Being open

Members of the ‘Sodden 570’ at last year’s Hen Harrier Day event in the Upper Derwent Valley will recognise this area  – we were getting soaked just off the left hand (western) side of the map on 10 August last year. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act provided open access to open ground (in…

Inglorious

Inglorious: conflict in the uplands will be available for Hen Harrier Day (9 August), the Inglorious 12th and thereafter. Published by Bloomsbury in late July – but you can order it now on World Book Day.    

Guest blog – Food security by Roderick Leslie

Although I worked as a forester I actually studied Agricultural & Forest Science under the great agricultural educationalist Mike Soper. Even back in the 70s I remember the question ‘where does it all end?’ was being asked – the risks of flash-over resistance to antibiotics from pigs to humans as a result of them being…

Not so Fine Shade (5) – privatisation by the back door?

This is a piece I have just had published on the Guardian website which puts Fineshade into the wider political context. Why has the FC allowed Forest Holidays to submit a planning proposal with such inadequate data? Where are those who opposed forestry privatisation when it was proposed by the front door, now it is…

Defra – what are you for? (4)

This government has been hopeless at doing things for nature. Almost completely hopeless. The Marine and Coastal Access Act received Royal Assent in November 2009. Then there was a general election in May 2010 and everything ground to a halt. Defra has dropped several proposed Marine Conservation Zones from the current consultation because of ‘economic…