Food for thought

I expect you have eaten well over the break and are probably, like me, a bit podgier than a couple of weeks ago – or maybe not? If there is anything that might put you off your food it is the sound of the President of the NFU going on about the need for greater…

Ralph Underhill cartoon

    Buglife’s Matt Shardlow gave evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee on Wednesday and said: “The economic case for neonicotinoids is marginal at best the environmental cost is a price too high to pay. The use of these indiscriminate pesticides must be suspended before it is too late to halt the alarming decline in…

Mown down – the Grasslands Trust

Last week’s news that the Grasslands Trust has gone into liquidation is sad to hear but it may only be the first and most public sign of the impact of the recession on our tangled bank of wildlife conservation organisations. I know many of the Grasslands Trust’s staff personally, including their Chief Executive Lucy Cooper,…

Let’s hear it for the buzzard – and the osprey

I fled Scotland a day early and am now back home – the weather drove me away.  I did consider turning up at the Scottish Game Fair on Friday, but standing around in the rain, in a soggy field full of people moaning about buzzards didn’t really appeal to me.  I see they will get…

And the winners and losers are…

The two polls for your favourite and least favourite UK wildlife NGOs are now closed.  Thank you for voting. Across the two polls, over 2400 votes were cast: 1330 in the poll for the favourite organisation and 1085 in the poll for the least favourite.  This seems to show that despite a few voices saying…

Marmite poll

You have 10 days to vote in this poll of which wildlife NGO you like the most – and which (out of those listed of course) you like the least. The interim results are fascinating with the RSPB leading the ‘likes’ but also third in the ‘loathes’.  BASC is leading in the ‘loathed’ stakes. There…

April non-showers

Last spring it was hot and dry – do you remember that?  At the moment we seem to be getting drizzly days which aren’t ideal for butterflies.  But last year was good for spring butterflies, even though not so good for summer-flying butterflies because the weather turned cold, according to Butterfly Conservation. Last year’s warm…

Love ’em or hate ’em

Yesterday I launched a new poll – or actually two of them – on this website through my (free) monthly newsblast. These two polls give you the opportunity to vote for your favourite and least favourite UK nature conservation organisation. Are wildlife NGOs like Marmite – you either love ’em or hate ’em? We’ll see….

The tangled bank

This is quite a long blog – for you it’s a ‘cup of tea and two chocolate digestives’ blog, for me it was a ‘two glasses of Rioja’ blog. And I write of the subject covered by Peter Marren in his thought-provoking opinion piece in the Independent last week (and the news piece written by…

What’s happening in the NGO family?

Everybody seems to be talking about NGOs this week – last week government was shouting at them! Greenpeace is 40 this week . WWF is 50 this week. The late, great, Sir Peter Scott who founded the Wildfowl Trust, now Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, and had a lot to do with setting up the WWF…