Nature conservation needs systems and processes and, yes, bureaucracy, and forms and meetings and all the paraphernalia of decision making and due diligence. But, as we all know, sometimes the means can take over from the ends, and sometimes people can lose sight of what the processes are there to deliver. I recently visited Catfield…
Tag: Natural England
Wuthering Moors 17
I still await Defra’s response to my FOI/EIR request (too busy buzzard bothering?). There are various interesting parts of NE’s response to my request. As I read the NE response there is no hint that they ceased legal action because they found they were mistaken or their evidence was weak – they certainly don’t say…
Wuthering Moors 16
Here is the full response which I have received from Natural England in response to my request for information about the ‘Walshaw Moor Affair’ (see 15 previous blogs, all tagged with ‘wuthering’, the first of which is listed here). I will comment on this later in the week. But there are some very interesting passages…
Harriers
Following my blog on Thursday I did phone the NE helpline to ask where I could find the information promised by their Minister, Richard Benyon, in his Parliamentary reply (see Thursday’s blog to catch up on this subject – and read the comments there too). The people I spoke to were very helpful and mentioned…
Bits, some bits
went to London on the train from Peterborough on Thursday and saw 3 cuckoos got a reply from NE re Walshaw Moor – will blog later this week spent ages on Friday evening looking at a lone wader in vegetation and gloomy light wondering whether it was a Temminck stint – and it wasn’t, it…
Maybe no harriers in England? Lead poisoning suspected. And a bit of wuthering.
The news that there may be no hen harriers nesting in England this year is sad but this day, if it has come, was going to come soon. Of course, extinction in England is a bit of an odd thing as England is ‘just’ a line on a map and on other sides of that…
Wuthering Moors 15
Defra, as Natural England, say that they need more time to answer my questions. I don’t accept that they do. But it would obviously be rather strange if after all this time, and extra time, I don’t get some very detailed and full answers to my questions.
Wuthering Moors 14
My Freedom of Information requests which were posted on this blog on 2 April (for example, this one) should have been answered this week since they were electronically transmitted to Natural England and Defra on that day. I followed up by posting letters to Defra and Natural England. Yesterday, at 1637, I received an email…
Agriculture policy and stuff like that
The week before last the EU adopted a biodiversity strategy which says many good things. but let’s just concentrate on agriculture for a moment. Here are some highlights about agriculture (I’ve highlighted some bits for you): 58. Recalls that over half of the EU’s territory is managed by farmers, that farmland delivers important ecosystem services and…
Are you going out looking for nature this weekend?
Last weekend was a bit of a disappointment nature-wise so I am experiencing nature-deficit grumpiness. Most of my nature watching is within 10 miles of where I live but an occasional trip further afield adds variety now and again. Living as far from the coast, almost, as it is possible to be, a trip east…