Eco-friendly tourism

Although it is England's smallest National Park at 57,000 hectares, the New Forest prides itself on being the greenest and, with all the chat about carbon footprints and doing your bit for the environment, we headed down to Brockenhurst, the Forest's largest settlement, to find out how one goes about having a low carbon holiday.

Getting there
Together, the National Park Authority, the tourism industry and the local community are striving to make the New Forest a car-free destination in order to reduce the impact that visitors have on the area and have, therefore, devised a number of car-free discounts and incentives.

Twelve of the top New Forest hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs, for example, are offering up to half price room rates, two-for-the-price-of-one dinners, spa massages, free transport to and from railway stations and other such benefits if guests leave their car at home and travel by public transport to the area.

In fact, getting to Brockenhurst by train couldn't be easier as it's is the most well-connected village in the UK, with 310 trains stopping a day from as far afield as Scotland. Waterloo to Brockenhurst is just 90 minutes.

What to do
There is lots to do in the New Forest if, like most of our readers, you enjoy an active, outdoorsy life. If they do bring them, visitors are highly encouraged to escape the confines of their cars and head out on foot, bicycle or horseback and, with 94,000 acres of open forest on the doorstep, 193 miles of off-road trails and some fabulous views, there is plenty of opportunity to do so.

The community
One of the great things about the New Forest is how the various different accommodation providers, attractions and retailers have joined forces to try to make a difference. Brockenhurst is particularly interesting as the village is pioneering a new project to try and reduce its carbon footprint by 50%.

Seven local businesses have gone even further by joining the Green Tourism Business Scheme; a comprehensive 'green accreditation' initiative that champions sustainable tourism in the UK and promotes some of the greenest tourism businesses around.

Where to stay
Once of the businesses signed up to the Green Tourism Business Scheme is a charming B&B in Brockenhurst called the Cottage Lodge, which has either won, or been short-listed for, a number of environmental awards, such as the Sustainable Tourism Award.

They picked up at the Tourism South East 2007 Tourism ExSEllence Awards.



They kindly let us stay a night when we were in the area and we had a good chat with Christina Simons, the owner, about what steps they are taking to reduce their waste and pollution, and offer tourists a low carbon holiday. Their theory is that a combination of little changes makes a big difference.

Therefore:
- All the ingredients for their guests' cooked breakfast come from the New Forest to lower their food mileage, or they use Fair Trade products when no local product is available.

- Rooms are cleaned with environmentally friendly products, the building's insulation has been improved as much as possible, water is heated using an energy-efficient boiler, their energy is bought from renewable resources and they use low energy light bulbs.

- In support of the car-free plan, and as an incentive to get their guests thinking about their own carbon footprint, they offer tea and cakes to anyone who arrives by train or parks their car for 24 hours.

Take a look at the website for more information about The Cottage Lodge.

Out in the woods with the BTCV

BTCV (formerly the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers) is a charity that gives volunteers the opportunity to engage in 'hands on' conservation work in the rural and urban environment.

One of our members, Keith, works for them part-time and kindly suggested that we pay them a visit at the Forestry Commission Site, near Eartham in Sussex, to find out a bit more about the kind of things BTCV offer, have a go and coppicing and learn how they use the coppiced wood to make charcoal.

We got there in the evening and met up with Tim Harris, who organises the training days and weekends at the site, Keith (plus his lovely new girlfriend - who he met on Muddy Matches!) and a big gang of volunteers.

They had just lit a small fire to create some embers to start a charcoal burn, which is why we were all in the woods armed with cider on this chilly night. A steel ring kiln had been packed with coppiced wood and, once the embers were ready, they were poured into the middle of the kiln and the lid was pulled on top.



The idea is to keep an even burn in the kiln by monitoring a series of air inlets and chimneys; if not, you find that some of the wood will burn to ash and other bits won't burn at all. Because you are restricting the air flow into the kiln, instead of the wood turning to ash, just the water content of the wood and some volatile oils are burnt off, hopefully leaving you with carbon and not much else but charcoal.



Once the kiln is lit and sealed, it turns into a bit of a party around a camp fire, with most people cooking up some food, having a few drinks and a good bit of banter before getting some kip in a tent or, for the more hardcore, just a bivvy bag.

