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 [...]
read >>
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 [...]
read >>
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 [...]
read >>
HUNT FOR THE SHADOW WOLF
The lost history of wolves in Britain, and the myths and stories that surround them Derek Gow Chelsea Green, 2024, 245 pages Hardback £20| ISBN 978-1-645020-42-4 Review by Peter Taylor I like this book. It is different. Querky. The author pens his own illustrations. He invents some novel grammatical constructions. [...]
read >>
COUNTRYSIDE HISTORY
The Life and Legacy of Oliver Rackham Editors Ian D Rotherham and Jennifer A Moody Pelagic Publishing, 2024, 438 pages Hardback £50 | ISBN: 9781784273163 Review by Janet Mackinnon I regard Countryside History as a pinnacle in my ECOS reviewing experience, but it is also a challenging book to review. [...]
read >>
REWILDING THE SEA and BLUE MACHINE
REWILDING THE SEA: How to Save Our Oceans Charles Clover Witness Books/Penguin, 2023, 288 pages Paperback £12.99 | ISBN: 9781529144055 BLUE MACHINE – How the Ocean Shapes Our World Helen Czerski Penguin, 2023, 464 pages, Paperback £10.99 | ISBN: 9781804991961 Review by Janet Mackinnon I’ll begin this 2-book [...]
read >>
WILD SERVICE
Why Nature Needs You Nick Hayes and Jon Moses Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024, 286 Pages Hardback: £20.00 | ISBN: 978-1-5266-7331-2 Review by Simon Leadbeater First page Compare and contrast. Wild Service: An open church freely available to everyone contrasted with a private country estate excluding all; In actuality: Public access to 1,700 acres; [...]
read >>
ECOS Interviews: SARA OLDFIELD
Thoughts from influential nature conservationists… Sara Oldfield Career Highlights I am a plant enthusiast, hesitate to call myself a botanist, who loves growing plants and looking at species in their natural habitats. Professionally I have enjoyed a long career in nature conservation working both on a freelance basis and for [...]
read >>
ECOS Interviews: SIMON FAIRLIE
Thoughts from influential nature conservationists… Simon Fairlie Career Highlights I worked variously for 20 years as an agricultural labourer, vine worker, shepherd, fisherman, builder, stonemason and general dogsbody before being ensnared by the computer in 1990. I was a coeditor of The Ecologist magazine in the early 1990s until I [...]
read >>
GROUNDBREAKERS
The return of Britain’s wild boar Chantal Lyons Bloomsbury Wildlife, 2024, 288 pages Hardback: £20 | ISBN 978-1-3994 Review by Peter Taylor This engaging book mostly follows the author’s encounters with characters from the rewilding and forestry fraternity, the Forest of Dean human inhabitants, and the wild boar themselves. Boar [...]
read >>
HEDGELANDS
A wild wander around Britain’s greatest habitat Christopher Hart Chelsea Green Publishing, 2024, 208 pages Hardback: £20 | ISBN 10 1915294193 Review by Jo Cartmell Thriving hedgerows are a habitat that I deeply care about. This new book from Christopher Hart has been one of constant revelations, not least that [...]
read >>
ECOS 45 (6) – The spirit of rewilding
Releasing our grip on nature & rediscovering our own wildness PETER TAYLOR Rewilding has caught the public imagination in ways that conservation never quite managed, and recently, moving from an original position of indifference, even opposition, traditional conservationists have sought to learn from and incorporate the practice. I have watched [...]
read >>