Swimmable rivers in London within a decade are possible with hard work, sufficient investment & imagination. I’m really glad that the submission I made on behalf of the River Roding made it into the report, because the Roding has the potential to be one of the most swimmable rivers in London.

I was on my boat late last night & thought I heard a scrabbling noise coming from outside. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye & looked up to see a fox had come through my open boat hatch & was climbing into my bed!

I was getting changed in my bedroom today & felt like I was being watched. I spun round to see this cheeky heron eyeing me up. There’s a better class of peeping tom out on the river!

A joyful experience of a victory rally, rather than a protest march today, as I joined access campaigners gathered under the imposing outline of Haytor on Dartmoor to celebrate the Supreme Court judgement upholding the only right to wild camp in England.

Today I joined Right to Roam and 400 people today in a mass swim trespass at Kinder Reservoir in the Peak District. The event was in commemoration of the anniversary of the Kinder Scout Mass Trespass, but with a very modern & pressing issue of access.

My experiments in building with Nature continue with a ‘living desk’ where I can work from home overlooking the river Legs of the desk are made from live coppiced willow that should spring to life & grow into 4 live willow trees around the desk creating a completely unique piece of living furniture

Hard to describe feeling of satisfaction of being a river guardian seeing a sand martin nesting hole you campaigned to be installed being used for 1st time This morning I witnessed a sand martin couple moving into their new build, affordable nest in the heart of Barking, & I couldn’t be more proud!

Fantastic news: 4 years after I discovered one of the most damaging illegal sewage outlets on River Roding, Thames Water have finally, *finally* broken ground on the engineering project to fix it This outfall is completely illegal, (with no permit), spilling due to a fault in the local sewer system

The headline figure of water companies discharging 4 million litres of sewage a year is bad enough but the real picture is much worse. These figures are only for known, permitted outfalls & across the country there’s thousands of unpermitted outfalls pouring unknown amounts of sewage into our rivers

Success! The Police realised that the tree protectors were not backing down & it wouldn’t be a good look to arrest children & pensioners for sitting peacefully under a tree, so they have called off the felling today, & indeed the rest of the week!

An early start in Falmouth this morning, as I joined dozens of local residents to support them in their battle to stop the destruction of their three beloved lime trees by the philistines at Cornwall County Council & their henchmen at Devon & Cornwall Police

Just seen a butterfly flying around my mooring. That doesn’t seem normal in early February, does it?

New Zealand continues to lead the way in Rights of Nature, with an act of parliament giving a third natural entity legal personality & a guardianship body to uphold its rights & look out for its interests. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

I spent the weekend in an act of ‘wild service’ helping to restore nature & maybe healing some if the urban/rural divide, as part of a group of urbanites came together in the glorious welsh countryside to plant 100’s of metres of hedges & trees to connect up existing habitats (copses, ponds, scrub)

I travelled to Wivenhoe today to represent the King George Oak in a crunch meeting to save it from being destroyed by Aviva insurance. Whilst I was, legally, instructed by the local tree protectors, in my heart the true client is the tree itself, so it was exciting to meet it the oak in person.

I hope Keir Starmer is also backing these builders, rather than the blockers trying to stop them giving us flood-preventing, drought-reducing, biodiversity-increasing infrastructure *for free*? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Interesting piece by Martha Gill on the disconnect between protections given to human-created culture, buildings, landscapes & historical sites & that afforded to Nature & our irreplaceable natural heritage www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I represented the River Roding at London Assembly Environment Committee’s hearing into the Mayor’s ‘Swimmable Rivers’ proposal. The Roding has been rightly identified by the Mayor as a potential river for swimming. It lacks the dangerous currents & traffic of the Thames, but also has enough depth.

