What you can do

There is a need to spread the word about Transition locally.

One of the ways we can all join in with that is to print and distribute small posters, available as PDF files from the discussion forum “files” area.

2009-04-09 Two A5 posters on an A4 Page

2009-04-09 Single A4 Page

Another important contribution is to write short emails to the Echo every time see a relevant article:

letters@bournemouthecho.co.uk

Some tips:

• Keep your letter short (not more than 200 words)
• Aim for a start (introduce the subject), a middle (a few facts) and an end (something the reader can do).
• Don’t rant, but at the same time don’t be afraid to be opinionated.
• Mention the Transition BH website: http://transitionbh.org/

On Saturday 14th March 2009 they published a letter Harriet wrote in response to an article about National Trust using the kitchen gardens at Kingston Lacy to produce food.

This is something we can all do.

Food gardening is also something we can all do, either through an allotment society or in our own back gardens. In the Transition Handbook there’s a list on pages 106/107 from Martin Crawford of the Agroforestry Research Trust about “Ten trees we can expect to see more of in a post-peak agriculture”:

1. Sweet chestnut – coppiced to produce fence posts (don’t need preservatives). Also for nuts (can yield 3 to 4 tonnes per hectare) which are nutritionally comparable to rice.
   - In the past whole societies have depended on chestnuts as their carbohydrate staple.
2. Apple – perhaps using varieties from more southern regions
3. Bamboo – easy to grow and used for almost everything – food, construction
4. Plum – easy to grow.
5. Downy oak – widely used in French forestry. Excellent quality timber. Drought resistant.
6. Walnut – high-quality timber (to replace cheap tropical sources) and nuts.
7. Alder – some of the best nitrogen-fixing trees for our climate. Fantastic windbreaks.
8. Pine – good-quality timber. Also, some important products currently made from oil could be made from pine resin instead. Turpentine. Some edible pine nuts too.
9. Willow – coppiced for fuel and windbreaks.
10. Lime – very useful. Many uses, including using coppiced logs for growing mushrooms. Edible young leaves for salads.