Tomorrow, Saturday, there is a fell run over parts of Walshaw Moor organised by the Calder Valley Fell Runners and called the Wadsworth Trog. We’ve missed the chance of entering (damn!) this race of 19 miles and a height range of over 3600′. Few of the entrants will probably realise that Walshaw Moor is one…
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
One last push?
A few more signatures won’t really make any difference to anything, but I’ve been glad to see Les Wallace’s epetition continue to keep rising after passing 10,000 signatures on Monday night. Click here to sign the petition that grouse shooters would like to be ignored.
National Trust press release
Hambledon Hill. Photo: John Miller. Rising to the challenge – ancient hillforts and wildlife to be given new lease of life Thirteen majestic iron age hillforts and 332 hectares (820 acres) of their surrounding landscape across Dorset and Wiltshire are to be given a new lease of life as part of a generous award of…
Guest blog – Blanket bog burning: what’s planned? by Bob Berzins
Natural England has outlined proposals for the restriction of burning but what difference will we see in our uplands? A Freedom of Information request has revealed the following: There is a complicated series of consents which currently allow burning to take place on blanket bog. NE say “The consents will be individually modified or revoked….
Natural England – you need to look in the mirror
Our latest victory to protect moorland habitat was a victory against Natural England, the government agency and regulator whose job it is to protect such habitats. Just read that sentence again. The government agency which we pay to protect the environment has been forced, eventually, to do the right thing because of a legal challenge…
Wuthering moors 81 – some more detail
This blog looks in a bit more detail at the volte face that Natural England has been forced to make as a result of my (our) legal challenge. A bit later today I will take a broader view of what Natural England needs to do to regain some credibility and public confidence. Although the letters…
Wuthering moors 80 – another, even greater, victory!
Back in May we won a significant victory against Natural England’s decision to sign an agreement with the Walshaw Moor Estate which included a new track across the protected landscape of the moor. You may think that was the end of it but no, we’ve been nagging away at NE for the last few months…
Brexit – an environmental recap
Today is the latest, and not the last, in a series of momentous parliamentary days in shaping how, or perhaps if, we are leaving the EU. A no-deal Brexit in 59 days’ time (at 11pm on my birthday – I resent that choice of date) will be a disaster for our environment. It will be…
Prospect press release – Natural England
Prospect report shows England’s natural heritage at risk from funding cuts Almost a decade of real-term pay cuts, and four consecutive years of funding cuts, coupled with the impact of Brexit, are putting England’s natural heritage at risk. That is the finding of a report by Prospect into Natural England which shows that the agency…
Guest blog – Valuing conservation volunteers by Louise Bacon
Louise writes: I used to be a biochemist studying human immune system malfunction whilst being a part-time naturalist and conservationist. Then I converted to being an environmental data geek, which is what I do part of the time in a vague attempt to pay the bills I have been a birder since childhood, and am…