I have been the guardian of the confluence of the River Bourne in Kent for many years & have always wondered where it came from.

This weekend I went on a riverine detective adventure find out, & to touch the source of a river & then swim in its confluence on the same day

The River Bourne rises on the greensand ridge East of Sevenoaks.

One of the springs giving rise to it flows from Oldbury Fort, 1 of the biggest Iron Age forts in the South East. This source appeared to be a winter one & was dry, so our attention turned to a pond we had heard of

Just returned from a 5 day pilgrimage, walking from London to Canterbury with no money, tent, phone, or much of a plan other than to keep walking until I got there. It was a hard but peaceful & rich experience, through layers of history & miles of exquisitely beautiful nature…





I left Southwark Cathedral at 7pm along the Thames path, walking 10 miles to get to the first piece of green outside the city & slept on the banks of the Thames by the Lighthouse at Tripcock Ness. The estuary is a weird & lonely place, where heavy industry meets wild nature

Both of the actions you see in these photos potentially amount to the offence of ‘public nuisance’.

One is punishable with “long, long prison sentences” & the other is rewarded with huge bonuses & billions in profits.

Why the disparity? What does this mean for the rule of law?

The statutory offence of public nuisance is set out at section 78 Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Act 2022. There is a strong case that water companies across the country are committing this offence when they carry out illegal sewage spills into many of our rivers & seas.

A turd in the hand is worth… billions in profits!

As OFWAT allows massive bill rises to reward @thameswater’s continued failure, here’s what my experience of standing in a river full of shit has taught me about the sewage crisis, it’s origins & what we must do to fix it 🧵 A few weeks ago, I organised a clean up day with @riverroding to remove rubbish from the River Roding in central Ilford. Even in such an urban location, the water was clear & flowing over sand & gravel. There was a short rainstorm & we sheltered under a bridge…

In my Chapter in Wild Service, I wrote about an adjoining meadow (owned by aristocrat Viscount Falmouth) which was destroyed with glyphosate. They’ve done it again this year, with a clear line between brown death in adjoining field & green life on my thin strip of land





The kestrel I wrote about has returned, but seemingly can’t hunt in the huge field next door as all of the plants are dead, & thus the creatures that they support are gone. It’s hypnotising to watch it hunting on my riverbank, but melancholy that it’s restricted to a tiny area.

One of the best publicly-accesible rewilding sites in London is due to be enclosed & destroyed for artificial pitches for @SpursOfficial. I visited Whitewebbs Park in Enfield to see why it’s special & why local people are against this destructive sell off by @EnfieldCouncil 🧵 Whitewebbs Park used to be a golf course. This has been used to justify turning it into artificial football pitches: after all it’s already had 1 leisure use, why not another? However, over last 4 years since the golf course closed, it has already started to significantly rewild

Finally found a rare status symbol I can covet! Through a laborious process, a team at @wakehurst_kew have found a way to enable black poplars to sexually reproduce again & I’m now the proud owner of one of the first such unique genotype black poplars in the UK… Thread below gives some background about black poplar. For the last 150 years they have struggled to reproduce sexually. Although they can easily be propagated by taking cuttings & effectively cloning them, lack of sexual reproduction meant there was a limited number of genotypes

https://twitter.com/paulpowlesland/status/1678748780739407872

Destruction of a precious ancient bluebell woodland in the Kent countryside under a deluge of illegal landfill waste shows the utter failure of environmental law, complete inaction by the authorities & increasing lawlessness in the UK. Let me tell you the story of Hoads Wood 🧵

Hoad’s Wood is a special place. 200 acres of ancient woodland in the Garden of England, smooth sculptural hornbeams vie with statuesque mossy oaks, amidst a vivid blue carpet of bluebells. The wood is precious, & it’s an SSSI: one of our strongest legal protections for nature

As the year draws to a close, the moments of connection to, & service of, nature are some of my strongest memories. Here are my favourites: one per month throughout 2023.

January: out on the river planting willow trees by rowboat to naturalise sheet piling along the Roding. February: occupying one of the Wellingborough Lime Trees for 8 hours in freezing conditions to stop it being chopped down. Very glad to say that the police dropped charges 6 months later & thanks to amazing efforts of @wellywag, all the trees are still standing!

