Time to put the wild back into rewilding

With rewilding in danger of becoming all things to all people we argue the need for a unified definition and a set of guiding principles to keep it distinctive and close to its ecological roots. Urgent action is needed to get rewilding back on track as the UK Government gears [...]

Martin Spray (1947 – 2021)

A brief tribute from fellow ECOS editor Rick Minter We bring you the sad news that Martin Spray passed away, aged 74, in mid May 2021. He had been active in his wonderful garden earlier in the day, before experiencing a sudden heart failure. He had lived with Parkinson’s for [...]

New environmental watchdog – A toothless and needless newcomer?

A toothless and needless newcomer? A knock-on effect of leaving the European Union is major reform of environmental protection policies, laws and regulations. As part of this process an Environment Bill is making its way through Parliament. Covid means it is well behind schedule and will not be considered again [...]

Book review: Wild Teesside

WILD TEESSIDE – Thirty years of industry and nature Ian Bond, Mike Leakey, Robert Woods, Ken Smith and Phil Roxby Teesside Industry Nature Conservation Association, 2020, 146 pages Available from plover@inca.uk.com for £12.50 inc p&p | ISBN 978-1-5272-5628-6 Review by Peter Shirley This is a case study of providing for [...]

Book review: The Accidental Countryside

THE ACCIDENTAL COUNTRYSIDE: Hidden Havens for Britain’s Wildlife Stephen Moss Guardian Faber, 2020, 260 pages | Hardback £16.99 ISBN 978-1-78335-164-0 Review by Barry Larking Stephen Moss’s latest book arrived at a propitious time. Forced by Covid-19 regulations to limit social contacts and abiding by travel restrictions, I found myself taking [...]

Book Review: Thirteen paces by four

THIRTEEN PACES BY FOUR: Backyard Biophilia and the Emerging Earth Ethic Joe Gray Dixi Books, 2021, 192 pages Paperback  £17.99 ISBN: 978-1913680060 Review by Simon Leadbeater Purpose I read a fair number of books; my constraint is generally time, and weariness at the end of an evening, when I generally [...]

Book Review: A journey in landscape restoration

A JOURNEY IN LANDSCAPE RESTORATION: Carrifran Wildwood and Beyond Edited by Phillip and Myrtle Ashmole (Eds) Whittles Publishing, 2020, 224 pages Paperback  £18.99 ISBN: 978-1849954723 Review by David Blake This book tells the story of how the 650 hectare Carrifran Wildwood in Scotland’s Southern Uplands was planned, funded and purchased, [...]

Postgraduate Winner: People and nature – are we listening to the right voices?

In the New Year of 2019, I was fortunate to be surrounded by outlandish natural beauty in the Galápagos. What struck me most from this adventure was not the archipelago’s infamous wildlife oddities, but the humans to which these islands are called home. In our changing world the Galápagos represents [...]

Undergraduate Winner: Does conservation have A diversity problem?

When I walked into my first day of studying Wildlife Conservation at university, one of the first things I noticed was how white the room was. Coming from spending two years studying in central London where I was one out of the only two white British people in the class, [...]

Postgraduate Highly Commended: Lessons from Scotland’s rewilding vs. repeopling debate

As a number of authors in ECOS and elsewhere have made clear, rewilding is both an enormously popular and controversial idea.[i] Among other arguments, critics of rewilding point to social scientists’ studies of community perceptions of the concept, several of which have found ambivalence or opposition towards rewilding.[ii] However, these [...]

Postgraduate Highly Commended: Captive breeding and head-starting of widespread amphibians – staying two steps ahead of extinction

We are used to hearing about a species only having a handful of individuals left before the decision is made to capture as many as possible to enter a captive breeding program. Sometimes these programs are successful such as the case with the black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) or the Mauritian [...]

Undergraduate Highly Commended: Living rivers

Rivers are interesting things. They flow inexorably towards the sea, carrying what was once billions of raindrops, in huge web like networks fanning out across the landscape. They braid and meander, changing their course imperceptibly, slowly. But how have rivers changed over time, and how did this affect the species [...]