Tag Archives: England
Wheat found in Mesolithic Britain 2000 years before farming arrived.
Einkorn – the first wheat Some of you may know that I co-authored a book called “Arable Plants – a field guide” about 12 years ago (still available from all good internet book outlets, and possibly some bookshops too: … Continue reading
Biodiversity Challenge 4: Broken Dreams
meetings meetings meetings ((c) By Agriculture And Stock Department, Publicity Branch via Wikimedia Commons) Todays blog completes my series this week of blogs looking at what Biodiversity Challenge achieved, looking back with the benefit of hindsight 20 years on. Biodiversity … Continue reading
The New Natural England Chair: Andrew Sells
The experience of having been present and witnessed a Natural England Board meeting is still fresh in my mind. I was struck in particular at how important a role the chair, Poul Christensen, played in helping his fellow Non-ex members … Continue reading
Set our Landscapes Free
Species need landscape features to shift at differing speeds. Shifting Patterns in Time and Space Some species depend on constantly and fairly rapidly changing circumstances such as the creation and loss of bare ground, changes in the inundation status of … Continue reading
The Death of Greening
Remember the European Commission’s much vaunted proposals to “green” the Common Agricultural Policy? The idea was that, to show the European public (who pay for the farming subsidies the CAP hands out) that their money really was being spent on … Continue reading
vanishing meadows – less than 5000ha left in England Natural England come in for a great deal of stick from other conservationists – Walshaw Moor is a good recent example. But I’d like to praise them for some … Continue reading
Another skirmish on the Lodge Hill Battle Front
It was an exciting day yesterday. I was part of a small 5 person RSPB team giving evidence in support of the Lodge Hill SSSI notification at an Extraordinary Natural England Board meeting. The opposition were there in numbers – … Continue reading
Conservation needs Change
This a continuation of the series of blogs stimulated by the re-wilding and conservation debate at the Linnean Society on Wednesday. I looked at how people’s relationship with nature has evolved to the point now where we can more or … Continue reading
What are we waiting for?
Reading George Monbiot’s book on re-wilding has made me think a great deal about what would need to change in Britain in order for us to restore nature to something like a sustainable level, and to give it the resilience it will … Continue reading
Babies and Bathwater
Non-intervention management ((C) Miles King) I boldly suggested the other day that conservation iconoclast Mark Fisher now agreed with me that stopping human intervention on high value nature sites (such as SSSIs) was not the best way of achieving his … Continue reading
a new nature blog 