Gary Burgess posted a comment on this blog on 18 February on a rather old blog and I thought that few would notice what he had written and so I offered him the chance of a Guest Blog to air his views more prominently. I’m really glad that Gary took up the offer but I…
BLOG POSTS
NIAs again
Nature is everywhere, it’s all around us and it is in trouble in many places around us. When government was looking for areas to qualify as Nature Improvement Areas it had plenty of places from which to choose – 76 proposals came forward for the £7.5m funding that was available for just 12 sites. Those…
Nature Improvement Areas
Nature Improvement Areas are a new idea that came out of the report by Prof Sir John Lawton‘s group in 2010. From its strapped resources Defra has found £7.5m to invest in a slightly different type of nature conservation initiative – an area based, Big Society approach. No that isn’t a typo – a paltry…
It might be spring
My last two visits to Stanwick Lakes have been very spring-like, even if they were both in late February. Reed buntings were singing, if you can call that a song, everywhere, and skylarks, song thrushes and dunnocks were belting out their songs too. I heard Cetti’s warblers for the first time in quite a while….
Wake up and do it George!
This is funny – I’ve played it several times for the chuckle it brings to my lips. Play it, have a laugh and then email the Chancellor so that he might wake up to the importance of wildlife in our lives. I’d be interested to know whether you get a respsonse from your MP like…
Well done Hawk and Owl Trust!
The Hawk and Owl Trust is a small but very good NGO, in my opinion. I was particularly pleased to see this formal and robust support for the epetition on vicarious liability on the HOT’s website. And this strongly worded piece from HOT’s President, and Springwatch heart-throb (I am told – he does nothing to…
Letter from Defra
I am grateful to Defra Minister Richard Benyon for this reply to a letter which my MP, Louise Mensch, sent to him on 15 December concerning implementation of the EU Birds Directive. The letter asked about farmland birds, hen harriers and marine protected areas. The Minister’s civil servants have written him quite a detailed reply…
Walking round in circles?
The CLA describe their own report on access, wittily named The Right Way Forward, as hard hitting; I would describe it as dyspeptic. The report’s Executive Summary is not very descriptive but is quite florid in its language. Almost everything, it seems, ‘defies logic’, needs an ‘injection of common sense’, is ‘unjust’ (to landowners), requires…
I seem to have joined Big Society again
I’ve recently been appointed as a member of the Anglian (Northern) Regional Flood and Coastal Committee which means that I can give up any prospect of being paid on several days a year to help comment on flood and coastal defence projects. I attended a very good induction day last week organised by the Environment…
Tesco shares crashed on link-up with RSPB – every little helps
Last week the RSPB and Tesco re-announced their link up on rainforests – you’ll find a description of the link-up in the most recent Birds magazine which arrived in mid-January (pages 22-23). That link-up has already had an amazing impact on Tesco: looking at its 3-month share value you will find it peaked at 411p…