Ben lives in Somerset and was Features Editor of BBC Wildlife magazine from 2008 to 2018. Now he is a freelance wildlife journalist, editor and children’s author, but his daughters just call him the word policeman. He is the only Guardian reader in the village. Twitter: @benhoarewild With Super Saturday looming, pubs are on many…
BLOG POSTS
Badgers
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I’ve been thinking, talking and writing about Badgers today. The Wild Justice crowdfunder is going well – click here There is a Wild Justice blog with details of the PAP letter – click here
Riddled with errors
You must read this blog by the National Gamekeepers Organisation (I keep wanting to put an apostrophe in there but I mustn’t because it’s their name and they can call themselves whatever they want). In fact the NGO call themselves the ‘largest group of professional conservationists in the UK’ which is a bit of a…
An interesting study
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This study is open access for 50 days so get in quickly and read and inwardly digest it. ‘Protected’ areas in the UK don’t differ from the rest of the uplands in their number (density of tracks) which is slightly surprising. Managed heather (grouse moor) landscapes have the highest densities of both surfaced and unsurfaced…
First they came for the newts, then they came for the salmon, eels, shads and lampreys?
Here’s a very big example of what Dominic Woodfield wrote about in his excellent guest blog this morning. There’s a nuclear power station, Hinckley C, being built on the Severn Estuary and part of the conditions for it being built were to do with protecting fish which use the estuary and which might be sucked…
Even children find Natural England laughable
There’s no doubting that Wild Justice has been the best crowdfunder that Natural England has had. NE is now recruiting 200 staff to do its job better. Although the recruitment advert is ghastly, and makes Natural England sound like a support group for tree huggers, whereas it is actually an environmental regulator and enforcer with…
A record June for this blog
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With 119,378 pageviews and 28,301 readers this was a record June for this blog. In fact, in terms of the number of readers this is the most successful month for this blog since its high point in August 2016 when there was great interest in my epetition to ban driven grouse shooting as it approached…
Press release from the GWCT
“The end of an era” as Professor Nick Sotherton retires from the GWCT After 44 years with the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), Director of Research, Advisory and Education, Professor Nick Sotherton is retiring this week (30 June 2020). Professor Sotherton has been with the Hampshire-based conservation charity since joining to study for his…
RSPB’s new top boffin is Jeremy Wilson
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Prof Jerry Wilson FRSE will take up the post of Director of Science for the RSPB in August when David Gibbons retires from the role. I know Jerry and he is an excellent choice. He’s very bright, very wise and very nice. Here is the RSPB announcement – click here. And here is an interview…
Guest blog – The Great Divide by Dominic Woodfield
Dominic Woodfield is the Managing Director of Bioscan, a long established and well respected consultancy specialising in applied ecology. He is a life-long birder, a specialist in botany, habitat restoration and creation and in protected fauna including bats, herpetofauna and other species. He is also a highly experienced practitioner in Environmental Impact Assessment and Habitats Regulations…