Gary McGregor 0:00
Am delighted that I have been joined by a guest in the studio, none other than Henry Mathias of Tranent Wombles. Henry, welcome, Thanks, Gary. So Henry has joined me in this most inclement day coming all the way from Tranent. So he's joined me as part of our regular monthly focus on the sorry East Lothian climate hub, and Tranent Wombles are a member of the climate hub. So Henry, tell us about Tranent Wombles. What's that all about
Henry Mathias 0:29
Tranent Wombles? Well, we set up during lockdown as a litter picking group, and really wasn't that much to do during lockdown, so we thought, hey, let's start clearing up tremendous bit lots of historic litter. Okay, and so went out big groups, clearing up the litter, great. And here we are. A few years later, we've collected almost 8000 of those pink bin bags. Wow, 8000 1000.
Gary McGregor 0:56
Blimey, you put the one more than wobbles the shame. Gracious me, gracious me. Well, but there's more to it than that,
Henry Mathias 1:04
isn't it? Yeah. So
Henry Mathias 1:05
we've got lots of members who are individually collecting litter from their patch, and then these big group picks as well. But then we've also got into giving Tranent a bit of TLC, looking at the environment of okay, planting, bringing in pollinator friendly plants into tranent, making that urban environment a wee bit softer, and we are creating a wildlife corridor through trunnent, yeah, so adopting bits of land from East Lothian Council, right? Been really happy that we've just taken over these bits of grassland that were just mowed and sprayed. Yeah. Not much happening in terms of biodiversity, okay, in terms of a nice environment for people and animals, yeah. So we've taken them over, and we've been just doing that progressively over the past few years. So we started with a wee, what we call pollinator parklet opposite the Fraser center. Okay, indoors, dry, yeah, put in a bench. Did lots of native planting there, yeah, plants that are good for insects. Okay, very, very important, yeah, which is the kind of fundamental of bringing in wildlife and making the environment much
Gary McGregor 2:26
so that's, that's what you're doing. And who's the we, you know, how many are involved in this?
Henry Mathias 2:31
We've got lots of members on Facebook. We've got hundreds and hundreds of members on Facebook, but probably a core group of 15 folk, okay? Volunteering coming out regularly. We're also working with other groups with the planting and creating this
Gary McGregor 2:48
Okay, so, I mean, you're obviously up and running, well, intranet, if listeners were thinking that's a great idea, like, I'd like to do that, you know, for instance, in garville, I'd like to do that in garville, the lady wife, for instance. But you know, would you be willing to so, you know, go along and give people, you know, hints and tips as to how to get started and go about it.
Henry Mathias 3:09
Yeah, absolutely. We, we are there, and we're happy to give advice. And we just really encourage people to get stuck in. Just start looking after your local street, yeah, right outside your front door, start clearing up that, then maybe get together with others and be a bit more ambitious just looking after the environment, giving your patch a bit of TLC with the planting right and really important for the climate that we all take a bit of responsibility, yeah, for where we Live, and plant more trees protect those insects and wildlife, right?
Gary McGregor 3:43
So if they were thinking, Well, gosh, you know, I'd love to do that, but I don't know where to start. You know, you talk about your your your pollinator friendly plants or whatever, where would they go to get an insight into the sort of things they should be looking for
Speaker 1 4:00
lots of advice available online, but they're perfectly you know, invited to come to us, Tranent Wombles, our email address is Tranent wombles@gmail.com couldn't be simpler. We're also on Facebook, okay? And, you know, a member of the climate hub, and we work with other groups working to enhance the environment and make it better for the climate, right? And we'll be able to put
Speaker 2 4:28
them in touch. Okay? So if, if they were minded to come along and so, you know, join you for one of your whether it's litter picking or, you know, planting, or whatever, are they welcome to sort of seek you out. Come along, have a taste of session, as it were,
Speaker 1 4:45
most definitely, yeah. So some of the projects that we've got on at the moment, we've just completed a wee forest with St Martin's primary school, excellent, which is form of dense tree planting, right? Okay. An end, along with other communities in East Lothian really needs more trees, yes, more canopy, absolutely. So we're trying to do that. Some of the other projects we're doing the laundry in Lindores drive called bubbles. So we're creating these bubbles beds.
Speaker 2 5:17
All right, fantastic. You're good. Very alliteration. I love it.
Speaker 1 5:21
So we're, we're trying to kind of create a string, right, different pockets, okay, of places to sit, places to hang out, both for people and animals, right?
Speaker 2 5:32
Okay. And so it sounds like it has caught the imagination of the good people of Tom in Belters, as it were. And from that point of view, getting the young people involved, you know, the primary school kids that you mentioned, that is so important in the today's world, that they understand the environment part that you know, we play in the ecosystem as it were. But thank you very much, Henry, that was that was very insightful and very inspiring. If you don't know me saying so so listeners, you know where to find Henry in terms of emailing, just give us that email address again. Trent wumbles@gmail.com
Speaker 1 6:12
and the Facebook page, it's just Tranent Wombles. Just put it into Facebook. It'll come up.
Gary McGregor 6:16
Excellent, great, right? Well, thank you very much. And I, as I mentioned to you, Henry, I did have specific requests from the lady wife, which, you know, I was sharing with Henry off air that I'd mentioned to the lady wife today that had Henry coming in, and she she has been to a presentation from Henry before she's She said, What time is he coming on? And I said, well, about 12 point shed, I'll make a point of listening. So it's taken me five years to get to listen to Henry. But finally, courtesy of you, hopefully I've achieved that. So I'm, I'm indebted to you. And yes, if you are listening, Lady wife, I have had have asked them all these questions off air. Ah, meantime, wasn't Henry very interested, not a lovely chap, and, you know, inspiring to get get somebody in who's so enthusiastic about something like that that, you know, you just got other people involved. Makes a big difference. And, you know, it's a social activity as well that they undertake. So it serves two purposes there. You know, it's really good for the environment, you know, a local micro level, as it were, but it's also good for the people involved. So there we go.
