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‘Wild streams and wild birds (with apologies to the Rolling Stones)’ A piece published for the Wild Trout Trust in their annual journal ‘Salmo Trutta’ in 2014 (light edit update since publication) The sun beat down mercilessly on me as I travelled light, with rucksack and rod, high up in the Brecon Beacons. So light … Continue reading Gimme Shelter

Conservation is all about human choices. On having better conversations in the countryside to build trust – an edited version of my talk at the Rewilding Symposium Cambridge 2019. “Humans seek patterns and I remember coming across a rock in the Black Mountains with deep groves in it which I sought to image had been … Continue reading Conservation choices challenge

Triggered by the woodcock I’ve seen fly over my wood, here’s an extract from my Nature Notebook published in The Times 13 Dec 2014. Hope lies ahead for those who differ in opinions, but wish to open up dialogue on common ground. The grass has turned brown, folding in tussocks around bare-leafed saplings in my … Continue reading A woodland detective story in the dying year

Seven years in the life of a tree is nothing. A few rings of growth, some leave litter, but where, since the scuppered 2011 forest sell-off, has the ‘enterprise’ around trees gone? I must declare an interest in knotty matters. My father worked for the Forestry Commission (100 years old in 2019) as a District … Continue reading Forest grump

I hosted a wide-ranging conversation with the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) president, Minette Batters, at the Hay Literary Festival earlier this year. Gove re-occurring , ‘cheap’ food arguments, farming bogs, issues with subsidies, admirable poultry, over-hyped soil and culture changes – so much, so little space, so little time…Minette was delayed but had enough breathe … Continue reading NFU blues

The word rewilding has become common currency in nature conservation narratives, but it rarely features in wider discussions on land use. The very mention of the word – especially without context or meaning – stirs up reactions that can equally engage or enrage people. (First published in Ecos – lead editorial 2016) Where I live in … Continue reading Rewilding in the UK – hidden meanings, real emotions

A reflection on a British Ecological Society symposium ‘Making a Difference in Conservation’ from an ‘outsider’. I was delighted to attend the BES/CCI event in Cambridge a couple of years ago, but as things are never straightforward for a single-subject symposium (‘Improving the links between ecological research, policy and practice’), there was nothing ‘single issues’ … Continue reading Wielding evidence

Transylvanian trek Nature Notebook. As published in The Times August 22 2015 – Part 2 of 2 In Romania, on a family holiday travelling with donkeys through the countryside, nature is abundant. Riches abound for those who forage for mushrooms, raspberries and bilberries among the native norway spruce and silver fir. With goshawks and crested tits flitting across the … Continue reading Wild bees and wolves. Nature Notebook. The Times Aug 2015

During a brief moment as a Nature Notebook columnist for The Times, I wrote about my wood planted in 2012 on 1.5 acre of a field with no grant and approx 16 species. ‘See the wood’ (part 1) I’m lucky enough to own a sliver of woodland in the Welsh hills. It’s a pleasure, although … Continue reading My woodland updated