Earth Day: Nine Arches Press x Warwickshire Wildlife Trust
To celebrate Earth Day 2025, we invited the lovely folks at Nine Arches Press to tell us a bit about their project working with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust.
Nine Arches Press have been working with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust to develop a partnership since 2022. This came about as we were interested in ways in which our commitment to environmental awareness as independent publishers could be more proactive – especially with environmental concerns informing many of the poetry books we publish.
In recent years we’ve taken lots of practical steps – we’ve started using recycled paper for our books, we’ve banned single use plastics in our office, use public transport, and only use recyclable materials (or reuse non-recyclable ones) in our distribution and mailing.
But we were keen to do more – and avoid things like one-off tree planting schemes which may only have a short-term value and may not be traceable or as accountable for being the right kind of environmental contribution in the right place at the right time. Working with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and listening to their specialist knowledge on nature and environments helped us to better understand what kind of projects tend to have real, lasting and tangible impacts.
As a result of these conversations, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust paired us with their Dunsmore Living Landscape scheme, a project whose vision is to create a ‘landscape rich in wildlife and accessible to all’ that has at its centre the most important cluster of ancient woods in Warwickshire. Major funders include National Lottery Heritage Fund and National Highways.
In April 2024, despite the wet weather and mud, we pulled on our wellies and, along with poet Olga Dermott Bond, we joined one of Warwickshire Wildlife Trust’s volunteer working groups at the Diamond Jubilee Wood Country Park on the edge of Rugby which was planted in 2012. We helped to plant a new hedgerow, including hundreds of ‘whips’ of species of such as hawthorn and hazel. The value of this hedgerow is that, amongst many other things, it creates a unique corridor for wildlife and assists endangered species such as dormice.
As Lucy Hawker, Dunsmore Living Landscape Scheme Manager says “it’s been great to have Nine Arches Press getting involved in our activities and taking action for nature. We’re looking forward to identifying more opportunities to work together on a new project in the wood over the next year, not just practically but also creatively as we encourage people to think about and engage with nature in their area.”
Not only have we been able to be hands-on, but creatively we’ve been able to collaborate with the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and connect artists to the projects and schemes the Trust are involved with and look at ways in which we can use poetry for public awareness. When we’d finished planting the hedge, Olga Dermott-Bond wrote a specially commissioned poem, Dormouse, which has also been made into a short film.
What would my advice be for publishers who are keen to do more for their environment and work actively to do something in the face of climate change? I’d say these things are key:
1. Start local! Climate change is a global challenge and can seem overwhelming, but we can be effective in beginning to make change by looking close to home and the environments around us.
2. Start small but don’t be afraid to have longer term horizons for what you want the legacy to be, and the difference you want to make.
3. Start conversations with organisations who have the specialist knowledge of the environment and nature, listen to their advice on what is achievable and has the most effective impacts.
4. What can you offer? Time, hands-on action, even creative ways with words that may help express why nature is so precious and help stir others to get involved.