Findhorn Ecovillage would be a good stop.

Have a nice trip.

Here is a link that might be useful: findhorn

Althea, I'd thought about that place.

I wonder, though... has Scotland or northern England got any "dead" rivers or lakes that have been brought back to life? (That sort of thing...)

Joel

Thrill seeker!

I don't know. If I get a chance I'll check a couple of sites that may have that sort of info & post if I find anything.

I read recently that in Scotland 99% of the original forest cover has been logged off (possibly some of it burned in forest fires? don't know), but also that tree plantations have been established to try to mitigate this unenviable situation.

I suppose there might be some interesting mixed-species reforestation attempts...

J.

Maybe this site about restoration the Caledonian Forest would give you some leads, or a visit to the Forest could be part of your travels.

Here is a link that might be useful: Caledonian Forest

Thanks, Althea... the last link & idea are very good. Good to know (and seems natural, now in the early 21st century) that people are trying to re-establish forest cover in an aware, educated "First World" country that has lost all but 1% of its natural forest cover.

I'll definitely be checking this out, when there.

Joel

Althea, I wanted to say thanks. I did get to Scotland (I've been back for a while now) and later went by train from Inverness down to London. While in Scotland (I was all over the rural areas and towns and villages), I visited some of the Caledonian Forest and met with the people who are doing native-tree reforestation (the Trees for Life people). Its good work and they're good people.

The situation with fisheries depletion and its impact on the coastal villages of northern Scotland was very sad. Encountering that was another side of the trip.

Of course, rugged Scotland is quite beautiful, as is the mild English countryside in its own way.

There sure are a lot of sizable nuclear power plants between Newcastle and London!

But there's a lot of wind power development going on in the UK, and there is much talk about utilization of tidal power.

Joel

Hi Joel, How admirable to spend travel time with people who are doing such important work, and learning about other situations regarding environmental problems. Glad you had what sounds like a fulfilling trip. Are you planning to keep in touch with anyone you met?

Whatever became of coals in Newcastle?

Althea: It's possible that some of the Trees for Life people will look me up over here (they already had some contacts inwestern Canada, I learned). Don't know about the Newcastle coal industry; I was traveling with my wife, and we were involved in our own discussion, hence I didn't ask any of our fellow train passengers about Newcastle as we went through. The Londoners much prefer the cleaner air since coal was mostly abandoned... whether many of them think much about possible radioactive leaks or about nuclear byproducts falling into the wrong hands (bombs, terrorist exploitation, etc) is hard for me to know.

Joel