The nineteenth century American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson considered ‘that man had once been at one with nature’. Now as we witness the enormous loss of nature, policies try to reflect the need to reconnect with it. This…

Within our hearts we all celebrate as winter’s grip is slowly replaced by the more benign and softer days of spring even though we have experienced a very mild one. Instead, the winter was characterised by several tree-damaging storms and…

Working with animals brings a range of issues and problems whether it be injured swans or grazing livestock from a lame or sick cow to corralling cattle for general treatment or removal at the end of the season. Over the…

The weather is probably still the nation’s favourite topic in spite of the many distractions of modern life. There is no doubt that weather events over the past two years have been somewhat extreme although they are very soon forgotten.…

As the end of the year approaches it is a good time to pause and reflect on what has been; the joys and the disappointments of the seasons on the riverside. The joy, of course, lies in the landscape and…

Cooler and shortening days are characteristic of November with fewer daylight hours to work on the riverside. There is, however, still much to see when out and about and it’s not all ducks and gulls. At this time of year…

As October progresses it is all about colour and on a bright sunny autumn day the colours can be dazzling. Well, perhaps not all trees put on a spectacular show as some species give-up their leaves in a rather resigned…

Ivy is a plant that is seriously misunderstood by many. This is made clear by the on-going ‘hacking’ of ivy stems to trees along the Valley Trail. Perhaps the ‘culprits’ cast the ivy in the same role as the rainforest…

Everyone will recall the intensity of last summer’s heat. Fortunately we have only had a brief repeat of that for the moment although inevitably such summers will occur more frequently with climate change. For wildlife the heat and drought conditions…

We all know that plants are important and yet we are witnessing real declines in many plant species driven by changes in land management. When species are widely distributed localised disasters such as disease, predation or habitat change have little…