and the future calls me to walk. And maybe in answering this call, I can help others walk their own path too, because I know that when we do this, our soul truly sings. “
Georgina Langdale Life transformation guide, earth medicine practitioner, green mystic
“With our hearts and minds focused on the stewardship of the only planet we have, the best way to engage in a hopeful future is to plant oaks! Let this book be your inspiration and guide.” —The American Gardener
With Bringing Nature Home, Doug Tallamy changed the conversation about gardening in America. His second book, the New York Times bestseller Nature’s Best Hope, urged homeowners to take conservation into their own hands. Now, he turns his advocacy to one of the most important species of the plant kingdom—the mighty oak tree.
Oaks sustain a complex and fascinating web of wildlife. The Nature of Oaks reveals what is going on in oak trees month by month, highlighting the seasonal cycles of life, death, and renewal. From woodpeckers who collect and store hundreds of acorns for sustenance to the beauty of jewel caterpillars, Tallamy illuminates and celebrates the wonders that occur right in our own backyards. He also shares practical advice about how to plant and care for an oak, along with information about the best oak species for your area. The Nature of Oaks will inspire you to treasure these trees and to act to nurture and protect them.
Around us, life bursts forth with miracles – a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles.
Eyes that see thousands of colours, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings.
When we are tired and feel discouraged by life’s daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.
Join us, and communities around the world, for a special Green Sabbath Weekend walk.
As daylight ebbs and temperatures cool, the natural world is preparing for its own upcoming time of rest and renewal. What does nature teach us about preparing for sabbath? What can we learn from the plants, critters and creatures in our own sacred landscapes about being present and open to the sabbath gifts of slowness, spaciousness, rest, renewal and restoration?
We are thrilled to offer 3 options for participating!
In-person, Washington, D.C. area
In-person, Los Angeles, CA area NEW!
Self-guided NEW!
Center guides will lead walks in the Washington, D.C., and the Los Angeles, California, areas. We will also be offering a copy of our walk agenda to those who would like to gather a group together and go on your own.
For Center-led events, spots are limited so sign up soon. We will follow all CDC recommendations for Covid-19 at the time of the walk.
Note: As always, we don’t want to preclude anyone from participating due to cost. If you need a break on price, please email Susie at admin@spiritualityinnature.org.
Wood-fired plant that takes billions in green handouts is hacking down Canadian forest, TV probe alleges
Drax generates 12 per cent of UK’s renewable electricity by burning wood pellets
It bought logging licences to cut down two areas of forest in western Canada
The company claims it only used leftover sawdust and waste wood from forests
But the BBC film shows logs from the forest being loaded on to a Drax truck
Britain’s largest renewable power station is cutting down carbon-rich forests while receiving billions in green- energy subsidies from UK taxpayers, an investigation claims.
Panorama tonight {3.10.22} reports how Drax, which generates 12 per cent of the UK’s renewable electricity by burning wood pellets at its Yorkshire power station, bought logging licences to cut down two areas of forest in western Canada.
The company claims it only used leftover sawdust and waste wood from the forests but the BBC film, titled The Green Energy Scandal Exposed, shows logs from the forest being loaded on to a Drax truck and then unloaded at one of its pellet plants.
Primary Forest damaged by Drax
The programme says that Drax’s power station burned more than seven million tonnes of imported wood pellets last year and that documents on a Canadian forestry database show that only 11 per cent of logs delivered to two of its pellet plants are the small, twisted or rotten timber the company says it uses.
Drax has already received £6billion in green energy subsidies even though burning wood gives off more greenhouse gases than burning coal, Panorama emphasised.
The two areas of environmentally important forest – in the Canadian province of British Columbia – where Drax bought logging licences have never been logged before.
One of the sites includes large areas that have been identified as rare, old-growth forest. Drax’s own responsible sourcing policy says it ‘will avoid damage or disturbance’ to primary and old-growth forest. However, satellite pictures show Drax is now cutting down this forest, according to the BBC.
The company told Panorama that logging at this site would reduce the risk of wildfires.
The second Drax logging licence is for a mature primary forest that has now been cut down. Drax told the BBC it hadn’t cut down the forest itself but transferred the logging licences to other companies.
However, the authorities in British Columbia confirmed to Panorama that Drax still holds the licences.
Drax later admitted to Panorama that it did use logs from the forest to make wood pellets, claiming they were species the timber industry didn’t want.
The company also said the sites identified by Panorama weren’t primary forest because they were near roads, yet the BBC pointed out that there is no mention of proximity to roads in the United Nations’ definition of primary forest. A Drax spokesman told the BBC that 80 per cent of material in its Canadian pellets is sawmill residuals, which would be disposed of anyway.
Last week it emerged that Drax had quietly agreed to pay out millions of dollars to settle air-pollution claims against its wood-pellet factories in the United States, according to an investigation by Unearthed, Greenpeace’s investigative unit.
