Dear Andrew I hope you are well but I fear that the organisation of which you are the Chair, is gravely sick. Natural England seems to have caught a disease whose symptoms are an inability to work for nature conservation in the uplands but instead to align itself with one small sectional interest, grouse shooting,…
Tag: Natural England
Wuthering Moors 68 – the background to an unlawful decision
How did NE get into the position of allowing an unlawful Habitats Regualtions Assessment to be done? In this blog I will explain what I think has happened. But let me repeat that it is a serious matter when the government nature conservation agency produces an unlawful Habitats Regulations Assessment – Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? …
A significant victory! – Wuthering Moors 67
Yesterday afternoon our lawyers at Leigh Day received a delayed response from Natural England on our Pre-action Protocol letter about Walshaw Moor. It contained the following important phrases: ‘Natural England accepts that in relation to ground (2), the HRA could have been clearer in certain respects. In particular, Natural England accepts that it is not…
Wuthering Moors 66 – Natural England you have lost the trust of the public
Nobody really trusts politicians these days (which personally I think is sad because there are some good ones out there) but until recently we have trusted government agencies. In nature conservation, in the olden days, some of the greatest nature conservationists of their time, of any time, worked in and led the statutory agencies –…
Amazing support – thank you! (Wuthering Moors 65)
The crowdfunder to support legal action against Natural England‘s failure to protect Walshaw Moor launched yesterday at 1pm – by 10pm it had already reached the first target of £5000. I’m so relieved and so grateful. This means that we can move forward with confidence and that I am not left with a big debt!…
Wuthering Moors 64 – a crowdfunder
I’ve been writing about Walshaw Moor for years – this is my 64th blog on the subject! But now I am asking for your help to protect this site from further damage. In fact, I am asking for your help to protect this site from Natural England who have reached a management agreement…
Bank Holiday Monday book review: Whittled Away: Ireland’s vanishing nature, by Pádraic Fogarty
Reviewed by Ian Carter The title of this book is taken from an Irish Government report dating back to 1969 raising concerns that Ireland’s natural heritage is being gradually ‘whittled away’. The report suggests, in the understated way of the age, that this ‘could represent a serious loss to the nation’. You could imagine much…
Bank Holiday Monday book review – Beyond Spring by Matthew Oates
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Reviewed by Ian Carter Having read his previous book describing a lifetime of watching, studying and obsessing about butterflies I was looking forward to this one. Thankfully, it shares many similarities, not least the in-depth knowledge, warmth and humour in the writing – it’s not often you catch yourself laughing out loud at a natural…
Raven cull – hopeless SNH
Many of us have had this standard letter from the chair of SNH: Thank you for your recent correspondence on the subject of the issue of a research licence to the Strathbraan Community Collaboration for Waders. I welcome that so many people in this country care passionately about the welfare of all our wildlife…
Forest of Bowland AONB – get a new logo!
Forest of Bowland AONB, get a new logo! Or even better, use your good offices to help the Hen Harrier, the bird featured on your signs (see above), to recover in numbers in your patch. In a recent online poll I asked readers of this blog which of three logos they thought were most appropriate…