Weeding and Gardening
In the last edition of Forward, John White wrote about needing a volunteer to help with weeding and gardening at the Mint. For some time the Mint Eco Team had been talking about tidying up the front beds, and so a couple of us and a volunteer who comes to Forum and Prayer group met with John, who showed us what needs to be done to keep the surrounds of the site tidy (including part of Mint Lane). We have set up a little group to meet for weeding and gardening one Wednesday a month and another group who will meet once a month at a weekend. Both groups are quite small at present. If anyone read John’s notice and thought “I wouldn’t want to do that single handed(!)”, now is your opportunity to join a few others. As part of working towards our Gold Eco Award, which may well take a long time, we will now have to complete a new section on land management. The new questions
will be out soon on the EcoChurch A Rocha website, so members of the Mint Eco Team have agreed to co-ordinate the necessary gardening work to meet the criteria, whilst bearing in mind that we are a city centre church.
If you would like to join the gardening group please speak to Stephen Mosedale or Sue Cordery.
A Heat Network for Exeter
Over the summer there were public consultations and exhibitions on the Exeter Energy Network, a low-to-zero carbon heat network being planned for the city centre. A heat network, or district heating, is like a giant central heating system that supplies heat through underground pipes from a central point to multiple buildings. This is much more efficient than each building having its own system, especially if the “boiler” or central heat source can use low carbon energy.
The plan for Exeter’s heat network is that a water source heat pump will extract heat from the River Exe, at a facility to be built next to the Marsh Barton railway station. River water will pass through the heat pump and be returned to the river slightly cooler than when it was extracted. It is claimed this will have no negative ecological impact and might even be marginally beneficial. The extracted heat will be used to heat water in the central “boiler”, which will circulate hot water through yet-to-be-laid insulated pipes to a large part of the city centre.
Supplied buildings will have heat exchangers connected to their existing heating systems, allowing them to use as little or as much heat as they need. Construction of the facility in Marsh Barton, as well as laying the underground pipes, will inevitably cause some disruption to traffic. Planning permission will be submitted later this year allowing further opportunity for comments to be made, including on the proposed routes for the underground pipes. Subject to approvals, the aim is to start supplying heat to buildings sometime in 2026. For more information see https://exeter.energy where you can also sign up to receive a newsletter if you want to be kept informed of progress with the scheme.
Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia
Knowing Creation, Knowing God : The Truth about Moths
Moths are often considered the poor unloved cousins of butterflies. The memory persists of clothes moth caterpillars damaging clothes, although they only eat animal fibres such as wool, leather and fur, and most clothing nowadays is made from vegetable fibres like cotton, or from synthetics, so it’s rarely an issue. There are only two significant moth species that do this anyway out of 2,500 British moths (for comparison we have just 70 butterflies). Although none of the identify–by–sight differences between butterflies and moths are infallible, largely speaking, butterflies fold their wings when resting whilst moths do not. Most moths fly only by night, so we miss them, though the Scarlet Tiger moth for example shown here, is around by day in June and July. It, like the cinnabar shown below, show that some months are every bit as beautiful as the finest butterflies.
Moths and their caterpillars provide vital food for amphibians, hedgehogs, bats and many common garden birds; blue tits alone in Britain are estimated to consume some 35 billion caterpillars a year. Whilst young plants may be susceptible to being eaten by the caterpillars, adult moths are important pollinators for many of our food crops.
Nevertheless, the number of moths has declined by 40% in southern Britain since 1968, no doubt due to a mixture of intensive agriculture, the use of pesticides and herbicides by gardeners as well as growers, increased light pollution, and climate change. The number and variety of moth species provides a key indicator of the health of an environment, rather like a canary in a coal mine.
Some moths have amazing abilities. The Death’s–head Hawk–moth can imitate the squeal of a queen bee in order to mislead worker bees and steal honey from a hive without being stung to death like any other invader. On the other hand the Bee Hawk–moth can make itself look like a bumble bee to deter predators. Male Emperor moths are capable of tracking a female by her scent from up to five miles away.
The life cycle of butterflies and moths is one of those early educational lessons we never forget, and it has inspired many to believe they too can be transformed from what they are into something beautiful. Butterflies are widely used illustratively as a symbol of environmental friendliness, of freedom, and of peace. Moths too deserve to share some of the limelight. Stephen Mosedale