Badgers

Need to keep our next public meeting at the top of my Blog.

Just sent a Tweet to help promote the event.   See my Twitter account here


A public meeting on Badgers should be good value for £2.50! Hear the latest news, get answers to your questions. Nov 11,   Somerton 7.30pm.

Adrian Coward, professional ecologist and chair of the Somerset Wildlife Trust Badger Group will be talking about the lives and habitats of badgers.
United Reform Church Hall.West Street, Somerton.

Beer and Aller Wood

This is one of our best local SWT nature reserve. In recent years we have always had a Fungi Foray here led by Peter Baker. Peter moved away last year and we must find a replacement to lead next years event
This year we organised a spring flower walk with Anne Bebbington as leader. There is always something different to see here from season to season and year to year.
To give you a feel for the woods I'm including a video clip made by SWT and showing on the web site for their nature reserves where you can see others.

Convention on Biological Diversity

 This post is a follow up to my previous post.

 The UN web site shows links to what it calls "Advanced unedited text" which I not going to try to follow or give extracts. If your interested you can just follow the link below.
There clearly is information available and probably there are so many changes and amendments to the first drafts that it will take some time for the Secretariat to produce a final set of documents.
In that respect George is correct.
Trying to follow the thread through UN documents is a challenge all on its own!

Convention on Biological Diversity

Monbiot.com » A Ghost Agreement

 As a sobering foot note to the press accounts of the success of the recent UNEP Convention on Biological  Diversity in Nagoya ,the link shown below paints a more worrying picture. Next I'll follow up by visiting the UNEP web site to see what they are making available


Monbiot.com » A Ghost Agreement

New agreement reached in Nagoya: statement from Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman « Defra News

 This has got to be good news , even if its not perfect!

New agreement reached in Nagoya: statement from Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman « Defra News

To hear an explantation of why Biodiversity is important you can view this Natural History Museum video clip:  ( apologies for the overlap on the video!)



Another interesting web site commenting on this agreement is run by Kew Gardens and you can read their report on this link.

Kew welcomes Nagoya biodiversity agreement

Kew's Director, Professor Stephen Hopper talks about Kew's response to the agreement reached in Nagoya last week to protect the natural environment. A positive outcome for conserving the world's biodiversity.

Forestry in England

DEFRA has plans for selling off forests.

Link here.

Japanese environmentalist protester outside Nagoya meeting

At our recent public meeting on the fascinating subject of plant reproduction processes ,our speaker, Dr Anne Bebbington, a professionally qualified Botanist,  commented that she was disappointed that while listening to a radio programme about Biodiversity loss that there was no mention of plants.  I added a comment that schools who cover science subjects still appear to ignore Botany. Instead they cover physics,chemistry and biology.
Is it a lack of Botany teachers?
So it was refreshing to see a photo from the Nagoya conference on biodiversity which promoted plants.

Japanese environmentalist protester outside Nagoya meeting
It looks a bit silly you might say but then perhaps that is because of our attitude towards plants and flowers whereas if the protestor was dressed in a gorilla outfit we would feel more comfortable with the image. Or is it just me!!!?

Badgers

Hopefully readers have made their comments on the Natural Environment consultation and can turn their attention to another important issue.

We have organised a public meeting on Badgers on November 18th in Somerton and the subject of Bovine TB is rising up the public agenda. For some that's because the Government is considering culling together with other measures whilst others don't think that will work and is consequently a bad idea. There is a great deal of information on the DEFRA web site to cover all aspects of the subject.
Somerset Badger Group and the Somerset Wildlife Trust have issued a statement to draw attention to public consultation in progress now and concluding on DEC 8th. Here it is.

  

The Government is consulting on proposals to cull badgers as part of a strategy to control bovine tuberculosis.  The Governments preferred option is Option 6:  Issuing licences under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 to cull, vaccinate or carry out a combination of culling and vaccination.

Somerset Wildlife Trust’s response

• Bovine TB is a serious issue for farmers. Government and the farming sector should take a science-led and comprehensive approach to tackling bovine TB, using all available sensible measures to control and eradicate this disease.
• We do not support the current Government proposals for culling badgers, as these are not supported by scientific evidence and will be difficult to implement effectively in practice. Far from helping to control bovine TB, the proposed badger cull could actually make the problem worse.
• The recently available badger vaccine could help to control bTB if used systematically over a period of years.
• All possible biosecurity measures should be enforced on farms to help control spread of the disease.
• The Government must put its energy into removing the barriers to development and use of a cattle vaccine for bTB, with a commitment to bring this into widespread use as soon as possible.

Please respond to the consultation

Make your voice heard to help the Government make the right decision. The Government consultation closes on December 8.   It can be found at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/tb-control-measures/index.htm Post to:           TBBC mailbox                         Nobel House, 17 Smith Square,                         London, SW1P 3JR Email: tbbc@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Please contact the Somerset Trust Badger Group for further information:

Adrian Coward          01749 671065

24/7 Help Line:          07850 604585

Email:                         somersetbadgers@waitrose.com

Fungi foray. Phallus impudicus , Stinkhorn

We havent had a proper Fungi Foray this year so did a bit myself at Hestercombe Garden today. Mostly in the rain! This was the most impressive specimen found.

Natural Environment White Paper comments. No8

This is probably my last post on this subject before the deadline.Its up to you now! Eight days to go.

I have just submitted my comments on the four questions to DEFRA which I'm pleased to see still exists and has I hope received my views via the Internet.
I thought it a bit odd that it didn't ask me to include my name or address etc but I have identified myself!

I used the on line form which was quite simple and I just copied my comments previously posted on this Blog.
To do the same just click here to go to DEFRA and follow the simple instructions.

You can see the fuller Discussion Doc with its 15 questions on this link, click here.

If you want to respond to the full 15 questions then after reading the document you are invited to submit your comments as follows:
( you may find the web links don't work too well but good luck!)

The deadline for responses to this document is 30 October 2010
Please email your responses to: naturalenvironment@defra.gsi.gov.uk
Or submit comments over the Defra website at www.defra.gov.uk/environment/natural/
Or post them to:
Natural Environment White Paper Team
Area 3D
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR