Tag Archives: Plantlife

Do you tweet?

Here’s a list of nature conservation organisations with their number of followers on Twitter.  To be fair, many of the organisations have several (many) Twitter accounts for particular sites or particular subjects, but those listed here are the ‘main’, and sometimes the only, Twitter accounts for these organisations.   @nationaltrust 144,824 @natures_voice (RSPB) 52,785 @WoodlandTrust …

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Our vanishing flora – new Plantlife report

    Our Vanishing Flora is a new report from Plantlife. This report tells the awful story of how local losses of plants from our counties add up to a national disgrace. Over the reign of HM The Queen 10 plant species have become nationally extinct – hardly a subject for a jubilee celebration.  Those …

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Food for thought

I expect you have eaten well over the break and are probably, like me, a bit podgier than a couple of weeks ago – or maybe not? If there is anything that might put you off your food it is the sound of the President of the NFU going on about the need for greater …

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Five things to do this weekend – particularly if it’s raining

Have a look at the  ‘a focus on nature’ website.  Launched at the Bird Fair this looks like a good initiative to me.  How do ‘young people’   get the advice and mentoring that they need to get into nature conservation?  I’ve offered to give a helping hand and maybe you can too? Or maybe you …

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Nice farmers – make your choice

It’s time to vote in the Nature of Farming award which is the UK’s biggest farm wildlife award. Last year 22,000 of us voted to choose the winner from four finalists chosen by experts. The award is sponsored by the Daily Telegraph and the EU Life+ Programme and is a partnership between the RSPB, Plantlife …

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Joining up the verges

I’ve been paying more attention to the road verges since Sarah Pettegree wrote her excellent Guest Blog here and since Plantlife launched its verges campaign. And so I was more susceptible to making the link between this press release from CPRE about lowering the speed limit in rural areas and the state of our verges.  …

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See you at the Bird Fair and five campaigning opportunities

It’s about six weeks until the Bird Fair (and two weeks until the Game Fair).  I hope to be at the Bird Fair on all three days signing copies of my book which will soon be available.  One evening after being at the Bird Fair I usually sit outside my house in the garden with …

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Let’s hear it for the buzzard – and the osprey

I fled Scotland a day early and am now back home – the weather drove me away.  I did consider turning up at the Scottish Game Fair on Friday, but standing around in the rain, in a soggy field full of people moaning about buzzards didn’t really appeal to me.  I see they will get …

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Five short jobs, since it’s quite likely to be raining

1.  Support Plantlife’s campaign to make verge-cutting ecologically literate.  Have a look at these photographs from Nigel and Lois Harbron of a small patch of what is essentially a flower meadow which poses no threat to road safety and is bureaucratically scalped every year. 2. Spend two minutes to get a bank to give $5 …

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This cut is a deep one

Today Plantlife launch a campaign to stop councils destroying the wild flowers of roadside verges through inappropriate cutting.  The wild plant charity says that they have been inundated by complaints from the public about verges being cut this year just as the flowers appear – giving them no chance to set seed. Plantlife Chief Executive, …

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