Defra is carrying out a review of the regulations that implement the EU Birds and Habitats Directives. They’d like to hear from you at HDimplementationreview@defra.gsi.gov.uk . I’m glad to say that they have already heard from a large group of wildlife NGOs who have submitted their views on the nature directives – good for them!…
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A reply – but not an answer
You may remember that I met my MP, Louise Mensch, before Christmas, and she agreed to write to The Treasury asking for the reasons why The Chancellor, George Osborne, announced a review of the Habitats Regulations in his Autumn Statement. Ms Mensch, being an author of some repute (whether good or ill is up to…
Nature of Harming ‘award’
Today I launch the Nature of Harming ‘award’. Your vote counts – click here to make your choice.
Who got what
Have a look at this interesting report on where the green money went. Figure A, page 6, is very interesting. Environmental funding by trusts etc has fallen since 2006/07 (see page 9). Wildlife gets a big chunk of total environmental funding (page 12). The RSPB gets a big chunk of cash – from a large…
Have a look at these three short films
26 seconds worth of the Earth heating up 2 minutes of We miss you – I won’t say anything otherwise I might spoil it for you 33 minutes but you get the gist from the first few moments and then it’s up to you whether you stay with it – US farmers talking about local…
We like it when it’s personal
We cope much better, in a way, when we can identify a villain and deal with them, than we do when a problem has many contributors, particularly if we ourselves are part of the problem. The furore over Fred Goodwin’s knighthood which has led to him being ‘stripped’ of his ‘Sir’ title is a case…
Fun, and well worth the effort
It was more of a challenge than usual to fit doing the Big Garden Birdwatch into a busy weekend but I am glad that I did. Looking out the window and eating crumpets and Marmite whilst drinking tea isn’t the most arduous form of field work I have known – and there is always the…
Pieces and bits
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Yesterday was a lovely day to pass through the Cotswolds on the way to and from Cheltenham racecourse – four short-eared owls, raven and red kite. No winners, but Big Buck’s ran up his 15th successive win. I did the Big Garden Birdwatch – I’ll blog about it next week – have you, yet? I…
Newts
Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina primary last week which made me wonder whether the habitues of Lou and Perry’s diner were all voting for him – maybe they are all Democrats anyway. Newts are tricky things though aren’t they? There are three species of newts in the UK; smooth, palmate and great crested, and…
Not a word more on this
Damian Carrington’s Guardian blog reveals that Oliver Letwin wants a hard edit done on environmental legislation and guidance so that it can all be reduced to 50 pages to mimic the ‘success’ of the NPPF edit. Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt (James Naughtie please note spelling), is even now whittling down Hamlet’s 32,241 verbose words to…