Guest blog – England’s Serengeti? by Steve Jones

  Steve Jones has worked in conservation in the UK and overseas for two decades, promoting wildlife-friendly farming and designated site conservation in the UK, and large mammal conservation in the tropics. He writes on wildlife-friendly farming, land sparing and rewilding at https://naturalareasblog.wordpress.com         Making space for wild nature in England’s wheat…

Guest blog – Food for Thought by Miles King

Lately I have been eating porridge for breakfast. I had forgotten how much I liked it, but there is another reason for having taken it up again. Oats are very good, apparently, at helping to restore gut flora and as I have been recovering from an infection which meant taking an awful lot of antibiotics…

Guest blog – The European or Common Alder by Murray Marr

I’m a life member of The Countryside Users Association, together with 64.1 million other Brits. I’m a semi-constant trainspotting observer of this parish’s 7/52 avian soundscape. I’m a casual delver into its historic landscape. I’m a cursory extra beside these grand, abandoned alders quaking above a deep, undisturbed paleo-ecological archive.   The European or Common…

Guest blog – What have invertebrates ever done for us? by Jonathan Wallace

After studying zoology at university Jonathan was involved in ornithological research and conservation for a number of years in France, Scotland and West Africa.  Subsequently he has spent most of his career as an environmental consultant, assisting industry in managing its environmental impacts.  Wildlife, particularly insects, remain his first love however and he is a…

Guest blog – On Nature Writing and Reading by Nicola Chester

Nicola lives with her family in the North Wessex Downs, in the far west of West Berkshire. She has written for the RSPB and her local newspaper for over a decade, has written a book on Otters and features in each of the Wildlife Trusts’ Seasons Anthologies, edited by Melissa Harrison. As well as writing…