I was recently sent this link by a friend of my daughter – it tells an inspiring story about a man who planted a forest.
Have you planted your forest yet? Have you started?
People quite often ask me whether I miss the RSPB and my usual answer is along the lines of : No. Although I miss some of the people, but I spent a long time at the RSPB, and as Conservation Director, and although it was great it was time for me to move on.
The next question is quite often along the lines of either ‘But don’t you miss the power now that you are just an ordinary person?’ or ‘Do you love the freedom now that you can speak your mind?’. The answer to these questions is basically the same – we can all do our bit and I’m finding different ways to do my bit these days.
It really irritates me when people say ‘Someone should do something about it’ and do nothing themselves. We are not victims – we are all players. We are consumers of the world’s resources and electors of our governments. Let’s make a difference.
This blog is clearly one of the ways that I try to make a difference these days. Through it I hope to influence the fate of nature in the UK – just a little. With a monthly readership of about 8000 unique visitors the blog’s reach doesn’t look bad but I know that within those 8000 readers there are nature conservationists, journalists, civil servants and politicians, so I know that the words on my blog are delighting just the audience that I would hope to delight.
In the last week, the impact on wildlife of the Cambridge Boat Club’s plans have been discussed on TV, radio and the print media and this blog played a part in making that happen. Use of social media, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, make it easier to spread the word. I sent links to my first Boat Race blog to various journalists and got immediate responses from several of them.
The point of this story is just to point out that you don’t have to be an organisation to make a difference. We can all make a difference through spreading the word, writing to decision makers, supporting the right conservation organisations, making the right lifestyle choices etc.
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What a time to bring the Lakeland hills back to life with trees. Many sheep lie dead under snow but the government and the National Trust will be more interested in getting more sheep back on there to maintain the ‘look’. One bright spark is a new magazine to be launched shortly ‘Walking and wildlife’ based in Cumbria. Once the walkers realise that there is more to walking from A to B to C nothing the hills may become alive again.
That’s an incredible story, thanks for sharing it.
One of the ways this blog can make a difference is encouraging readers to spread the word, writing to decision makers etc. Although I’ve not done nearly as much of it as I’d like to, I’m glad to have made a start this year on doing just that.
I’m always inspired by the comments on the blog too.
Another good lesson from the blog I think is not to be disheartened in the face of setbacks – presumably learnt from years of campaigning. The blog radiates a sort of grim yet cheery determination.
Speaking of making a difference, just caught up with your blog of Saturday about Mike McCarthy. What a great bloke – the Derek Ratcliffe of environmental print journalism? I notice Chris Blackhurst didn’t quote the bit of your blog where you said you’d only buy the Grauniad after Mike had left!!
MK – ‘grim yet cheery determination’ – that’ll do, thank you. And yesterday a colleague described my recent tole in something as being ‘firm but fair – as ever’ which I rather liked too.
mike McCarthy is be writing a book that many of us will want to read when it is completed.
The next Elzéard Bouffier! A beautiful story of someone seeing a need and doing something about it in spite of indifference and apathy in a country losing biodiversity hand over fist. Inspiring.
I have been writing to organisations, governments, local authorities etc. for about thirty years, on wildlife issues. I have had some positive outcomes but mainly negative, especially from my local authority. What I have learned is that the people making the decisions about wildlife are mainly dim-witted. Our local authority had a policy of “ignore the public and they will get fed up and go away.” Not much has changed and the government of the day allow them to do as they please. The idea that “we can destroy any habitat and then re-build it” is prevalent among planning depts. and “developers.” This goes to show that those who make decisions are ignorant where wildlife is concerned. It also shows that we who speak up for wildlife and their habitats will not go away. We are doing what the decision makers are paid to do but cannot be bothered to do. I have heard of people who have survived a near death experience say that their whole life flashed before them. Could it be that our life experience is stored in our memories, just as it is in a computer memory. On nearing the end our life experiences are “downloaded” to the ultimate computer and this “file” is then reviewed to see if we have achieved the required score of passing to another life? You never know, do you.
(Pretty well) every human action ultimately is started with a single idea and a single action by a single person….
Think you make a great contribution Mark in bringing things to our notice that we can sign etc that we would otherwise have missed.
I think this blog and the current comments just about says it all, We all get enormous pleasure out of the natural world around us and by extolling that alone to others we hopefully get others to share our wonder and appreciation. As a raptor person I’ve been asked several times over the years don’t you get despondent? The simple answer is yes but I also get angry at the same time and grim determination about sums it up, a determination to make a difference and not let the raptor haters, and wildlife Philistines win or at least not get away with it for free so often. We owe at least that to the wildlife that gives us so much pleasure. So write those letters and discuss the issues with whoever will listen and even with a few who don’t, listen that is.
I can even remember an interesting discussion about Eagle Owls with Mark on Newcastle Station.
May be the reintroduction of Eagle Owl is closer than you think! The effect on other species is very good when you look at the removal of rabbits and rats and even Buzzards and Goshawks. The increase in voles is the first thing with Short eared Owl expanding around an Eagle Owl nest. Interesting to see Snowy owl take Short eared Owl young when food supplies are low. The interesting thing is the decrease in Barn Owls taking rats. is it due to ‘rat eating’ barn owls more prone to secondary poison or are barn Owls getting smaller!
Richard Argall, a window cleaner in Truro, has been planting hundreds of rare and unusual trees in and about Truro city for many years now. The result is incredible – the city is now an arboretum city and Richard continues to plant. This is all his work and most of the trees have been purchased by himself, which are mainly standards and often expensive. He has received little recognition for this work which has added many thousands of £’s to the value of the city.