Very welcome op-ed from Steve Reed, the Shadow Secretary of State Defra UK

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

The party that reverses the decline of nature will be sprinkled with political gold-dust ⁦Craig Bennett⁩ ⁦The Wildlife Trusts⁩ ⁦Steve Reed⁩. Yep - people love wildlife. theguardian.com/environment/20…

Very welcome op-ed from Steve Reed, the Shadow Secretary of State Defra UK

theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

This morning we hit 75% of our target for our Woodland Homes for Wildlife appeal!
💜
A HUGE thank you to everyone who has supported the appeal so far 🙏

Online donations are currently being DOUBLED by Big Give.
👇
avonwildlifetrust.org.uk/woodland-homes

Is your city measuring and improving urban nature? If not, here's how 👇🌿🏢🦉

nature.com/articles/s4294…

Calling all UK conservation practitioners!

We want to know how climate change is affecting you, and your views on #adaptation . Please take our survey below, designed by the excellent Dan Barrios-O'Neill 🐦, and share around.

The Wildlife Trusts Craig Bennett Rob Stoneman

A fantastic day with friends from around the conservation movement at Strawberry Hill in Beds recently. It was great to show Natural England chair Tony Juniper our patron & former RSPB CEO barbara young & others to see what we have done so far to monitor species & manage the habitat

Why should charities 'stick to their knitting'?

The Wildlife Trusts Craig Bennett speaks on the vital rights of the sector to shape national debate in a febrile political landscape.

The End of Charity: The political chokehold is out now

podfollow.com/charity/view

Lancashire Wildlife Trust and Save Greater Manchester Green Belt invite you to our virtual Environmental Hustings next Monday 15th April, 5:45-7pm! 🌳

📍 Online via YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=5_29yT…

'Wouldn't a better solution just be more funding for Natural England?' - Farming Today presenter hits the nail on the head when interviewing Derek Thomas MP about his barmy Bill to gut Natural England's powers

Thomas replies: 'Well it might be'

bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…

Love this episode not just for its superb collection of guests – Enver Solomon 🧡, Craig Bennett, Emma Revie and Rhodri Davies as well as Janey Starling – but because of how absolutely timely it feels with an election looming on the horizon. 🗳

I'm disgusted that a bunch of MPs would name a (possibly junior) official to Secretary of State because they don't like their scientific assessment (as if they know any better)

In the private or charity sector, this kind of behaviour would be considered bullying & harassment

Just 3% of England is well protected for nature.

We can't afford to swap balanced scientific process to designate SSSIs with political choice.

Here's a briefing explaining how the process really works & why we need more wildlife sites, not more politics:
wcl.org.uk/docs/Sites%20o…

I'm disgusted that a bunch of MPs would name a (possibly junior) official to Secretary of State because they don't like their scientific assessment (as if they know any better)

In the private or charity sector, this kind of behaviour would be considered bullying & harassment

REVEALED: 18 Tory MPs have written to Environment Secretary Steve Barclay urging him to gut Natural England’s powers to create nature reserves (SSSIs)

This latest #AttackOnNature must not succeed

(Thanks to Joe Marshall for obtaining the letter)

Thread 1/

A rogues gallery of environmental hypocrisy! What they call an arbitrary decision is in fact objective advice based on years of study by experts in their field. They seem unable to grasp the basic concept of Natural England being an official government advisory body.

Doing a training swim in #Windermere for my BBC documentary on #DDay .

The Commandos who trained for the real mission had a lot to worry about, but swimming in sewage polluted waters wasn't one of them!
We need to protect the #LakeDistrict & all our waters from #pollution .

The real sewage scandal is our government’s pursuit of deregulation and deep cuts to the Environment Agency, which mean even ministers are in the dark about the true extent of water pollution!
independent.co.uk/climate-change…

United Utilities has turned on jacuzzi mode for Easter Sunday in the #lakedistrict !

The EA is permitting up to 1.1 million litres a day and up to 13 litres a second to come out of this pipe. Langdale WWTW, where the pipe originates, has no UV disinfectant, so this likely…

So when Defra UK are we going to see a cap on the amount of agricultural land taken out of food production to produce #biofuels , for very questionable climate benefit?

fwi.co.uk/business/busin…