Prince Charles, van Cutsem and the forests

Much though my gossippy side would love a juicy scandal over the monarchy, grouse moor owners and huge amounts of money I can’t get too het up over the revelations over Prince Charles’s Duchy of Cornwall investing a small amount of his pile of money in rainforest carbon. Having once been on Today to account…

Wuthering Moors 72 – burning issues

Blog posts titled Wuthering Moors are about the issue of burning of blanket bogs by grouse shooting estates (e.g. Wuthering Moors 28, 15 October 2012), the inability of the government agency Natural England to do its job properly on regulating landowners on protected moorland sites (Wuthering Moors 68 – the background to an unlawful decision,…

When Prince Harry went down to the woods…

It is 10 years ago that three observers (one a minor) were watching Hen Harriers coming in to roost at Dersingham Bog NNR when the birds fell out of air and shots were heard.  I’ve always believed that those birds were shot and that it wasn’t a made-up account. Indeed, I have also thought the…

Heroes and villains

The RSPB is celebrating the success of its long term Stone Curlew recovery project at the moment. And so it should, as the Stone Curlew was heading for extinction in the UK before the RSPB got involved. The recovery of this bird, which will always remain localised in its distribution because it is quite fussy…