Burning issues

  From the heather and grass burning code: Areas within 5 metres of watercourses. There can be an increased risk of soil erosion close to watercourses (e.g. once vegetation has been removed by burning, soil could be washed into a watercourse by rainwater, or the watercourse might flow with sufficient force that its banks could…

Your favourite e-petitions – update

  End the badger cull instead of expanding to new areas – Simon King – 70,315 signatures (closes 25 February) Introduce a moratorium on the hunting critically declining wading birds – Chris Packham – 23,784 signatures  (closes 23 March) Develop a GCSE in natural history – Mary Colwell – 2,545 signatures after 2 days (closes…

Time for tidal in the Severn Estuary?

The Hendry review is due to be published tomorrow and is expected to recommend the go-ahead for a tidal lagoon project in Swansea Bay. This has been the subject of a variety of posts on this blog: Guest blog – Time for tidal power by Sian John, 15 July 2016; NGO reaction to Swansea Bay…

Guest blog – England’s Serengeti? by Steve Jones

  Steve Jones has worked in conservation in the UK and overseas for two decades, promoting wildlife-friendly farming and designated site conservation in the UK, and large mammal conservation in the tropics. He writes on wildlife-friendly farming, land sparing and rewilding at https://naturalareasblog.wordpress.com         Making space for wild nature in England’s wheat…

Monbiot, Batters on the Vine

I very rarely listen to Radio2 – I am so firmly a Radio4 stick-in-the-mud – so I am grateful to a reader of this blog for pointing me in the direction of the Jeremy Vine show this lunch time (although I feel rather bad about temporarily deserting Martha Kearney) where there was what passes for…