Here
is the third
of our November
Novenas for the Fallen Through, which for this month are devoted to
Cuthbert
and to a
call for protection for our wild kinfolk.
If you would like to read more about this month’s
novena
you can read our first prayer here. I must admit that I have truly struggled with this particular prayer in a way that I rarely do. I am going to spend some time reflecting on whether this has been because of a personal struggle from my day, a collective struggle around this particular horrible issue, or a bit of both. Prayer is sacred work. Sometimes it is hard.
We
have already lifted prayers for our badgers, who have been afflicted
by several years of brutal and unjust culling, together with
scapegoating for all manner of human folly, and our hedgehogs, who
are under threat from human lack of awareness and bad decision making
effecting the natural environment in ways that we little understand.
Today, we turn to a more direct and obvious attack by humans on our
non-human neighbours; the plight of Sheffield’s trees.
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| (Image: Christopher Thomond for The Guardian |
Sheffield
is a city and metropolitan borough in South Yorkshire, at the foot of
the Pennines and gaining its name from the River Sheaf, which runs
through the city. 61% of its area is green space with a third of it
lying within the Peak District National Park. There are more than 250
parks, woodlands, and gardens in the city and, it is estimated, over
2 million trees. Trees are so deeply entwined in Sheffield’s
collective consciousness.
Most
of the following information has been taken from the excellent STAG (Save Sheffield’s Trees Action Groups), an umbrella group
representing many local tree action groups…
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| https://savesheffieldtrees.org.uk/ |
From
2006 to 2007 a firm called Elliott Consultancy undertook an
independent survey of Sheffield’s 35,057 street trees. These trees
had mostly been planted in the last 100 to 120 years; many paid for
and planted by local communities as a way to brighten up their city
famed for industry and particularly steel production. Other street
trees were planted as ‘living memorials’ to war dead, some as
grand avenues planted by wealthy manufacturers, and a few being the
remains of ancient boundary lines and field edges. The survey found
that, although 74% of the trees were ‘mature’, 71% of these
(25,000 trees) were healthy and needed no work. It was suggested
that, of the other 10,000 street trees, only a handful would require
replacement. By the end of 2016, 5,000 of Sheffield’s street trees
had been felled, with 1,000 further removals planned for 2017, and
200 per year until 2037 after that. By that time, all 10,000 street
trees will be gone.
In
2012, a 25 year £2.2 billion ‘Streets Ahead’ PFI contract was
signed between Sheffield City Council and Amey PLC. The contract
referred to highway, pavement, and street light renewal, which was to
include management of the city’s trees. £1 billion was provided by
the Department of Transport from tax-payers’ money and Sheffield
City Council took out loans to pay the other half. In an interview
later that year SCC’s Head of Highway Maintenance stated that half
of the city’s 36,000 street trees were to be replaced during the
lifetime of the contract, without reason or need. Due to a lack of
consultation the public only really became aware of this contract in
early 2014 when felling notices began to go up on trees, or trees
simply disappeared. In January that year the 450-year old ‘Melbourne
Oak’ was felled, despite local protests and an expert survey
showing that the tree was healthy. By 2015 several tree protection
groups had formed, some blocking their streets to felling crews. A
petition was handed to the SCC in June that year and following this
the council set up ‘Tree Forums’ to allow discussion of their
policy towards the trees. These were well attended by well-informed
local residents and, faced with increasing criticism and opposition,
SCC stopped the meetings.
Since
that time several half-hearted attempts at ‘consultation’ with
local communities have been made. These have been labelled
‘unrepresentative’, ‘undemocratic’, and ‘divisive’. In
February 2016 an interim High Court injunction brought by STAG halted
the felling of trees for several months but a Judical Review was
denied. SCC have taken this as court approval of their actions and
continue to claim that trees must be removed to protect pavements and
roads from root damage. In June 2016 felling began again by Amey
employees, now accompanied by South Yorkshire Police. In November two
peacefully demonstrating protestors were arrested under laws designed
to stop ‘flying pickets’ during industrial disputes. Since then
the behaviour of the contractors seems to have become worse and
worse. On one occasion, police woke residents at 4am to get them to
move their cars so that trees could be felled. Two pensioners were
arrested in their pyjamas whilst peacefully protesting and spent
several hours in police cells. The case against them was later
dropped. A local Green Party member, Simon Crump, was arrested for
protecting a 100-year old Plane tree and held in a cell for eight
hours. Again, the case was dropped. Only a few days ago local
resident, Calvin Payne was threatened with a two year prison sentence
for twice entering ‘safety zones’ around trees that the council
were planning to fell. He was also found guilty of encouraging
dissent via Facebook. Last week he received a suspended sentence,
having refused to apologise for his actions.
