WILD GALLOWAY
From the hilltops to the Solway, a portrait of a glen Ian Carter Whittles Publishing, 2025, 206 pages Paperback £17.99 | ISBN 978-184995-597-4 Review by Barry Larking My first real experience of any sort of wildness as this island knows, was in the mid 70s when I spent a weekend [...]
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A new Silent Spring?
Good news and bad news Neonicotinoids (neonics) have been in the news again, with for once some good news. These chemicals are harmful to the environment in many ways, for example polluting watercourses and killing aquatic insects (see below) but they are particularly dangerous for bees. Small amounts of neonics [...]
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ECOS 46 (2) – UCL Nature & Conservation Society Conference 2025 – Challenging perspectives on contexts for conservation
Conference report article JANET MACKINNON The British Association of Nature Conservationists and ECOS welcomed another opportunity to support the annual UCL Nature & Conservation Society Conference and very much look forward to future collaborations. Although the event adopted the title of a 2020 book in part based on the concept [...]
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ECOS Interviews: DAVID ELIAS
Thoughts from influential nature conservationists… David Elias Who are you and what have you done in nature conservation? Having been a naturalist since childhood I was thrilled to get a full-time job as a warden of the RSPB’s reserve at The Lodge in Bedfordshire in 1969. I still remember thinking [...]
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ECOS Interviews: MICK GREEN
Thoughts from influential nature conservationists… Mick Green Who are you and what have you done in nature conservation? I am based in mid Wales and am an Ecologist and Environmental Scientist by training. I’ve been in conservation all my life and have managed to undertake a wide variety of jobs [...]
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ECOS 46 (1) – Illegal lynx releases signal discontent — a wake-up call for rewilding advocates
HANNAH L. TIMMINS · In early January 2025, four lynx, extinct in the UK, were found loose in the Scottish highlands. Was this an act of guerrilla rewilding – the illegal release of wild animals to reintroduce a lost species? · Police are also considering the prospect of the animals [...]
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ECOS Interviews: SALLY HAWKINS
Thoughts from influential nature conservationists… Sally Hawkins Career Highlights I am a researcher and educator and have built a career at the intersection of research, practice, and policy, driven by a passion for finding interdisciplinary solutions to complex environmental problems. My PhD and postdoctoral research at the University of Cumbria [...]
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COHABITING EARTH
Seeking a bright future for all life Edited by Joe Gray and Eileen Crist SUNY Press, 2024, 318 pages Hardback £71 | ISBN 9781438499970 Review by Janet Mackinnon As a fairly traditional environmentalist primarily motivated by nature conservation and ecosystem restoration, I’d been seeking a book which considered these subjects [...]
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OF THE TREES AND THE BIRDS
Ian Parsons Whittles Publishing, 2024, 160 pages Papaerback £18.99 | ISBN 978-1-84995-574-4 Review by Barry Larking What came first, the chicken or the egg? That hoary old paradox does make a sort of point. An apparently trivial puzzle sets us a profound problem. Despite a long quest that edges slowly [...]
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ECOS Interviews: ALAN WATSON FEATHERSTONE
Thoughts from influential nature conservationists… Alan Watson Featherstone Career Highlights My career highlight was founding Trees for Life in 1986. I have worked on that for the bulk of my productive adult life. In that time, TfL has worked to restore areas of the Caledonian Forest in the Highlands of [...]
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THE VOLUNTEERS
A memoir of conservation, companionship & community Carol Donaldson Summerdale Publishers, 2024, 297 pages Paper back £10.99 ISBN 978-1-83799-327-7 Review by Peter Shirley Never, it is said, judge a book by its cover, and this could not be more true than in relation to this one. It purports to be [...]
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ECOS Interviews: SAM ROSE
Thoughts from influential nature conservationists… Sam Rose Career Highlights I played a pivotal role in helping The Flow County in Scotland become a World Heritage Site – the UK’s only mainland WHS inscribed for its ecosystem values. This will give continued restoration and protection to the 180,000 ha of blanket [...]
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