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Advice Needed

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grainknot

Joined: 26 Mar 2021
Posts: 11

Posted: Thu Apr 01, 21 9:22 am Post subject: Advice Needed

I've been mulling over an idea about trying to crowdfund buying a piece of agricultural land, to allow it to re-wild and turn back over to the commons so it's effectively owned by all that fund it and the general public at large.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to:

a) if this even possible
b) legally how would you pass the land into public ownership/commons/open access and ensure it stays that way?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Thu Apr 01, 21 10:19 am Post subject:
No idea, does an org called common ground still exist?

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46245
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Apr 01, 21 10:22 am Post subject:

yes and yes.

the second part is a perpetual covenant and a management group

first is get begging

money counts

the two i have done officially are both council owned land but are now designated community orchards based on a primary school community next to the site
i had to obtain about £6k to do the practical stuff with those, not too hard, a couple of local donors, a corporate greenwasher and we actually had more cash than we needed by 25%, that covers things like a years public liability insurance to get the management team started on a run rather than braked by scraping for a few hundred quid

my unofficial forest has a permanent covenant and no management, it was "waste" until i started planting it in about 1970
this cost nowt but time, pockets full of seeds and some careful thought

we did occupy some disputed and big style at risk territory for 9 years which is now national trust, those are a bit harsh and a niche activity

re official or normal ones, if you can get the "goodness" types involved, the commercial greenwashers as cash cows(tax or good publicity) and whatever bits of babylon that need telling what they must do doing it all should be well

it will be hard work that needs diplomacy, for every 3 sites one is perhaps plausible and from 3 plausible one may be possible

i have retired from orchard stuff and my co conspirator died recently, so community means that or dead trees and we wasted the effort on them

the NT can do what they want with that 36 acres(as much of it is vertical or interesting chances are it will rewild as it should into a multi microclimate temperate rain forest)

my unofficial forest i will observe and maybe tinker a little but i recon that should be fine with no management(tis too steep for most folk to travel around on so created multi species wild wood might be the outcome after my time)

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46245
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Apr 01, 21 10:28 am Post subject:
ps i was offered a 50 acre forest as mine a while back, between the covenants, the locals who hated the owner and the commercial and practical issues of making it at least cash neutral by extracting mature larch etc to pay for broad leafing it so i turned it down cant be developed, cant be worked give it a few hundred years that patch might have bears in it

grainknot

Joined: 26 Mar 2021
Posts: 11

Posted: Thu Apr 01, 21 11:02 am Post subject:
Thanks for all your detailed input dpack. A journey of a thousand steps and all that!

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46245
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Apr 01, 21 1:27 pm Post subject:

be persistent but not pushy with babylon, ask who is dealing with whatever it is
get to know them, make them comply with what is needed using what you know

my first "official" fell at the commercial interest hurdles, although it was a management scheme for a few more historic fruit trees rather than a new landscape

wasteland to amenity, or dogturdlawn to orchard with minders is much easier

if you get money to get land that land is your land
i try to get land for free

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15993

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 21 8:01 am Post subject:

As someone who managed woodland, please may I ask you to be very careful about the land you rewild. I know a lot of people are keen on this, but I am concerned that a lot of valuable habitat may be lost because of it.

In the area I live we have a lot of downland. Left to itself, it gets covered in scrub, eventually trees, and the steeper slopes get covered in yew trees and end up virtually lifeless chalk scree. If it is managed the way that it has for hundreds of years; grazing, then there are very valuable plant and insect communities at low level. Main problem is people and dogs. Similarly, if lowland heath, which is also a pretty rare habitat, is left to itself, it will scrub up and get a lot of pine trees. The best heathland is managed to minimise risk of fire but periodically cutting things like gorse, and stopped from turning into woodland by cutting the birch and pine. We recently got a lot of birch tops from one traditionally managed that way, which I will turn into besom heads with handles cut from our hazel coppice; another traditionally managed habitat.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46245
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Apr 02, 21 9:02 am Post subject:
wild wood and orchard have very different criteria wood lands that are managed are a massive subject as well if a field is m8 or m12 or whatever preserving that is far more important than creating scrub and waiting a few generations show us some potential locations, there is no universal theory for this stuff

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