Natural England has been forced into some wise back-tracking which they call clarification and some unconvincing verbal contortions through the pressure put on them by blogs such as this and the social media storm into which they often blunder. They are, after all, No-Mates Natural England. Their attempt to shore up their reputation came in…
Author: Mark
Born Bristol, UK
Educated: Cleeve House School Bristol, Bristol Grammar School and Downing College Cambridge
Ph.D. University of Aberdeen, Winter activity of pipistrelle bats.
NERC post-doctoral Research Fellow, Edward Grey Institute, Oxford University
Former Conservation Director of the RSPB, 1989-2011
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
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Just a taster
I requested some stuff from Natural England – a sample of the application forms for successful applications for conservation licences made last year – see here for a quck update. I got a pile of stuff the other day and I will work my way through it this weekend. But here is a taster of…
Wild Justice quoted in the Guardian today
Given that the government isn’t clamping down on field sports, you can see why the industry thinks they’ve got powerful mates. The rule of six decision has woken up the Labour party and millions of other people to ask why nothing has been done. The scale of it is just massive, yet partridge and pheasant…
The red tag of shame
The Avery household was thrown into paroxysms of self-doubt, mutual recrimination and abject shame when our recycling was rejected by the bin emptiers with a red tag of shame almost two weeks ago. We’re hoping to make the grade this week. Of course it was my fault. I had put a bag which I regarded…
Six weeks and counting
‘Nearly’ has an interesting meaning here – over six weeks of reviewing a petition of fewer than 60 words. Many petitions, and I do hope this one, take much less time to reach 100,000 signatures than they do to get reviewed by the Petitions Committee. It’s about Badgers, by the way.
World Land Trust
On Wednesday afternoon I was chairing a meeting of the World Land Trust’s trustees. This was, of course, over the internet with all of its disadvantages and advantages. It’s the third such meeting I’ve chaired and we are all getting used to it. One of our number was dialling in from the Uists but the…
The last time I was…
…in London… …was in February. That’s amazing – it must be several decades since I went six months without entering our capital city. Do I miss it? Not much. Do I miss the people I used to meet there – yes, some of them. Were all my journeys really necessary? No. Will I return to…
From Mr Carbo
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Press release – the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership and others
Top UK Seafood Products May Pose Risks to Sharks, Seabirds, Marine Mammals and Sea Turtles ASDA first major retailer to assess impacts of its seafood business on ocean wildlife London – An independent report released today assesses the risks to ocean wildlife from incidental capture in the fisheries that supply seafood to UK supermarket chain…