Do you think that the National Trust, which operates in England, Northern Ireland and Wales is a nature conservation organisation or not? In its own words: Conserving nature, for the benefit of everyone, is at the heart of the National Trust’s work. We are one of Europe’s leading nature conservation organisations. The scale of our…
Tag: Natural England
City of perspiring dreams
I spent yesterday back in Cambridge – I say ‘back’ because this was where I was an undergraduate and I spent many of my relatively youthful years in Cambridge and it has been a great influence on my life. I was attending the annual symposium (sounds grand for something that was so much fun) of…
A year in blogs
Here is my review of the year in blogs – the first four of which were written whilst I was still working at the RSPB and the last eight whilst ‘just me’. January Our forests- the small sell-off and big lease-off. One of the dangers of writing a daily blog is that you might shoot…
Sunday bits and pieces
I think I delivered some quite thoughtful blogs to you this week, even if I say it myself (which I just have), and all of them attracted great comments from you readers – for which many thanks. I get a lot from your comments and I am certain that it is the mixture of blog…
Burgundy? Glass half empty
It has been a cold weekend, although mine has been warmed by a rather lucky profit at Cheltenham racecourse (my winning bet came as a result of the leader falling at the last hurdle – but there is just as little point in apologising for fortuitous wins as railing against ‘unlucky’ losses) and by the…
A butterfly’s wing
December isn’t a great month for butterflies (but then November wasn’t a great month for nature as a whole), although, of course, they are all (apart from the painted ladies and red admirals) still out there as eggs or pupae or some other clever way of getting through the winter if you really want to…
Farmland birds reach lowest point since records began
The latest (up to 2010) official figures for the UK Farmland Bird Index (and for that for England alone where things are just a tad worse) were published on Tuesday. They show a further decline in numbers of the suite of 19 farmland birds which brings the index to its lowest ever point. Take a…
Nature Directives – use them!
The nastiness of George Osborne came out when he mentioned ‘endless social and environmental goals‘ in his Autumn Statement yesterday. George is keener on economic goals – although not so good at reaching them, so perhaps we can see why he doesn’t want any other goals to miss. As predicted in this blog yesterday (just…
Osborne has a go at environment again
George Osborne doesn’t get the environment and he doesn’t seem to like it. These are the most relevant parts of the Coalition Government’s (yes, the LibDems are in there too) thoughts on the Habitats Directive (which was largely written by that ultra-leftie, Stanley Johnson (yes, Boris’s sire)). This passage comes from that part of the…
Various
Tomorrow’s blog is a guest blog by the Chair of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Ian Coghill. He is a character and it’s well worth a read. On Thursday this blog is part of a ‘blog tour’ by Simon Barnes’s new book – and there is a reader’s offer to be had. There is…