Today whilst walking along my river I found someone doing heroin & leaving rubbish everywhere. I asked him politely not to do it & he grabbed a pole & chased me down threatening to kill me. I ran as quick as I could & came to a roundabout where- thank god- there was a police car I knocked on the window & told the officer inside that I had just been chased by a man wielding a weapon & I needed her help. She looked annoyed but agreed to pull over. I told her I had the whole thing on film & could she go & arrest him. She said that she was on her way…

As part of researching #rightsofnature in Ecuador, I was keen to meet indigenous communities acting as guardians of nature. I was honoured to be invited to the territory of A’i Cofan Sinangoe people, meet their president & talk about their incredible efforts to protect nature 🧵 The Sinangoe are an indigenous community of around 50 families & 250 people. They have a territory of over 60,000 hectares alongside the Rio Aguarico in North East Ecuador & West of the city of Lago Agrio. They belong to the A’i Cofan people of North Ecuador & South Columbia

With official inquiry published & this apology, one of the last parts of the Sheffield Tree Scandal to investigate & unpack is the role of law & lawyers. In this thread I call for @SheffCouncil to waive privilege & release all legal advice & correspondence bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan… Full disclosure: I was counsel representing Sheffield tree protesters in court numerous times, either pro bono or low cost because I agreed with the protesters’ cause & thought that the actions of Sheffield City Council of destroying trees & persecuting residents was disgraceful

The outpouring of grief, sadness & anger about the felling of Sycamore Gap Tree shows the strength of love & care many British people feel for our trees. Here’s why we should change the law to give ancient & veteran trees the same protection as historic buildings & monuments 🧵 The main form of protection for historically important trees is currently Tree Preservation Orders (TPO’s). However the TPO regime is significantly less robust & protecting of trees than the Listed Building or Scheduled Ancient Monument regimes

There’s a lot to unpick in the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold the severe sentences given to Morgan & Marcus from @JustStop_Oil, but this part is very telling: “the sentences meet the legitimate sentencing aim of deterrence for such offending in current times” I’d like to ask the judges what they meant by the words “in current times”, because it looks like they mean ‘in times where more & more people are protesting actions that will lead to the deaths of millions of people’; & that as more people realise the horror of our situation…

*On the trail of the UK’s rarest native tree*. I’ve recently joined an academic study into the genetics of the black poplar; one of our most imperilled, but enigmatic, trees. This study will help to unlock info that may be crucial to our efforts to save this wonderful species🧵 Black poplars (populus nigra betulifolia) are incredible trees, often growing to great heights with a sweeping shape to their branches & with fat gnarled trunks covered in burrs called lentocils. They grow fast but live long; some of our oldest trees are likely over 200 years old

And there we have it- a full admission & apology that Sheffield City Council were completely in the wrong over the tree felling saga. This doesn’t, of course, bring the trees back nor undo the violence that was inflicted on the brave activists who were in the right all along 🧵

https://twitter.com/sheffcouncil/status/1671086890001342465

We now also need accountability from the legal system & introspection from High Court & senior judges as to why they unquestioningly believed the word of the council & granted an injunction to put people in prison for standing under a tree.

‘We will love that which we know & protect what we love’: in an effort to get to know my river, the Roding, I’m walking the whole river from source to sea over the next week, & mapping it in as much detail as possible so this knowledge can be used to protect & restore the river Here’s the map, which I’m slowly inputting with data; & where you can see my progress along the river, the kinds of things I’m mapping, & learn more about the Roding itself: google.com/maps/d/edit?mi…

Judicial persecution of climate protesters descends into farce. On Tuesday, Trudi Warner will be tried for contempt for silently holding this sign on a public highway outside court. Her trial will be at Old Bailey, which has a marble plaque in almost the same terms as her placard Will the Judge (Silas Reid) also ask for this plaque commemorating the case that established one of our most important & ancient liberties to be removed from the Old Bailey, for stating the truth that a juror has a right to give a verdict according to their convictions?

The recent spate of tree destruction has left people feeling justifiably angry. That anger is a manifestation of our love for nature, but we must not let it make us bitter. Let us transmute anger into action with this 🧵 of tree campaigns you can support & actions you can take… First, consider joining or setting up a tree protectors network in your area. Most successful tree-saving stems from local campaigns who know the area & love their trees. Such campaigns often coalesce around threats to specific trees but can be more effective if formed in advance

The threats to our native trees & woodlands aren’t just from chainsaws but also from invasive plants like rhododendron ponticum. Am working hard in my community woodland today removing it. On the left of this photo: a carpet of native bluebells; on the right, rhody & nothing else Here’s a video showing the damage caused by rhododendrons in more detail. Despite it being one of the key threats to our ancient woodlands, the government *still* refuse to ban it from being sold in garden centres or to properly tackle the 250,000 acres of infestation in the UK

Absolutely delighted to announce that the tree felling in Wellingborough has been suspended & the developer has agreed to a public consultation on its plans which will include release of the docs requested by the community, as explained by Marion, the local leader of the campaign It should not have taken weeks of dedicated action by local campaigners (who were stonewalled by developer & council), & me climbing a tree & getting arrested to achieve this, but it’s very good news that the developer has seen sense & that @NNorthantsC pressured them to do so