Notes from CC meeting 9th April

Joyce Veheary - Lend and Tend Joyce came along to tell us about her project and talk us through the process. With Lend and Tend, garden owners can offer parts of their gardens to people who would like to garden and can help with tasks like weeding or digging, cutting grass, composting and growing veg, fruit and flowers which they can share. There is also the social aspect which is important too. If you are interested there is a link to her Garden Share applications for lenders and Tenders on the lendandtend website. If you would like to contact Joyce directly with any questions or any other information her email is [email protected] You can also get a paper copy of the allocation forms from Kaja if someone doesn’t have access to the internet. They can be filled in and returned to Handam Shop to be photocopied and sent onto Joyce. But we also have a local mobile number to call 07504 488873. Joyce is seeing a growing number of people wanting to be
lenders or tenders. She offers this service on a voluntary basis and operates a "Pay-What-You-Can" basis. The suggested donation is £12.99.

PKC Community Food Growing Strategy. Update from Alison Robb– She spoke to PKC for growing fruit trees and bushes, and they have provided her with a few suggestions. Part of the recreation grounds might be ok. A community orchard and allotments could be created at the end of Ballinlochan Terrace.
SSE owns the area of land near the Dam but have suggested it wouldn’t work there but that may change.

There was a recent Forestry Commission consultation that Alison sent me regarding Fonab and Grandtully forest land management survey and I missed sending it out to everyone before the deadline, which I apologise for. However, I have been in contact with Nick Gough and asked if we could still add our opinions and he said yes as they would appreciate everyone thoughts. Here is the website https://forestryandland.gov.scot/what-we-do/planning/consultations/fonab-and-
grandtully-land-management-plan-consultation and if you have any comments, please send them directly to him. [email protected] Our concern is the use of those non biodegradeable tree guards as there are so many of them being used. I have wondered if someone goes around and collects them when they are no longer needed. Or are they just left?

Jess Pepper - Water Saving Project in Dunkeld and Birnam, 2019 Their Climate Café was approached by Scottish Water and Home Energy Scotland to help them conduct a trial in the town to take simple steps to reduce their daily water consumption and improve water efficiency. Our drinking water takes a lot of processing and energy to reach the level of quality we are used to, then heating it brings its own costs. In a year they saved 1 million gallons of water.  Click here for more info.
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Energy Saving Trust can offer devices such as eco-showerheads, shower timers and toilet cistern displacement devices and possibly water butts. They can also give literature and advice showing people how to change their day to day behaviour to save water. Water saving packs can be requested from Home Energy Scotland on 0808 808 2282 or email [email protected]
For more information on water saving, click here.

So, a project this year for Pitlochry? - We are looking at contacting Scottish Water to undertake a small water saving project in Pitlochry using toilet Cistern Displacement devices and water butts (if possible) to see how much water we can save over a given period of time. The idea would be to ask everyone to commit to saving some water when flushing our toilets. Between water butts and cistern water saving devices we could save quite a bit. Alison worked out that the average
household size in Scotland last year was about 2. And if you were to place a 1 litre displacement device in the cistern and flush only four times per day that would be a saving of 8 litres/day. Over a year that would be 2920 litres of water saved per year!

Mary McDougall– Update on Verges - Is anything happening with changes to local practices on the use of pesticides and cutting verges – nothing to report at the moment.

Community Eco Hub: As part of the development of a local Community Eco Hub we are continuing to focus on the information space situated in the Handam shop where we will have leaflets, books, presentations on issues with waste, energy efficiency in homes, food, transport and nature. Kaja has been in touch with Zero Waste Scotland who have a lot of resources we can use, leaflets and webinars which we could make available to all the climate cafes too. We have completed a short community engagement survey for everyone to fill in and return to us asap or by Saturday July 31st 2021. Here is the link but you can also fill it through the IRIS magazine, or you can pop into Handam Shop (behind Davidson's Pharmacy and Coffee Break) to pick up a paper copy of the survey.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated,  and if you could pass these
links to others as we would like as many people as possible to participate in the survey, Thanks.

Jess Pepper – Update on COP26 – is a global United Nations Summit about Climate Change and how countries plan to tackle it, which is a huge event and is coming to Glasgow the first 2 weeks in November and will be in person covid permitting. For more information check here. 

Another group the COP26 Coalition is a civil society coalition made of groups and individuals from a range of constituencies in the UK will be running another few days of live events for people to participate in from a different perspective to
COP26. In the run up to the main event we have pre - events such as the G7 in Cornwall and a climate change conference in Bonn in June and the Pre – COP26 summit in September/October in Milan so lots happening. If you would like to know more, you can sign up for the COP26 newsletter, or check out some of the other groups like Stop Climate Chaos Coalition.

In regard to Climate Cafes, Jess and I have been chatting to other UK Climate Reality Leaders about them and they are eager to learn and support the opening of more Climate Cafes throughout the UK.

Climate Reality team have applied for a space at COP26 and we plan to create a number of then around Glasgow using our Climate Café ethos to get as many folks talking. People who are already involved in our Climate Cafes or who would like to be, can help support and participate in these conversations.

Climate Café Craft project - As well as the Big Tree project. There is another - Stitches For Survival is a group of crafters creating a heart-felt message for COP26 climate talks. They are knitting, crocheting, stitching and crafting 1.5 miles of climate messages for the negotiators to urge them to take bold and binding action together to put the Earth centre-stage at COP26!
 Could this be a project not just for COP26 but for a local event too?

Len Seal – Update on open meeting to form a Communities Woodlands group. There is a lot of interest to create a local woodlands network around Perth and Kinross. And if you are interested in being involved with this group, please contact Len at  [email protected]. And there is more information on Blairgowrie and Rattray Climate Café here.

As an example there is a Woodlands Project that is near Stanley, You may have heard of it. I have included it for your information. 

Alan McDonnell from Trees for life came along to tour meeting as he is interested in creating a Climate Café or something similar close to where he lives and works. So for reference here is Alan's email [email protected] and CWA a organisation that supports community woodland groups.
 
Last months Climate Conversation Forest Gardening was  from Alan Carter: His talk was very interesting. He also has a book called Food Forest in your Garden. Click here for his website.

Next Climate Conversation is the Australian film, 2040 is on Monday 24th May, (all day) Damon Gameau explores what the future in 2040 could look like by the time his daughter is 24 years old. He focuses on promoting some of the best climate change solutions available to us now and shifting them rapidly into normal practices that we could use to help improve our planet.
For those of you who can,t make the evening event, but would still like to see the film, we have also been given the opportunity to watch it at our convenience throughout the day on Monday 24th May as well.
All you need to do is sign up for the event on Eventbrite and you will be sent an email with the link(s) to the film and zoom that morning. The evening event will take the form of - We individually watch the film then come onto zoom at 8.30pm for an after the film chat.
   
Seed Exchange Box: There is a seed exchange box at Handam Shop for any unwanted/spare garden seeds you have? Come see what they have. Drop some off and/or pick some up. 

Ecosia: Some of you may already be using this site, Ecosia, "the search engine that plants trees".
They donate at least 80% of their profits to non-profit organisations.

​Carol Aitken