Stonehouse Community Arboretum Plan

Many members will recall that I’ve been talking for some time about the environmental projects that Stonehouse Town Council have both in the planning and in progress. SCAMP is something I personally have supported since you proposed the idea some time ago and it’s been fascinating watching you develop the strategy, almost entirely on your own efforts. I think everyone will agree with me and want to congratulate you on a ground-breaking and extraordinarily professional piece of work.

Of course, it’s not all about plans and strategy. You really do put your money where your mouth is in practical terms and can often be seen with your sleeves rolled-up, usually on cold muddy days in mid- winter, planting trees for the future. Of course, the future is what all this is about. We’re not planting for ourselves but for our children and their children.

Rotary International as an humanitarian organisation has a great interest currently in climate change and it’s great to have someone like you showing the way, particularly locally here in Stonehouse.

I very much hope to be working with you on the Council’s forthcoming re-wilding project at Stagholt where we hope to create from a bare disused field a community wild space. Your expertise on trees will prove invaluable and of course, you continue to act as a consultant for the Town Council on day to day tree matters.

Some of the speakers we get are a bit wooden but that’s certainly not been the case this evening.   Thank   you for coming to speak to us this evening John.

Neil Gibbs