One of my favourite things about this time of year: Working to restore the East London tidal marshes, amongst the frosty reeds, as the lower winter sun goes down in a blazing ball of red & gold, framed by the incongruous contrast of the soaring concrete overpass of the North Circular

“Get on my land!” Excellent article about landowners who actively welcome visitors onto their land, with the understanding that the disconnection between people & Nature, & isolation of farmers & farming communities are problems which can have the same solution www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This is good news for the Duchy’s human tenants. We now need to push to abolish feudalism for Nature on the Duchies, Crown, Church & State land, and give its natural ‘tenants’ substantive rights & guardians to uphold them

I went on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Rare Earth’ programme this week to talk about protecting & caring for our street trees I discussed how threats to them could be reduced by giving trees rights & guardians so their interests can be given voice & represented in our legal system www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

I love transporting trees on public transport. It’s good to move this fig to its new home without using a car & also lovely watching people’s intrigued & amused reactions to seeing something incongruously natural & alive in a public space normally denuded of nature.

To have confirmation through this stunning photo that the lower River Roding around Wanstead, Ilford & Barking now has the most urban otters in London is such a treat. This photo shows so clearly why we need to do everything in our power to protect & restore this sacred river.

I think it’s grimly telling of many things in our society that, from being the greatest port in the world, the last working wharf in the City of London at Walbrook is used to transport tens of thousands of tonnes of rubbish annually down river to be incinerated.

I want to receive more messages like this in my life.

It rained heavily last night and so I woke up to find my river had turned dark grey/almost black with a sheen of oil stretching along its entire surface. Road run off really looks like the next sewage scandal in the making. We are allowing a cocktail of damaging chemicals to wash into our rivers.

I visited the ‘Cathedral of the Pines’ at the National Pinetum in Sussex this weekend. The sculptural pillars of the trees, the diffuse silvery light through the pine needles & the tall narrow space drawing your eyes up to heaven, meant it really did have the timeless & sacred feel of a cathedral

God I love this river. Where else could you see such beauty & natural wonder so close to so much man made ugliness & pollution? And could there be a greater rallying cry to clean, protect & restore a river than seeing a sleek & graceful otter darting & diving amidst a carpet of plastic & rubbish?

Just had the most unexpected nature experience: opened my boat hatch to see an otter frolicking in the Roding, in the willow directly opposite. Slightly hard to believe that there could be an otter in Barking, but I managed to get a video of what would appear to be the most urban otter in London!

A fascinating afternoon of talks yesterday organised by Woodland Trust about heritage trees. Covering the history of our appreciation of them; legislative proposals for protection; finding & cataloguing; & the rights of trees. Was an honour to be amongst so many tree guardians in one room!

One of the best things about Twitter was the amazing network of grassroots nature guardians & protectors, peacefully & resolutely protecting trees, rivers, wildlife & natural landscapes & ecosystems. I’d love to recreate that here with a starter pack. Do nominate yourself or others in this thread?

"I believe that the Rights of Nature will be to the 21st Century what human rights were to the 20th Century and we're just at the start of that journey." - @paulpowlesland.bsky.social Read about the ceremony held to recognise the importance of the River Wye here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Let’s see if I can find ‘tree twitter’ people on here with a request for info? This birch tree in Barking is facing destruction & the only option available to save it is to move it. I know it’s not ideal, but what can we do to give it the best chance? What size rootball? Any other hints or tips?

Last night I represented the River Roding at Redbridge scrutiny committee, during questioning of Environment Agency & Thames Water about Water pollution & flooding I brought water from the river itself into the chamber, as discussing nature without its voice or presence is a cause of many problems

Hello Bluesky, good to meet you all! I am a magpie-like collector of interests, all united in some way by Nature. Rights of Nature & climate activism; river guardianship; Right to Roam; boat life & restoration on the River Roding; planting, saving & admiring trees; nature adventures & pilgrimage

They probably need no introduction but here comes @paulpowlesland.bsky.social - river guardian and rights of nature maestro. And @guyshrubsole.bsky.social - the OG moss pervert himself.

With all the chaos & (justified) gloom in the world, it’s comforting to head back to my reedbed to see the fluffy seedheads sparkling in the winter sunshine, as they likely have on this spot for thousands of years, & hear the cacophony of over a dozen birds living their lives beside the Roding.