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Not a blade of grass goes to waste in Transylvania. I meet the stare from nine men each with a razor sharp scythe standing on the hill above me. After asking if I have whisky, one of them lets me swing the simple yet perfectly balanced grass cutting implement a couple of times; stopping to sharpen … Continue reading Intensive bucolic

I want a thriving uplands. Can you see my head? Just. An ‘iconic’ upland bird found only in heathery spots in the UK. Humans strive to manage habitat and control predators so that I produce good numbers to be flushed wild to the gun. Contrary to what you may hear, work is in progress on … Continue reading Fair Game

The local authority voice was apologetic, ‘I’m sorry but once in the planning system, we have to insist on further ecology surveys – even if the application is to enlarge a pond for wildlife.’ My client, as passionate a naturalist as about doing the right paperwork, let out an exasperated sigh. He had already paid for … Continue reading A precautionary pond

For three hundred and sixty five days a year we jostle, stamp, cajole, consume, and survive alongside nature. Which itself is, of course, trying to do exactly the same. Except that we humans are somewhat more dominant in the age of Anthropocene. In 2010, I published a journalistic debate paper ‘New demands; old countryside‘ (pdf) … Continue reading Dead Poets

We could all do with more critical friends to help find common ground. Two landowners at opposite end of the country contacted me: one wanted to see hen harriers re-introduced on his farm and the other wishing to ‘rewild’ his upland grazed farmland. Problem is that both have been put off, disillusioned even, by dismissive polemics towards … Continue reading Critical friend conservation