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As the world around us descends into war, it could seem that the state of our local wildlife is of little concern in comparison. However, such wars not only destroy human lives, infrastructure and economies, they also directly affect the natural world through pollution, collateral damage and further degrade human care towards wildlife. Those of us not currently in the firing line still need to be aware of our natural habitats and the creatures that inhabit our shared and interconnected world.
In the last two issues of our newsletter we've notified you of our River Lea Pilgrimage, a series of walks over nine days, from Saturday 25 April to Sunday 3 May. You can now sign up via TicketSource
On this modern day pilgrimage, we will take a staggered journey exploring the entire length of the River Lea on foot. The walk will be a foundational event to establish Rights for the River Lea, celebrating its wonder and wildlife, what is sacred about the river for human and more-than-human communities. At the same time, we will discover the issues affecting the health, safety and well-being of the river and its communities. Twenty five free tickets will be available for each stretch of the walk. Our home stretch, the lower Lea Valley, will be explored on the weekend of 2 and 3 May.
All walks will begin in the morning, around 11am. It will be completely FREE to take part. Once you sign up, you will be sent a detailed itinerary with timings, maps and other details of the walk(s) you have signed up for. Route details are also available on the Events page of our website.If you have any questions about the event, please contact: leamarshes@gmail.com
We have one change to make from our previous announcements: we'll not be doing a separate Beating the Bounds walk as planned on 10 May. On discovering that our friend, fellow campaigner and local historian Laurie Elks was doing a talk as part of the third Hackney History Festival on the same day we decided to attend his talk at Sutton House instead. Laurie will explore the history of the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and the successful campaign to save Walthamstow Marshes - a subject which he is incredibly knowledgeable about. If you would also like to hear Laurie's talk please book via the Hackney History Festival's website. There are lots of other interesting talks, but tickets are selling out very fast for this popular event, so book soon! https://www.hackneyhistoryfestival.org/
Beating the Bounds will return next year, on Rogation Sunday 2027!
On 18 April at 1pm, we will host a SLM Community Picnic as part of the Community Planning Alliance's National Day of Action. We'll meet by the Waterworks Centre, at the former outside cafe area, close to the entrance of the Waterworks Nature Reserve (E10 7NU) where we'll eat our picnic. Do join us, just bring your own food and drink, to share if you'd like. We have chosen this location to draw attention to the fact there's no longer a cafe at the Waterworks Centre and that this building - funded and built for local people to use to find out more about Nature - no longer serves that purpose since being closed in 2020. We also wish to highlight the threat to the area from inappropriate development. Over 185 individuals and organisations have signed up to take part in the national CPA event, and we'll play our part locally in showing what our local green space means to us.
On Tuesday 10 March, Save Lea Marshes took part in a Pollution Safari at Leaside organised and hosted by Beth Summers, Managing Director of Leaside. It was attended by a number of elected local representatives, including Mayor of Hackney Caroline Woodley, Sarah Young and Chris Kennedy (the Hackney representative on the board of the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority). Cath Patrick, Conservation Manager at the LVRPA; James Hepworth from Thames 21; Pippa Rowlandson from the Floating Pennywort Project and Coordinator at Paddle UK; and Mete Coban, London Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy also took part. The purpose of the event was to explore and raise awareness of issues around the cleanliness and health of the River Lea. Some participants went out on canoes clearing invasive Pennywort and others travelled on a narrow-boat seeking the sewage outflow spots on the river. It was a very successful day and lots of information was gathered, our sincere thanks to Beth!
This month's recommended book is Love is a Toad - Exploring Our Relationship with the Wild, by Lucy Lapwing (Hudson), a hardback published by Bonner Books Ltd. The book describes Lucy's journeying with fellow naturalists, through meadows, bogs and hedgerows over the course of a year, examining the human relationship with the natural world in all its varieties from Dung Beetles to Puff Balls, to try and come to terms with the issues around our rapidly disappearing wildlife. (RRP £18.99, ISBN 9781781785120145)
We look forward to seeing you on the marshes or on our River Lea Pilgrimage!