A Drax spokesman said: ‘Drax does not harvest forests and has not taken any material directly from the two areas the BBC has looked at.’
Burning imported wood in Drax power plant ‘doesn’t make sense’, says Kwasi Kwarteng. Drax has taken £5.6bn in subsidies from energy bill payers but business secretary says practice is ‘not sustainable’
The importing of wood to burn in Drax power station “is not sustainable” and “doesn’t make any sense”, the business and energy secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, told a private meeting of MPs during August 2022.
The remarks are significant as the burning of biomass to produce energy is an important part of the UK government’s net zero strategy and has received £5.6bn in subsidies from energy bill payers over the last decade. Scientists and campaigners have long argued that burning wood to produce electricity is far from green and can even increase the CO2 emissions driving the climate crisis.
Kwarteng said the government’s advisers, the Climate Change Committee, had said biomass was a necessary part of climate action in the UK.
But Kwarteng added: “I can well see a point where we just draw the line and say: This isn’t working, this doesn’t help carbon emission reduction, that’s it – we should end it. All I’m saying is that we haven’t quite reached that point yet.” Drax’s share price fell 10% in early trading on Wednesday, wiping about £280m off the value of the company.
About 80% of the wood pellets burned by Drax come from North America. Kwarteng said: “There’s no point getting it from Louisiana – that isn’t sustainable … transporting these wood pellets halfway across the world – that doesn’t make any sense to me at all.” Since 2019, when Kwarteng became an energy minister, Drax has received £2.5bn in subsidies for its power station, which previously burned coal.
But this is the UK Government’s Response
The subsidies are due to end in 2027, but Drax is hoping to gain new subsidies by adding carbon capture technology to its plant. This would mean the CO2 taken from the atmosphere when the trees grew would end up buried underground, potentially reducing CO2 levels. This process accounts for about three-quarters of the “negative emissions” that the government’s net zero strategy says the UK must capture.
The European Academies Science Advisory Council said last year that burning wood in power stations was “not effective in mitigating climate change and may even increase the risk of dangerous climate change”. Environmental campaigners also say harvesting the wood damages forests.
One MP at the meeting told Kwarteng: “It can take 100 years to grow a tree but 100 seconds to combust it. So, unless we actually have a measure of how much CO2 is being released in the same period of time as is being sequestered by new growth, it seems to me ludicrous to say that this is carbon neutral.” Another MP said: “It’s cutting down huge numbers of forests and it’s not defensible.”
A government official also told the MPs that moving to UK-sourced biomass would not necessarily guarantee sustainability. They said: “Just because they’re sourced domestically doesn’t mean they will be less carbon intensive.”
A government spokesperson said: “[Kwarteng] has always been clear biomass has a key role to play in boosting Britain’s energy security, having supplied enough reliable renewable electricity to keep the lights on for 4 million households. The more homegrown power like biomass we generate at home, the less exposed we’ll be to volatile gas prices pushing up bills.
“The UK government only supports biomass which complies with our strict sustainability criteria and will shortly publish our biomass strategy, which will further detail our position on its future use,” the spokesperson said.
The government launched a consultation on Wednesday on potential business models to pay for a first biomass burning plant fitted with carbon capture. In contrast to his comments to MPs, Kwarteng said on launching the consultation: “The government is fully behind biomass energy to provide more power in Britain.”
Drax did not respond to a request for comment on Kwarteng’s remarks to MPs. On the consultation, the chief executive of Drax, Will Gardiner, said: “The government is paving the way for the UK to lead the world in deploying vital carbon removal technologies like bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. [This technology] is vital to energy security and net zero because it can produce reliable renewable power whilst also permanently removing CO2 from the atmosphere – no other technology does both.”
A letter to the government signed by more than a dozen green groups including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth warns ministers against relying too heavily on plans to capture carbon emissions to help tackle the climate crisis.
The letter warned that burning more imported wood pellets could accelerate the climate crisis, increase the company’s contribution to biodiversity loss, and the potential for Indigenous people’s land rights violations.
Wolfgang Kuhn, of shareholder group Share Action, one of the signatories of the letter, said: “Pretending that burning trees is sustainable just because an equivalent quantity of carbon is going to be absorbed somewhere, sometime in the future is nonsense.
The letter also warned that Pinnacle uses wood from a climate-critical forest that has been home to Indigenous peoples for millennia, and is a breeding site for more than 3 billion North American birds and the home of many endangered animals. It added that Pinnacle has “a poor track record” of noise and air pollution management, and has had problems with fires at its facilities.
Panorama: The Green Energy Scandal Exposed is on BBC1 at 8pm tonight {3.10.22}
Reference ~ By Sophie Huskisson Health Reporter For The Daily Mail, 3rdOctober 2022.
Damian Carrington Environment editorFor The Guardian, 11th August 2022.
Jillian Ambrose Energy CorrespondentFor The Guardian, 22nd March 2021.
Tree Weaver 