Tim was keeping an eye on the smoke coming out the kiln's four chimneys to see when to shut it down. Once the white smoke has been exchanged for transparent vapours, you know it's just about ready. Sometimes this is done the same night you light it but, on this night, it took a while for the kiln to get going so Tim left it until the next day before sealing up all the air inlets with sand and removing the chimneys.

Once that has been done, the kiln is left to cool for a couple of days before it is opened up - do it too early and all the hard work could go up in smoke (literally) as the whole thing could reignite. According to Tim and Keith, over the years a number of people have been out walking their dogs, seen the kiln, wondered what was in it and lifted the lid, which aside from ruining all the hard work, no doubt gave them a bit of a fright and also singed their eyebrows!

Normally you can get about 60-100 bags of charcoal from one burn, fetching around £3.00 a bag, so taking into account how long it takes to make, it's not big business - but it's damn good fun and very satisfying knowing you can produce a renewable source of energy yourself.

The next morning we went a bit deeper into the woods and were taught how to coppice a hazel tree to provide some wood for a future charcoal burn. Coppicing is a traditional woodland management method, whereby young tree stems are cut down in such a way that new shoots will emerge and in a few years the coppiced tree, or stool, can be harvested again.

Any wood that isn't suitable for burning can be used to make a deadwood fence to keep the deer out and stop them eating the new shoots. Nothing gets wasted and it's great to see how it's possible to work a wood in this way.



It's hard work though and you'd soon build up some muscles sawing away and lugging bits of wood around every day. In fact, BTCV run a scheme called the Green Gym, which works under the premise you can improve your health and help the environment at the same time and offers people the opportunity to work out in the fresh air doing practical environmental or gardening work.

It sounds a lot more fun than pounding away on a treadmill! In fact, BTCV do loads of things, from short courses to conservation holidays and it's a great way to get out there, learn more about nature and potentially meet a few new people. We had a cracking time while we were there and are hoping to team up with them next year to put on a few weekends for muddy singletons - watch this space!

For more information about BTCV in general, take a look at their website, and to find out more about charcoal burning and coppicing in Sussex, get in touch with Tim Harris on 01243 814481 or email t.harris@btcv.org.uk

Sedlescombe organic vineyard

Sat right in the heart of '1066 country' in East Sussex, the Sedlescombe Vineyard was a beautiful spot on a sunny autumn day.

We were there to find out a little more about the English winemaking industry and had arranged to take a tour of the vineyard and have a chat with owner and winemaker, Roy Cook, and his wife Irma.

Apparently, the vine was first introduced to England by the Romans around 2000 years ago and by Tudor times almost three million bottles of English wine were being produced.

However, the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII soon took its toll and English vineyards went into serious decline, with only a handful surviving into the nineteenth century.

Luckily, about 40 years ago there was a winemaking revival and production has now reached pre-Henry VIII levels. English vineyards are typically found in the South East but our warmer climate now means the most northerly vineyard can be found near York!

Roy pioneered organic grape growing in England in 1979 when he created the vineyard with just 2000 plants on one and a half acres.

It has now expanded to 23 acres, including two vineyards at Spilstead and Bodiam Castle, and is one of only four organic vineyards in the country. It was his concern about the adverse side effects that agro-chemicals are having on the environment, wildlife habitats, and our health and immune systems that caused Roy to go organic, meaning all the grapes are grown and processed without the use of synthetic fertilisers, herbicides or systemic disease control sprays.

Instead, they use natural farming methods (such as planting wild flower cover crops to manage the soil and protect the vines), which improve soil fertility and benefit the entire eco-system.



They have a number of wine varieties, including Solaris, Regent and Reichensteiner, and produce about 15,000 bottles of wine a year. The grapes are harvested once they have swollen and turned soft and sweet - normally in September or November - but are left on the vine as long as possible to achieve the maximum natural sugar content.

One they have been picked, they are crushed and pressed using traditional equipment before yeast is added to provide a slow alcoholic fermentation over 5-12 weeks. The wine is then left to rest until April or May when it is bottled.



Unfortunately, this summer's terrible weather has been bad news for winemaking and it was not a great a harvest apparently. However, the vineyard also produce their own organic cider and apple juice using locally grown apples and, luckily, it has been a good year for apples.



For more information about visiting the vineyard and tasting some of their award-winning wine, ring 0800 980 2884 or visit their website.

Open every day (10am-5.30pm) April-December. January-March weekends only, noon-5pm.