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 [...]

Undergraduate Highly Commended: Plant blindness – the botanical bias that no-one has heard of

Plants are all around us from urban parks to the rolling countryside to the insides of our own houses, however do we as humans fail to fully recognise and ‘see’ these plants in the same way we do other living things? For example, what is your favourite animal? Almost everyone [...]

A history of some major ecological literary discourses

Ecocriticism and the environmental humanities Ecofiction, novels based around environmental themes, and so-called Doomer Lit (stories about climate chaos, pandemics etc) are key cultural genres of the contemporary zeitgeist. Yet ecological discourses have played a major role in narrative literature since the invention of writing and are the main concern [...]

Book Review: Atlas of the Mammals of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

ATLAS OF THE MAMMALS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND Derek Crawley et al & The Mammal Society (Eds) Pelagic Publishing, 2020, 204 pages Hardback £35 ISBN: 978 1784 272 043 Review by Ian Bond Producing an Atlas ought to be one of those things your mother warns you against. [...]

Future stewardship of national landscapes: challenges and opportunities of the Glover report

The Landscapes Review It is just over seventy years since the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act established the framework for National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England and Wales. This initiated a novel role for government. As expressed by Sheail (2002, p.10) “A third [...]

Book Review: Untangling the Knot

UNTANGLING THE KNOT, BELUGAS & BEARS: My natural World on Film Mike Potts Whittles Publishing, 2020, 272 pages Paperback  £20.95 ISBN: 978 184995 444 0 Review by Alistair Crowle In Untangling the Knot, Mike Potts dips into 35 years of experiences as a professional wildlife cameraman. The first chapter sets [...]