At the end of a very busy and productive year, Transition Town Wellington’s latest newsletter summarises the scale of achievements of the group’s volunteers – all of them an asset to the local community, now and in the future. Here’s what TTW has done:
“We held three, extremely successful and wide-reaching public consultation meetings to find out what people wanted to see on Fox’s Field. We attended forest garden design training courses and came up with a plan that seemed to be the best and most creative solution to answering the questions: what does the land want, and what do the people want? We managed to raise over £7000 in grant money, and spend the bulk of it on buying trees and bushes for the forest garden. We held bio-blitzes and bird-spotting tours and bat walks.
“We pulled out (a LOT of) Himalayan balsam. We got the grass mowed and baled, and dealt with glitches, and dowsed for pipes and guessed the number of bales. We triangulated points and X-marked the spots. We had 40 volunteers on Day 1 of planting and 25 on Day 2 and got over 150 plants and trees in the ground with their mulches and stakes and ties and guards. And a beautiful rope fence to help protect them – and tennis ball stake-tops for a bit of added protection.
“We made videos and took photos and shared posts and gave interviews and talks and did slideshows and made posters and boosted other people’s projects and ideas too. We began work on a film about Wellington’s waterways.
“We helped people create their own wildflower patches, build birdboxes and make woodpiles and wildlife ponds and hedgehog corridors.
“We welcomed people back to the Repair Café and managed to do it in a Covid-safe way.
“We shared tips on improving soil and growing healthy food with organic gardening and minimal-till methods.
“We shared tips on improving soil and growing healthy food with organic gardening and minimal-till methods.
“We improved our scything techniques – and our apple-gathering techniques too, and managed to produce over 500 bottles of delicious juice.
“We involved schools and were inspired by the energy and enthusiasm of our young citizens of planet Earth.
“We worked more on our interactive wildlife map plans and involved others in the project too.
“We welcomed many new volunteers into the broad umbrella of TTW and sent out, hopefully interesting and more attractively designed newsletters once a month.
“Phew. Sometimes it felt like it was all too much – an uphill struggle. But at others, it felt so good to be so supported and supportive. We are so lucky to live in a place like this, at the heart of such a wonderful community and surrounded by so much outstanding natural beauty. The challenges we are facing now are huge, but so is the will and the willingness to join hands and face them together.
“So, thank you to everyone who has been involved, joined in, read and shared articles, improved their garden for wildlife, mended something, recycled, planted a tree or any other action for the climate. Here’s hoping that 2022 will bring even more good things, because as we all know the only hope worth having is the hope that comes from the power of doing stuff.”