Tag Archives: Site of Special Scientific Interest

Biodiversity Challenge: 20 years on

It seems unbelievable to me but it is 20 years this week since the launch of “Biodiversity Challenge.”I am going to celebrate this anniversary with a series of blogs this week, and possibly next. Challenge, as it became known, was … Continue reading

Posted in Action Plans, biodiversity, biodiversity challenge, environmental policy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Lodge Hill Grasslands and the NVC

I’ve received this comment from Doug Hulyer, Board member of Natural England, regarding my post about the notification of Lodge Hill as an SSSI. It was good to see you at the Board meeting, Miles. I take issue with your … Continue reading

Posted in grasslands, Lodge Hill, Natural England, NVC, Professor John Rodwell, SSSis | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Chairs Past Present and Future

Stan Shebs [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons Following on from Monday’s post, I thought I would look back at who has chaired the Council of Natural England, English Nature, the Nature Conservancy Council and – … Continue reading

Posted in Andrew Sells, Natural England, NFU, Owen Paterson | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

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

Posted in Andrew Sells, Natural England, neoliberalism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

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

Posted on by Miles King | 6 Comments

Biodiversity Offsetting and Lodge Hill Part 2

At the end of Natural England’s press release confirming Lodge Hill had become an SSSI on tuesday were these words. “The decision to extend the SSSI clarifies the environmental importance of the site but does not determine whether or not … Continue reading

Posted in biodiversity, biodiversity offsetting, conservation, housing, Natural England, neoliberalism, Owen Paterson, public goods, public land, scrub, the cabinet, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

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

Posted in biodiversity offsetting, housing, meadows, Natural England, public land, scrub | Tagged , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

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

Posted in anti conservation rhetoric, anti-environmental rhetoric, biodiversity, environmental policy, forest elephant, George Monbiot, Mark Fisher, rewilding, Saum, scrub, self-willed land, SSSis, straight tusked elephant, uplands | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Victory at Lodge Hill raises questions about brownfield first and sale of public land

It’s always good to write about a victory for the environment, especially these days. I was frankly amazed to read on Martin Harpers blog that the Planning Inspector had concluded that Medway Council’s core strategy was unsound because they had … Continue reading

Posted in biodiversity, biodiversity offsetting, deregulation, environmental policy, housing, meadows, public land, regulatory reform | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment