The Green Wall of the Forest

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In today's SE1 community news letter is the annoucement that demolition of the Heygate Estate, that's the heart of the forest will be sooner than anticipated.

"The demolition of the Heygate Estate at Elephant & Castle is to be completed two to three years earlier than planned after Southwark's cabinet decided to make changes to the regeneration agreement with developers Lend Lease." Click to read more

Whilst @urbanforesters continues to press for access to much of the forest whilst demolition and construction takes place it is not by any means guaranteed. And yet demolition will be slow  - there will be no dramatic explosions here, the buildings are too riddled with asbestos - and the new development will have a small park at the centre. 

So enjoy it while it lasts. It's not all fallen leaves in the forest. Go marvel at the new Green Wall built by mobile gardeners using plants donated from the Van Gogh Green Wall that clad the National Gallery this summer. It's near location 17 on our illustrated map.

 

 

 

Goodbye [to all this]; one chapter closes, others open - see you in your Forest!

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One chapter closes, others open... [Ph G Mannes Abbott]

The Urban Forest at the Elephant & Castle exists in an actual time and place. It's continuous with London's newly recognised continuous urban forest and is owned by everyone. 

This website, blog and twitter feed forms a single brief chapter, Chapter 4 perhaps? -in a long and ongoing campaign. The time has come to archive the campaign's content on the trees, Forest, valuation/s and all that generated the big strategic effect on and change to the masterplan in the summer of 2011, move to a new clearing and nurture further chapters in this ongoing story. 

There is a lot of work and campaigning to do and, at least for a while, it requires more committed grind, articulation of ideas and a vigilant pursuit of detail than it does further publicity! Chapter 4 succeeded because we made a lot of noise and drew attention to all the campaign objectives on the Forest as had been promised or threatened early Summer -and we [all] had fun along the way. Neither the campaign nor this summer's fun would have happened without you all, of course. It's important that you yourselves take credit for it...

Queries about the story of the Forest, campaign and monthly walks should be directed at this urbanforester and writer Guy Mannes-Abbott; guy [at] g-m-a.net

Queries about Mobile Gardeners in Wansey Street [and perhaps beyond!] should be directed to Guerilla Gardener Richard Reynolds; richard [at] goodatmagic.com

Thanks to readers, walkers, feasters, etc., and everyone's interest and support. 

The Forest is yours; enjoy it -and see you there!

 

More on The Natural Choice government paper

The BBC's report on DEFRA's paper continues the case for the importance of nature. "Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said society would pay a "terrible price" if it neglected to care for nature. "Nature belongs to us all, and we've all got a vested interest in protecting it," she said." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13672600
Let's hope the Elephant & Castle Urban Forest is recognised for the value extolled in this paper and it continues to belong to all of us