Open Space Meeting Report: Trees for Food and Fuel

Some key approaches

Trumpington Community Orchard:
- 20 Heritage varieties of apple have been planted and 2 plum.
- Preserves the local gene pool and makes the community more resilient.
- Similar orchards could be planted across the city.
Conservation margins on motorways
- fast-growing for coppicing and local charcoal production
- Good for animals and plants
- Absorbing pollutants, producing oxygen
Wood-burning stoves
- Are there enough in Cambridge?
- Local street coppicing is needed.
Persuading City Council to plant more fruit and nut trees
Encouraging individuals and community groups to plant
Guerilla seed planting on unused land
Wild food foraging – hawthorn berries etc.
- This will play a part but only to meet a small proportion of our needs.
Seed germination
Education
Land
- We need to ask the Council about planting on public land.
- Is there really a law that states that if 6 people approach the Council asking for land to use for food production, the Council has to provide it?
- It would be good to talk with the Allotments Association about this.
- Bev Sedley will talk to one allotmenter about this.
- Organisational skills are needed to navigate statutory rules (Council etc.)
Fundraising and grants for tree planting
- The Tree Council is a good place to start.

Good contacts mentioned:

Cambridge Natural History
- mushroom foraging etc.
Diana Oviat-Ham, Principal Tree Officer, Environment & Planning, CB City Council
Dinah Foley Norman, Principal Landscape Architect, Environment & Planning, CB City Council
Terry Ray, Active Communities, city allotments, CB City Council