On Wednesday a paper was published showing that, so far, nothing has changed in lead ammunition use – see here. Report in the BBC – click here and listen to BBC Inside Science – click here about half way through. Report in the Telegraph – see here. The GWCT take it on the chin (and…
BLOG POSTS
Press release – Trees for Life on Beavers
Legal challenge to Scottish Government’s beaver killing policy can proceed says Scottish Court of Session Scotland’s supreme civil court has given Trees for Life permission to challenge the Scottish Government’s beaver killing policy through a judicial review. The rewilding charity says the Government’s nature agency NatureScot is breaking the law by failing to make the…
An interesting/dull and important/unimportant paper published today
This paper was published today and sometime soon it will be available free online, but at the moment the ‘free’ bit hasn’t kicked in. I have a copy of the paper sent to me by the BTO, and also by Natural England, so I’ve read it all (but don’t have access to the supplementary material…
National Trust press release
National Trust and partners signal hope and healing with blossoming ambitions around the UK Conservation charity and partners choose spring blossom as a symbol of reflection and hope, with plan to plant blossoming tree circles in towns and cities across England, Wales and Northern Ireland over next five years Tree circles and individual blossom tree…
Countryfile
I normally give Countryfile a swerve, until someone tells me there was something horrific on it, or the horrific thing is me, but last Sunday I had to watch it as it featured my adopted neck of the woods – the Nene Valley in Northants. It was quite good (as was the bit on fisheries,…
Guest blog – Jagged Ends by Les Wallace
Who I am – Scottish with a fascination for wildlife from childhood – in lieu of formal qualifications (and not being able to flash them about!) – was on the 1990 International Youth Conservation Exchange to Hungary, was the 1993 winner of the BBC Wildlife Magazine ‘Realms of the Russian Bear’ competition and spent nearly…
NEWS: No progress on lead ammunition after one year – who’d have guessed?
A year ago the shooting organisations ‘took responsibility’ for phasing out lead ammunition with a fanfare; At the time I wrote: This statement from a bunch of land owning, land managing and shooting organisations is to be welcomed but not praised. After years of hindering progress these ultra-conservative bodies have bowed to the inevitable and…
DEFRA launches gamebird release consultation over two weeks late
The DEFRA consultation on gamebird releases has finally been issued today with a consultation period of three weeks. I, and others, will be reading this carefully over the next few days. Wild Justice intends to tell its supporters what it thinks of the consultation, and to arm them with ideas for responses, on Monday 8…
DEFRA promised consultation on gamebird releases now two weeks late
DEFRA told stakeholders (ghastly word – and anyway DEFRA’s stakeholders are taxpayers and citizens) that it would issue the necessary consultation on its promised gamebird release restrictions on 8 February. It didn’t and it still hasn’t. DEFRA has not revealed when it might issue its consulation except in an email to ‘stakeholders’ half way through…
Don’t trust DEFRA
Do you remember this blog published on 12 September? It featured this question and answer in parliament; I wrote to my MP on this matter in mid September and he passed my concerns on to DEFRA in late September, to which they replied in a letter dated 5 February for which Mr Pursglove wrote a…