ECOS 40(5): The Glover review – refining the finest landscapes?

The recommendations of the Glover panel’s Landscapes Review are not dissimilar to those in the 1998 Countryside Commission publication Protecting our Finest Countryside: Advice to Government. That was the last time government commissioned a review of the protected landscapes. There are three similarities between then and now: National Parks and [...]

State of Nature 2019 Report UK Cover
ECOS 40(5): Gloom & doom, but room for optimism?

State of Nature report 2019 Would it not be wonderful if Britain was indeed a state of nature? Alas, according to the 2019 State of Nature report, of that name it certainly is not. Using data from more than 50 nature conservation and research organisations, its 100 plus pages provide [...]

ECOS 40(5): Book Review: Our Place

OUR PLACE Can we save Britain’s wildlife before it is too late? Mark Cocker Jonathon Cape, 2018, 338 pages £18.99 Hardback, ISBN 9780224102292 Review by James Robertson If we are to save Britain’s wildlife, we first need to understand how the framework of organisations and activities which have built up [...]

ECOS 40(5): Book Review: Invasive Aliens

INVASIVE ALIENS The plants and animals from over there that are over here Dan Eatherley William Collins, 2019 Pbk £16.99  ISBN 978-0-00-826274-7 Review by Peter Shirley “That seems to have been a mistake” says the author with regard to the UK removing the necessity for raccoon keepers to have a [...]

ECOS 40(5): Book Review: Landfill

LANDFILL Tim Dee Little Toler Books, 2018, 240 pages Hbk  £16  ISBN 978 1908213624 Review by Barry Larking The gulls at the huge Pitsea landfill in Essex figured out that the site worked a six day week. On Sundays they looked elsewhere for their grub. It was Bank Holidays that [...]

ECOS 40(5): Book Review: Ghost trees & London is a forest

GHOST TREES Nature and people in a London parish Bob Gilbert Saraband, 2018, 304 pages Hbk  £14.99  ISBN 978 1 91223 527 8 LONDON IS A FOREST Paul Wood Quadrille, 2019, 192 pagesHbk  £12  ISBN 978 1 78713 341 9 Review by Mathew Frith We are in the midst of [...]

ECOS 40(5): Book Review: The Secret Network of Nature

THE SECRET NETWORK OF NATURE Peter Wohlleben Bodley Head, 2018, 264 pages Hardback, £14.99 ISBN 978-1-847-92524-4 Review by Peter Taylor This unassuming book is a little gem of nature writing – part of a German trilogy well-known on the Continent, including The Hidden Life of Trees and The Inner Life [...]

ECOS 40(5): Book Review: Who owns England?

WHO OWNS ENGLAND? How we lost our green & pleasant land & how to take it back Guy Shrubsole William Collins, 2019, 384 pages Hbk  £20.00  ISBN 978-0008321673 Review by David Bangs Guy Shrubsole’s Who Owns England is a hugely welcome review of who owns what land. His research group’s [...]

ECOS 40(5): Book Review: The Wolf

THE WOLF A true story of survival and obsession in the west Nate Blakeslee Oneworld Publications, 2017, 336 pages Pbk  £9.99  ISBN 978-1786073129 Review by Steve Carver In reflecting on the book I am minded to take the opportunity to draw the obvious parallels between our story here in the [...]