Welcome to my first subscribers, thank you so much for subscribing to this publication and taking the time to read it. Not only is this great for the beginnings of my growth, but much more importantly, your subscriptions are holding me accountable to writing this publication every week. I was starting to feel the uphill struggle of trying to grow and write consistently, but seeing just a few of you are interested in reading this has rejuvenated me. I'm sure 10 subscribers seem trivial to most, but to me, it feels like 1000.
I want to give you guys a taste of what to expect from this publication. This is the Entmoot, for those of you unfamiliar with the works of J.R.R Tolkien, the Ents are a race of fantasy tree creatures in his books, set in Middle Earth. The Ents represented nature and were a personification of nature itself. This starkly contrasted to the forces of Mordor and in particular Isengard, who used machines and industry to further their evil schemes. They tore down the woods and trees surrounding Isengard to mass-produce armor and weapons for their forces. The Entmoot was a gathering of Ents (and Hurons but let's not get onto that) to discuss important matters, regarding the forest and the natural places of the world.
That is exactly the feeling I am hoping to invoke with this publication. A gathering of people who enjoy nature and want to protect it (or Ents for this metaphor), to discuss what's happening in our natural world, what things we can do to help (both big changes and small personal developments), and information that we can share to start bringing more Ents to this Entmoot.
"There is some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for" Samwise Gamgee
Just like the Ents, I am not expecting this to be fast-paced, the Ents move and talk very slowly, meaning progress can also be slow. This will be the same for The Entmoot, but as long as we are progressing and moving in the right direction, I believe positive change can happen. Moving quickly and overgrowing can be a detriment as well, trees that are forced to grow too fast can often end up miss-shapen and vulnerable to the elements. Growing slowly and taking time to develop can mean a stronger tree in the end. This publication is the same, I intend this publication to stand the test of time, to encourage strong discussion on what is happening to the world around us.
Too many environmental publications are all about getting angry, being in people's faces and confronting them with the harsh truths about how we are all destroying our precious finite resources. But in my experience all this achieves is alienating people, turning people away from conservation because it forces them to look at their mistakes and to confront their part in a society that only cares about short-term gratification. Instead, we need to bring more Ents to the party - engaging people in the joys of the natural world, especially the success stories, and encouraging a love to protect what we have.
Of course, I don't deny that many issues need to be addressed, and many companies/people/organizations do need to be confronted about their negative impact on the climate. There are many people out there to do that (who knows, maybe one day I will be one of them), but there also needs to be a space to slow down, share, and enjoy what we are working to protect. Welcome to the Entmoot.
Don't worry, not every post is going to be this heavily Tolkien-ified. As you can probably tell I am a big fan, with the Shire and the Ents being my favourite parts. When it came to deciding what I wanted to write about, the feeling of having a personification of nature and talking about protecting the wild was what I wanted to aim for.
I also want this publication to be a space to update you, dear reader, on my peaceful life in Devon. To give you some background, my name is Ben, I am a zookeeper, conservationist, educator, and lover of nature. I am also starting to draw (many fantasy influences as I am sure you can guess) and I am starting to write comedy (so there may be the odd joke inserted here and there). However this is the space I use to talk about conservation, if you are looking for my journey in artwork I usually keep that to Instagram. My Zoo/animal content I try out on TikTok. You can find links to these on my Substack home page if you're interested.
So here we are at the start. I have spent most of this week talking about my aims for the publication, but I do want to leave you with something a bit more substantial. I noticed recently that Devon Wildlife Trust is launching a scheme to protect against ash dieback, a disease caused by fungi that (as the name suggests) causes ash trees to die. It is estimated to wipe out up to 90% of Devon's ash tree population in the near future. One interesting way that the Devon Wildlife Trust is getting the public to help is to set up spots along popular walking routes, where ash trees are populous, and ask the public to take pictures of them at designated spots. Not only does this help monitor the ash tree dieback, but it also engages the public with the issue and gets them looking at the trees and noticing what it would be like if they were no longer there.
I am a big fan of this type of engagement, and I fully want to support it so here is my picture:
I will continue to monitor this site. It doesn't take long and it can help protect an important member of the local ecosystem. If you want to learn more about this scheme, click the link below.