• The State of Conservation

    Do you have an opinion on the role of conservation in the UK? As a conservation professional are we restoring our natural habitats to a uniified functional ecological system or are we just gardening/farming on a massive scale? If you’re not a professional, does it matter to you? What do you want from “nature”, bearing…

  • Through the Canopy, artwork by Kiri Jones

    I’m embarrassed by the shoddy quality of these photos taken on my mobile at Kiri’s open studio in Streatham, London this weekend but I had to share the excellent work my awesome talented sister is producing at the moment, even more amazing she finds the time as a fulltime mother of two young’uns. If you…

  • Otters and water voles in Surrey: i do like a challenge, me

    Sadly last week we said goodbye to Chris Matcham, the SWT Otters and Rivers Project Officer who has retired to his home in Hampshire. Its doubtful whether he will be idle for long though, with a new project proposal in the off-ing. It just means he doesn’t have to drive into work anymore. Otters have…

  • The immorality of wage Increases: an off-topic rant!

    Not Cleaning Okay I should be cleaning the flat and going through unpaid bills and doing all the domestic stuff I have put off recently but I just can’t get this out of my head. The top 100 FT companies have increased their Chief Executive pay packets by 50%. It hit me like a bullet…

  • Shermans, Slugs and the “Wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie”

    Thundry Meadows, Surrey: SWT  Harvest Mice Survey Day 2 I am prepared to deal with most things I would find in a small mammal trap but this morning, still only half awake, I was not ready for the two enormous slugs that had taken up residence in the Sherman trap. They lay side by side along…