People making a difference: Former teacher saves trees - and bats - threatened by HS2
Carol-Anne O'Callaghan talks to me from her motorhome. “I call it my mobile office,” she says. "It's good. I have wifi and a desk. I even have a toilet! It's covered in bat images, as a nod to his activism.
The 60-year-old former teacher from Great Missenden in Chilterns, Buckinghamshire, uses the van as a base for her campaign work, which began in February 2021. O'Callaghan was walking her dogs when she spotted yellow dots stuck to some of the 99 oak trees in a narrow country lane near her home. The dots, she learned, indicated trees slated for destruction.
O'Callaghan loved this ancient line of oak trees. She chokes on the moment she realized that many of them were meant to be felled. They were planted in the 19th century on Leather Lane. "My family and I were picnicking under them," she said, "let's climb them, put some rope swings in them. The trees are amazing and beautiful and meant nt so much. One of the last photos of her mother, taken shortly before her death, showed her sitting on a swing in their branches.
The trees had to be felled as part of the HS2 high-speed rail works. O'Callaghan says she called the HS2 helpline and was told there was nothing they could do. The trees were to be felled the following month so that HS2 contractors could construct an over-road. "I said, 'Why? Why do you take the trees?'"
O'Callaghan spent her teaching career at tell the children that "If something goes wrong, you can't just sit back and let it happen. You have to speak for the people who can't speak for themselves. She thought: "Who speaks and speaks for the trees? Nobody. I wasn't ready to accept what they were telling me. They were going to cut down trees that had taken almost 200 years to grow. She noticed that on the other side of Leather Lane, to the north, there was There were no old oak trees (HS2 says building to the north would have resulted in the loss of another wooded area.) So she began campaigning to save the trees. With the help of her daughter, Blaize, she started a petition, which garnered nearly 43,000 signatures. O'Callaghan put leaflets on neighbors' doors. She also painted signs and launched a "toot your salute" campaign, urging ant locals to honk their horns when driving down the road if they want the oaks to stay.
"You could hear people whistling all the way down the lane", she says. "It was amazing."
"When I first met Carol-Anne at a meeting she organized to explain to locals what 'She was trying to accomplish,' explains her neighbor and candidate. Victoria, "I saw someone who is passionate about giving a voice to the voiceless, someone who isn't afraid to ask questions and call the intimidating big companies to get does the wrong thing."
Carol-Anne O'Callaghan talks to me from her motorhome. “I call it my mobile office,” she says. "It's good. I have wifi and a desk. I even have a toilet! It's covered in bat images, as a nod to his activism.
The 60-year-old former teacher from Great Missenden in Chilterns, Buckinghamshire, uses the van as a base for her campaign work, which began in February 2021. O'Callaghan was walking her dogs when she spotted yellow dots stuck to some of the 99 oak trees in a narrow country lane near her home. The dots, she learned, indicated trees slated for destruction.
O'Callaghan loved this ancient line of oak trees. She chokes on the moment she realized that many of them were meant to be felled. They were planted in the 19th century on Leather Lane. "My family and I were picnicking under them," she said, "let's climb them, put some rope swings in them. The trees are amazing and beautiful and meant nt so much. One of the last photos of her mother, taken shortly before her death, showed her sitting on a swing in their branches.
The trees had to be felled as part of the HS2 high-speed rail works. O'Callaghan says she called the HS2 helpline and was told there was nothing they could do. The trees were to be felled the following month so that HS2 contractors could construct an over-road. "I said, 'Why? Why do you take the trees?'"
O'Callaghan spent her teaching career at tell the children that "If something goes wrong, you can't just sit back and let it happen. You have to speak for the people who can't speak for themselves. She thought: "Who speaks and speaks for the trees? Nobody. I wasn't ready to accept what they were telling me. They were going to cut down trees that had taken almost 200 years to grow. She noticed that on the other side of Leather Lane, to the north, there was There were no old oak trees (HS2 says building to the north would have resulted in the loss of another wooded area.) So she began campaigning to save the trees. With the help of her daughter, Blaize, she started a petition, which garnered nearly 43,000 signatures. O'Callaghan put leaflets on neighbors' doors. She also painted signs and launched a "toot your salute" campaign, urging ant locals to honk their horns when driving down the road if they want the oaks to stay.
"You could hear people whistling all the way down the lane", she says. "It was amazing."
"When I first met Carol-Anne at a meeting she organized to explain to locals what 'She was trying to accomplish,' explains her neighbor and candidate. Victoria, "I saw someone who is passionate about giving a voice to the voiceless, someone who isn't afraid to ask questions and call the intimidating big companies to get does the wrong thing."
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