BY DAVID EYLES Every now and then, Twitter throws up some interesting stuff on my timeline. A few days ago, the image below was tweeted by an enthusiastic member of the Labour Party: Initially, I glanced at it and passed on. However, about a day later, memory of the image came back to me and so I returned to it. The photograph is of the … Continue reading Far Side of the Vistula
BY DAVID EYLES Those many people who enjoy the British countryside by walking or travelling through it will understand that to witness a beautiful view brings us great joy. This act of enjoyment can take many forms – we can struggle up the dizzy heights of Crib Goch and brave the wind as it threatens to sweep us off our feet along the knife edge … Continue reading Yellowstone, Ethnic Cleansing & Trophic Cascades
BY DAVID EYLES Somewhat overshadowed by the recent and momentous Cabinet Reshuffle – and the news that Larry, the Number 10 Downing Street Chief Mouser, remains in post – was a little reported item that the ever eager and cherubic Michael Gove has worked a blinder. He has announced that millions will be spent in creating a new Northern Forest along the M62 corridor. So we will … Continue reading Gove, the Northern Forest & Beavers
BY DAVID EYLES What are the ecological benefits of rewilding? To be honest, I do not know the answer to my own question. It isn’t as if I haven’t looked for the answer. I have asked the rewilders to provide hard evidence for the support of their claims, and I have received none. I have speculated here, for example, as to what the changes might be … Continue reading Are Motorway Embankments & Rewilding the Same Thing?
BY DAVID EYLES For some time now, I have been searching the fogs and mists in the outer reaches of the conservation movement in an attempt to give shape and meaning to the term Rewilding. In wrestling with the dream-like world of rewilding, the more I read, the more it becomes a fantasy built upon an illusion. Background There is a strange fluidity about the distinction … Continue reading What’s Rewilding & Who’s it for?
BY DR STEVE CARVER When Peter Glenser, Chairman of the BASC, wrote an article for Country Squire Magazine entitled “Custodians of the Countryside” back in November of last year I felt compelled to reply. The magazine’s editors were gracious enough to give me a “Right to Reply” for which I am grateful. A few weeks later, Liam Stokes, Head of Shooting Campaigns at the Countryside … Continue reading How We Should Live With Predators & Prey
BY DAVID EYLES Open letter to the Rt. Hon. Michael Gove, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. 2nd October, 2017 Dear Mr Gove, As you are aware, Lynx UK Trust has recently submitted an application to Natural England for a licence to release Lynx into Kielder Forest. Archaeological and historical evidence suggests that Lynx died out in Britain sometime in … Continue reading An Open Letter to Michael Gove
BY DAVID EYLES In the middle of all the arguments and to-ing and fro-ing of the debate upon how we should manage our uplands, the issue of whether shooting does or does not have a serendipitous conservation value is once again raging – just as it does every year with the opening of the grouse season on the 12th August, then game shooting and wildfowling … Continue reading Managing Predators & Prey
BY DAVID EYLES Don’t get me wrong about all this – I’m rather fond of George Monbiot’s writing. It is always entertaining and there is plenty to get your teeth into to get the argumentative juices flowing. His book – Feral – is just as you would expect. It is well written, almost poetic in places, spattered with knowledgeable asides about ecological systems and natural … Continue reading Monbiot’s Unintended Consequences