SCC
have dismissed all protests as ‘nonsense’ and ‘emotion’, as
though that is a valid reason to dismiss anything, local residents
would rather that it was seen as community cohesion and mutual
support. Since 2014, week long vigils have been held, a protest camp
has been set up in a local park, and residents often rush out of
their homes to disrupt workmen. Writer Patrick Barkham has described the happenings in Sheffield as a “war on trees” and points out
that no account has been taken of the contribution of the street
trees to air quality, flood alleviation, and property prices, nor of
their positive impact on mental and physical health. Some have noted
that felling trees is more expensive to the council than repairing
the pavements. However, felling is a money-making activity for Amey
and there have been suggestions that the council may be sued if they
don’t provide an environment in which tree felling can take place.
Despite funding cuts under the Government’s Austerity agenda SCC
have taken out a huge loan and sold the soul of their city to
corporate greed. Local communities and their beloved street trees
have paid the price.
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| Shared on Facebook and passed on with permission |
Yesterday
I wrote about the fossils known as ‘Saint Cuthbert’s beads’ and
how we might envisage each of our prayers as a bead creating a string
of protection for our wild kin as our novena goes on. I also
mentioned that St Hilda of Whitby was once believed to be able to
turn snakes into stone because of the large numbers of fossilised
asmmonites washed up on the shore close to her abbey. It seems that
we often wish to turn what is alive to stone, saints and snakes
alike, and that it is more comfortable to us to look towards a still
statue, rather than a living, breathing, often complex and confusing,
being. We know where we are when something is ‘set in stone’. I
like to think that Saint Cuthbert has become ‘more alive’ through
these prayers. Certainly some of us have begun to imagine him in all
manner of wild and wonderful ways! I am reminded that one of the
first acts of David Cameron’s ‘ConDem’ Government was to begin
the process of selling off our forests to huge public outcry. It is
they who introduced the badger cull and so many other attacks on our
wild. Living things, including trees, badgers, and people, are often
inconvenient. Sheffield County Council in turn have shown little love
for the ‘chaos’ of living beings, either for people rooted in
community or for trees rooted in the earth. It seems that the
concrete of a pavement is worth more than that to them. They would
rather that their city was set in stone.
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| (greenblue.com) |
Novena
for the Fallen Through
Protection,
justice,
and shining
health for our wild kin.
This
prayer is for the street trees of Sheffield and for those who stand
with them.
Blessed
Cuthbert,
Beloved
Cuddy,
Saint
of Salt and Fire,
Antlered
ancestor,
Friend
of otter, eider, cormorant, and crow,
Walker
of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
Lover
of wild places, wild creatures, and wild grace,
Threader
of sea-stars into wild prayer.
We
stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
We
thank our Mother Earth and All That Is
for
the blessing of the standing people,
for
the trees who share our communities
and
our day to day lives,
familiar
as family,
close
neighbours of deep root and changing season,
witnesses
of our short journeys on this earth,
of
our births and deaths, of our sorrows and joys,
of
our folly and wisdom,
slow-growing
and long-living
in
contrast with the speed of the lives
that
so many of us struggle to live,
holding
the hope of belonging to place,
of
once more knowing our own ground.
We
thank Mother Earth and All That Is
for
the blessing of the standing people,
each
a whole world sustaining myriad beings,
communicating
one with the other
through
root networks that we can barely understand,
deeply
entwined with the mycelium of Grandmother Fungus,
in
a beautiful co-operation that we can only hope to emulate.
Blessed
Cuthbert,
Beloved
Cuddy,
Saint
of Salt and Fire,
Antlered
ancestor,
Friend
of otter, eider, cormorant, and crow,
Walker
of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
Lover
of wild places, wild creatures, and wild grace,
Threader
of sea-stars into wild prayer.
We
stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
And
from that place, safe in the roots of the Great Tree,
we
weep for the dying of Sheffield’s street trees
and
all trees and green beings sacrificed
for
seeming progress, convenience,
and
corporate greed.
May
the street trees of Sheffield live on as a symbol
of
all trees, and all communities, who have suffered so.
We
offer deep respect and gratitude
to
all defenders of Sheffield’s street trees,
to
all who have offered their skills and their talents
in
defence of their nearby wild,
all
who have stood alone or in community,
all
who have rushed out with the dawn,
soft
with sleep, vulnerable in their nightclothes,
to
say “no!” to the murder of their beloved companion trees.
We
offer deep respect and gratitude
to
those who have witnessed
the
dying of the standing people
and
who have offered tears and rage for their passing.
We
offer deep respect to all who grieve, all who mourn,
and
all who continue to fight on through it all.
We
offer love and sorrow to all who look out
on
once familiar streets
now
unrecognisable in their missing green.
We
lift a prayer for solace and healing,
for
human and tree.
Blessed
Cuthbert,
Beloved
Cuddy,
Saint
of Salt and Fire,
Antlered
ancestor,
Friend
of otter, eider, cormorant, and crow,
Walker
of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
Lover
of wild places, wild creatures, and wild grace,
Threader
of sea-stars into wild prayer.
