Poetry Corner

Our purpose here
is to take action
and have an effect on the world.

We have been born
into a moment
of unprecedented danger and opportunity.

Our failure to act
is itself a choice.

There is nowhere to hide
from this awareness.

It is time.

The purpose of the bridge
is to span the distance
between our present situation
and our vision of a better world.

The beauty of a bridge is that,
once it is in place,
anyone can walk on it.

A few people can build a bridge
that can be walked on by many.

Tees Valley Nature Partnership has been asked to be part of one of the 30 creative teams taking part in the first phase of the Festival UK* 2022. This is a £3 million research and development programme which gets underway this week. In the second phase, 10 of the 30 teams will then be selected to deliver a multimillion-pound, mass public engagement festival.

The project team formed in Tees Valley and led by MIMA school of Art and Design and Teesside University, are recipients of £100,000 funding which will see experts from Tees Valley connect STEAM subjects who are looking to explore one of the key issues of our time – climate change. 

The Teesside University Net Zero Futurism project is led by Director of MIMA and Dean of Teesside University’s MIMA School of Art & Design Laura Sillars. It includes a team of experts from MIMA, The British Antarctic Survey, TWI Ltd, Tees Valley Nature Partnership and Borderlands. 

Northumbrian Water recognised for its environmental leadership
 

Green Recovery Challenge Fund Recipients 
 

The first round of the Green Recovery Challenge Fund has come to an end and the decisions have been announced, you can find a full list of awards here. 

Tees Rivers Trust have been awarded funding from the Green Recovery Challenge Fund for a Japanese knotweed and Himalayan balsam biological control project! 

Middlesbrough Environment City have received funding for a fourteen-month project which will engage local people in practical action to improve our green environment, through volunteering and training opportunities. The partnership includes Actes, The Linx Project Hemlington and The Other Perspective, and will work particularly with young people, BAME communities and refugees and asylum seekers.

Groundwork UK has received funding from the Green Recovery Challenge Fund, the Natural Neighbourhoods project In terms of the Tees Valley, they have included South Park in Darlington, Tees Heritage Park in Stockton and 3 community allotments in Darlington, Stockton & Middlesbrough and will be employing a team to work across all these sites

Last but not least Groundwork NE & Cumbria along with Beyond Housing have also received funding for the Loftus Community Woodland. 

Climate Action North
 

Small grants are available from ERIC NE for biodiversity and geodiversity voluntary recording work in Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, County Durham and the Tees Valley.

£2000 Is available to help fund recording activity for the 2021-2022 year. The grants are awarded to support work that improves the quality, quantity or coverage of voluntary recording in the North East.

You can find out more about the grant scheme from the grant page of the ERIC NE website Please email paul.stevens@twmuseums.org.uk if you have any queries or would like to have a chat about your project ideas for the next round of funding for your 2021-22 project. 

Highly toxic insecticides used on cats and dogs to kill fleas are poisoning rivers across England, a study has revealed. The discovery is “extremely concerning” for water insects, and the fish and birds that depend on them, the scientists said, who expect significant environmental damage is being done.

The research found fipronil in 99% of samples from 20 rivers and the average level of one particularly toxic breakdown product of the pesticide was 38 times above the safety limit. Fipronil and another nerve agent called imidacloprid that was found in the rivers have been banned from use on farms for some years.

The washing of pets was already known to flush fipronil into sewers and then rivers, while dogs swimming in rivers provides another pathway for contamination. “It has to be the flea treatments causing the pollution,” Goulson said. “Really, there’s no other conceivable source.”

Government sets out new measures to protect rainforests