Guest blog – BTO science by Andy Clements

Dr Andy Clements was trained as a scientist with a PhD in animal behaviour from the University of Wales, and has spent 30 years as a professional nature conservationist. He is currently the Chief Executive of the BTO.   It was great to see science for nature conservation discussed in Mark’s blog last week,  and…

Jim Paice doesn’t make stewardship pledge to taxpayers

The Defra Agriculture Minister James Paice told his fellow farmers that he wanted them to be able to opt out of their current agri-environment agreements if CAP reform changed the rules.  This seems fair enough to me.  I can’t quickly find his words on the Defra website but the Farmers Weekly report them here.  Mr…

A slightly dull report

Yesterday’s blog considered an interesting report by gamekeepers about the state of the countryside and today’s blog is about a slightly dull report by the BTO, RSPB and the JNCC about the state of breeding bird populations in the countryside.  Yesterday’s report was based on a questionnaire survey whereas this one is based on tens…