We
stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
We
ask that you stir and soften the hearts of those
who
have power over Sheffield’s street trees,
that
they might choose to stand with the people
against
the faceless toxin of corporate disconnection
that
seeks only money to the detriment of life.
May
all come to stand defiant in the spaces
left
by the fallen standing people,
becoming
a forest of rebellion
against
the degradation of beauty, community,
and
wild life,
sustained
by the sunlight of hope,
by
the sweet rain of belonging,
knowing
that power-out-of-balance
also
has its season
and
one day will fall like a leaf in autumn.
Blessed
Cuthbert,
Beloved
Cuddy,
Saint
of Salt and Fire,
Antlered
ancestor,
Friend
of otter, eider, cormorant, and crow,
Walker
of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
Lover
of wild places, wild creatures, and wild grace,
Threader
of sea-stars into wild prayer.
We
stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
We
lift a prayer for the cherry trees
of
Abbeydale Park Rise,
beloved
of pollinators and people,
bright
with blossom in spring
and
Christmas lights in winter
to
the joy of all.
We
lift a prayer for the Chelsea Road elm,
120
years old and surviving
in
a land of lost elms,
perhaps
holding in its bark the
promise
of survival for all its elm-kin.
We
lift a prayer for the Melbourne Oak,
who
once was and is no more,
the
oldest of street trees,
450
years of belonging
lost
to bureaucracy and indifference,
loved
by many, still.
We
lift a prayer for the Vernon Oak,
holding
the memory of fields and farmhouses,
inspiring
poems and art,
beloved
of school children,
a
bright star in an ebbing sea of green.
We
lift a prayer for the seven limes of Chatsworth Road,
named
by their human community
as
Duchess, Dowager Duchess, Diana,
Davina,
Dorothy, Dawn, and Deborah.
Because
in naming we choose to love.
We
lift a prayer for the Western Road War Memorial trees,
for
a hundred years standing
as
a reminder of the folly of war,
of
once-children of a nearby school
fallen
in unfamiliar earth,
once
more rooted in home,
reborn
with every spring.
Please,
please don’t let them be cut down again.
Blessed
Cuthbert,
Beloved
Cuddy,
Saint
of Salt and Fire,
Antlered
ancestor,
Friend
of otter, eider, cormorant, and crow,
Walker
of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
Lover
of wild places, wild creatures, and wild grace,
Threader
of sea-stars into wild prayer.
We
stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
We
lift a prayer for the 10,000 threatened street trees of Sheffield,
whether
fallen or standing,
and
for the safety of those not under threat.
May
the fallen be remembered,
giving
fuel for the journey.
May
the standing remain in wild health,
safe
in the soil that holds them.
May
all the trees of Sheffield
be
secure in their growing.
And
may the people of Sheffield
always
look on beauty.
We
ask this in the name of badger and water vole,
hen
harrier and natterjack toad,
red
fox
and red
deer,
dotterel
and dormouse,
red
squirrel and seal.
Of
starling
and sparrow,
sand
lizard and slow worm,
hedgehog
and hare,
corn
marigold and marsh cleaver.
Of
great
crested newt and small
fleabane,
ringed
plover and oystercatcher,
pasque
flower and mountain ringlet butterfly,
wildcat
and skylark.
Of
marsh
fritillary butterfly and shrill carder bee,
blue
ground beetle and white-clawed crayfish,
freshwater
pearl mussel, cormorant, and crow.
Blessed
Cuthbert,
Beloved
Cuddy,
Saint
of Salt and Fire,
Antlered
ancestor,
Friend
of otter, eider, cormorant, and crow,
Walker
of the untamed edge of Land and Spirit,
Lover
of wild places, wild creatures, and wild grace,
Threader
of sea-stars into wild prayer.
We
stand in solidarity with you at the roots of the Tree of Life.
We
ask for strength and protection for all
in
Sheffield who stand for tree and home,
all
who speak truth to power,
knowing
that attacks on people, badgers, trees,
and
all wild kin, come from the same place of
fear
for what is truly alive in a world of ghosts.
Let
there be justice in Sheffield for trees and people,
rooted
in wild grace and the sweet soil of community.
The
first is for badger.
The
second is for hedgehog.
The
third is for Sheffield’s street trees.
May
our string of prayer beads,
formed
in the starry sea where all things are one,
gathered
on the shore of meeting,
be
filled with life, love, and wild justice
for
all beings on this earth we share.
For
this we pray.
Aho
mitake oyasin, amen, blessed be. Inshallah.
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| Yew tree, St Cuthbert's Church, Beltingham |
Further information and references:
Sheffield Tree Action Groups ~ https://savesheffieldtrees.org.uk/
Please sign the Tree Charter:
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