Category: Guest blog

Ian Parsons spent twenty years working as a Ranger with the Forestry Commission, where he not only worked with birds of prey and dormice, but where he developed his passion for trees. Now a freelance writer, Ian runs his own specialist bird tour company leading tours to Extremadura. For more details see www.griffonholidays.com This is…

I work on climate, ecological and environmental issues, with a history in renewable energy and conservation.  But most things I do now are in response to the climate emergency; I want to help people and wildlife adapt because I believe things are going to get a lot worse, pretty quickly.  As a personal response I…

Tree planting has been higher in my thoughts than usual recently, with all the GB political parties providing numbers of trees they intend to plant. As a volunteer in practical conservation land management for wildlife trusts etc., I have noticed that, without interference, trees are pretty good at growing themselves.  Whether I have been cutting…

As a volunteer, I spend about a day a week from late October through to Easter cutting down trees. ‘Shock horror!’ say the urban tree-huggers. Actually, I could equally have written that I spend a day a week engaged in the traditional rural craft of coppicing.  I prefer to think of it as the latter….

Bob is a campaigner and activist. His novel Snared will be available in the new year. Grouse Shooting, a Track and The Law I arrived at a workshop to be greeted by a land agent as if I was a long lost friend, then spent the morning in a group with one of his gamekeepers…