Last Wednesday all Natural England staff received an email entitled Natural England’s work in the uplands. It tried to explain why NE’s Chair, Poul Christensen, had been reported as saying that NE’s Vital Uplands document had ‘let his organisation down badly’. Because not everyone agreed with the NE vision, which you may have noticed was…
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Wuthering moors
Last week Natural England ‘reached an agreement’ with the Walshaw Moor estate which is feared by some to be a euphemism for caving in to intense pressure from grouse shooting interests. The joint statement, which reads to me as though it were made through clenched teeth, from NE and the estate, reads as follows: “Walshaw…
The home straight
You only have two weeks to join over 700 others in voting in the Nature of Harming ‘award’ – the results will be announced on April Fools’ Day. Although there is a clear leader, one candidate made a strong bid for your vote this week and it seems that another is planning to get your…
That was the week that was
I had a great time at Cheltenham and you had a great time with the excellent guest blogs here. Thank you to Matt Williams, Andrew Lucas, Sue Walker and Leo Fisher for four stimulating blogs. And thank you all for your comments on the blogs. I will come back to some of these subjects myself…
Guest blog – Renewable Energy and its impact on nature. by Leo Fisher
Leo Fisher is a freelancer and environmental enthusiast specialising in green and renewable energy as well as other topics. Having recently graduated with a Masters in History from the University of Leeds he has been fortunate enough to have travelled and worked in conservation in Ecuador and Vietnam. He writes: When it comes to…
Guest blog – Where are all the women? by Sue Walker
My name is Sue Walker and I’m a freelance writer and interpretation consultant for nature conservation organisations, mostly in Scotland. I have my own blog called ‘Writes for Nature’ www.writesfornature.blogspot.com. My thanks go to Mark for giving me the chance to write a guest blog here. His own pithy, witty and well-informed blogs make him…
Guest blog – Save wildlife. Stop birdwatching! by Andrew Lucas
Andrew works part-time for the Countryside Council for Wales, and is also a part-time postgraduate student at Swansea University. The views expressed here are his own. Recently, I found myself at some traffic lights when an enormous, gleaming, silver SUV pulled up along side me. At such moments I am insufferably smug. Here I…
Guest blog – Every little helps? by Matt Williams
Matt Williams is a campaigner and organiser. He is Co-Director of the UK Youth Climate Coalition and is also undertaking a masters in Development Studies at Cambridge University. He regularly blogs at mattadamwilliams.co.uk How much is the RSPB’s new partnership with Tesco really benefiting nature? I must preface this blog by stating that I’ve…
Well done RSPB, and the week ahead
Well done RSPB! In my Birdwatch column, the political birder, for March I wrote about the e-petition started by Chrissie Harper which asks for the law in England to be brought into line with those in Scotland in respect of vicarious liability for wildlife offences. Vicarious liability is an unfamiliar phrase for those of us…
Cheltenham preview
This blog is nothing to do with nature – it’s to do with the Cheltenham Festival which takes place in the Cotswolds next Tuesday-Friday. And that’s where I will be next week – but, never fear, the blog will go on. No-one could seriously claim that which large brown horse, with a small man perched…