In a days – I mean a daze.

Sunday’s was the 600th Standing up for Nature blog since I started writing them 571 days ago. The day passed almost without me noticing the landmark. In those 571 days this blog has grown from an audience of zero to well over 7000 unique visitors a month according to the statistics provided by Google analytics….

Cley: past present and future

I’ll be at the Norfolk Wildlife Trust Cley Visitor Centre tomorrow morning signing copies of my book, Fighting for Birds, for anyone who wants a copy (or copies – remember Christmas isn’t that far away). I have many happy memories of Cley, but before we get on to them, and how you can help to…

Mown down – the Grasslands Trust

Last week’s news that the Grasslands Trust has gone into liquidation is sad to hear but it may only be the first and most public sign of the impact of the recession on our tangled bank of wildlife conservation organisations. I know many of the Grasslands Trust’s staff personally, including their Chief Executive Lucy Cooper,…

Forest Panel’s report published

The final report of the Independent Panel on Forestry has been published. The initial Defra response to the report was fairly warm, and fairly non-committal. Everyone else seems to like it: RSPB, Wildlife Trusts, Woodland Trust, National Trust, Butterfly Conservation, Save Our Woods, CLA, Royal Forestry Society. Media coverage includes: BBC, Guardian, Independent, Telegraph. Read…

Wildlife Trusts rehabilitated

The Wildlife Trusts, in my opinion, did not distinguish themselves over the issue of public forests and SSSIs in 2010/11.  They gave the impression to many of us of having one eye on the main chance and having lost focus on the needs of nature.  Let’s put it down to a momentary aberration which we…