I work as a Ranger in Aberdeenshire, where much of my time is spent delivering environmental education programmes in which I take school children out into semi-natural habitats (we don’t really have any natural habitats in the UK, hence we use the term semi-natural) and teach them about different aspects of Scotland’s ecology. In the…
Category: BLOGS by guest authors
Guest blog – Bookends by Tim Bidie
I am a 63 year old retired British and Sultan of Oman’s Army Officer living overseas, in Oman, running a small business advisory consultancy in Muscat, helping small to medium sized British and European Companies achieve business there. I am a salt water (mainly) catch and release fly fisherman who occasionally shoots for the pot (with…
Guest blog – Whitebeam Spring by Ian Parsons
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…
Guest blog – Cyprus winter camp by Alister Clunas
Alister Clunas was born on Orkney. He gained a Masters degree in Resource Management from the University of Edinburgh. His first conservation job was an Assistant Watcher on the Farne Island on £13 per week. Later he worked as a Ranger in East Lothian, a Property Manager in the Yorkshire Dales for the National Trust…
Guest blog – the 25-year plan and my visit to No 10 by Findlay Wilde
Last November I was invited to meet with Sir John Randall, the PM’s special adviser on the environment, to discuss environmental policy and some of the many issues that need addressing. During that meeting with Sir John (and you can read the full details here), I talked about how I can see the impacts of…
Guest blog – Real country people by Norman McCanch
Norman McCanch was born in South Wales and trained as a taxidermist, then worked as a Lighthouse Keeper with Trinity House, before studying Graphics and Illustration in Kent. He subsequently worked in a boat yard, in the Agricultural supply industry, as a part-time gamekeeper and as warden of two different Bird Observatories. He worked on…
Guest blog – An end to Peak pessimism by Alex Lees
Alex Lees is a lecturer in biodiversity at Manchester Metropolitan University and lives in the Peak District. Twitter: @Alexander_Lees Towards a wilder future – an end to Peak pessimism? Story 1. Nearly three decades ago I visited mid Wales on a family holiday. It was a successful quest for…
Guest blog – Flood and Blanket Bog Management in the Peak by Bob Berzins
Bob writes: I have a life long passion for the outdoors through rock climbing and fell running. A cancer scare in my thirties made me appreciate many things I simply hadn’t noticed before, from the smallest plants to the gap in the sky from a missing raptor. It’s all worth fighting for and that’s what…
Guest blog – Protecting Scotland’s honeybees by Callum MacGregor
Callum Macgregor is a postdoctoral researcher, currently based at the University of York. His research interests cover the ecology and conservation of pollinators (especially butterflies and moths) under the influence of human-induced environmental change. In his private life, that passion for insects extends to all wildlife, especially birds, and a particular enthusiasm for raptors and…
Guest blog – Independent greens by Marina Pacheco
Marina Pacheco has always been keen on wildlife especially of an urban kind and graduated with a zoology degree in South Africa. She then spent four years on a squirrel introduction project in Lisbon’s first urban ecology park before relocating to London. Over the last twenty years she was the London Area Manager for BTCV, the…