A farmer writes

Last week I received this letter from a farmer and I’m grateful to him for permission to publish it here along with my reply to him. Dear Dr Avery I have read articles and letters from you from time to time particularly in Farmers Weekly. We have a small farm of about 150 acres of…

Between a rock bunting and a hard place

I had a short piece in the Farmers Weekly this week and you can read it here. But have a look at the image that FW has chosen to go with the article – a nice bunting. But wait a minute – that’s not a yellowhammer or a reed bunting, and it’s certainly not a…

Too nice?

You have one week to go before you can see the final results of the Nature of Harming ‘award’.  Cast your vote now and ask your friends (you do have friends?) to cast their’s too, please.  Nearly 1000 people have voted. Here, at this late stage – is some rationale to go behind it: We…

The home straight

You only have two weeks to join over 700 others in voting in the Nature of Harming ‘award’ – the results will be announced on April Fools’ Day. Although there is a clear leader, one candidate made a strong bid for your vote this week and it seems that another is planning to get your…

NIAs again

Nature is everywhere, it’s all around us and it is in trouble in many places around us.  When government was looking for areas to qualify as Nature Improvement Areas it had plenty of places from which to choose – 76 proposals came forward for the £7.5m funding that was available for just 12 sites. Those…