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Author Archives: Miles King
The story of the Voles, the ditch and the Prime Minister
Those of us who believe that nature is important and that in order for nature to be better protected from the activities of people the best approach is to gather evidence, scientific evidence, analyse it, and present it to those … Continue reading
Posted in David Cameron, deregulation, Dredging, Environment Agency, flooding
Tagged David Cameron, dredging, flooding, water vole
24 Comments
Somerset Levels Drainage: Back to the Future
While the debate over flooding continues to ebb and flow, it seems that the newly minted Somerset Drainage Authority, sorry Somerset Rivers Authority, have found their way back to the bright shiny future of the 1950s, when electricity would … Continue reading
Posted in drainage, flooding, Somerset Levels
Tagged drainage, flooding, River Sowy, Somerset Levels
5 Comments
The Flood, The Environment Agency Chair and the Grouse Moor
The Forest of Bowland is an interesting place. It’s a chunk of Northern England’s uplands, where a number of rivers originate. Much of it is owned by Unitied Utilities, and they ran a project called SCAMP, for Sustainable Catchment … Continue reading
Posted in countryside alliance, Environment Agency, flooding
Tagged Bowland, flooding, grouse moor, Philip Dilley, upland management
23 Comments
Food or Floods?
So much has been written about the recent flooding, that I have resisted the temptation to jump in with size 12 boots; not least because, so far, we have escaped the worst of it in the south-west. However, I read … Continue reading
Posted in deregulation, Dieter Helm, farming, flooding, Kerry McCarthy, Liz Truss
Tagged Catchment Management, Dieter Helm, flooding, Kerry mcCarthy, Natural Capital
19 Comments
Nature Conservation: barking up the wrong tree?
I wrote this article for the latest edition of ECOS, the magazine of the British Association for Nature Conservationists (BANC). You can see all of the articles in this edition of ECOS here. The article was my response to the … Continue reading
2015 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 58,000 times in 2015. If it were a … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
2 Comments
The Answer Lies in the Soil
As Arthur Fallowfield, the farmer character in the legendary Radio 4 comedy series’ Beyond our Ken and Round the Horne, would have said, “The arnswer loies in the soil”. I read with interest and increasing disbelief, an article by George … Continue reading
Posted in agriculture, carbon storage, George Monbiot, grasslands, grazing, uplands
Tagged carbon storage, George Monbiot, grazing, uplands
13 Comments
More golden balls from Defra: You are spoiling us, Rural Ambassador!
We may have been led to believe that the avalanche of Government announcements on “take out the trash day” last Friday, signalled the end of “work” for the year, but today holds one further surprise. As reported in the Telegraph, … Continue reading
Storm Desmond, climate change, land use and what it means for Dartmoor
Originally posted on A Dartmoor blog:
My heart goes out to all the people and communities in Cumbria and southern Scotland who have been impacted by the dreadful flooding. In addition the National Trust is a major landowner in the…
Posted in Uncategorized
1 Comment
Natural Capital Poll: The Results
Thanks to the 160 people who took part in my poll about natural capital last week. THe results are: 60% of voters agreed that natural capital is one of a number of approaches to take, and believe that a natural … Continue reading
a new nature blog 