To ask you to take urgent action to stop the UK government attacking nature

[Pricklesinperil]

Can I ask everyone to take action to support the PTES and the RSPB because legislation that protects nature in the UK is under attack.

The government is threatening to remove the various laws and policies that:

• protect our best wildlife sites, homes for myriad endangered species
• prevent unrestricted development, and
• help farmers support wildlife on their land

The implications of this are so profound that PTES is working with the RSPB and other wildlife charities to do what we can to stop it. Nature needs every support it can get in a hostile world in the midst of climate and biodiversity crises.

We want our politicians to understand how much we all care about protecting nature. The RSPB has created an easy way to demand action from your local MP. By following the link below you can find your local MP and send a simple letter calling for their support. You can amend it to your own words if you wish.

Please take this quick and easy opportunity to tell your MP today to urge the government to think again about the natural world.

Take action now

Done.
Absolutely horrifying, slipping under the radar while the have us all panicking about our bills 😡.

Exactly my sentiments

They're like pantomime villains made real at this point.

Thank you for sharing, its do important this gets spread far and wide!!

Done. Regular donor to RSPB / Wildlife Trust. I did fear this with removing Boris as the Goldsmiths/Carrie had his ear and he did seem to appreciate the importance of the natural environment - even if only because it was his mates'/ wife's pet project. Even Gove to give him his due was strong and innovative in this area. Now those people have been flung aside there seems to be nobody in government who gives two hoots about conserving nature (ironic for 'conservatives') - least of all Liz Truss.

Rory Stewart was interesting on this on The Rest is Politics - about Truss's distain for greenbelt and lack of interest in the environment (when she was Environment minister).

Done.

Done

Please look into this properly. These organisations have fucked the biodiversity of the natural environment by protecting the wrong species.

There had to one Tory on here!

Thats utter shite, bio diversity has been wrecked through habitat destruction and use of chemicals... not because the RSPB built a nature reserve.

What little we have left is now threatened by changes in Govt policy.

Not a Tory at all, but land manager.

In Scotland we are plagued by resident greylag geese (they are supposed to be migratory). The RSPB had a season on them despite years of warning from farmers and land owners that they were staying past when they should have migrated away.

There is now a situation, particularly on the western and northern Isles, where these non native species are pushing out the waders and ground nesters and therefore biodiversity is seriously suffering. There is now an open season on the species and the RSPB participate in the cull, but it has gotten to the point of no return and is probably now uncontrollable unless the army come in with hundreds of men to seriously reduce numbers. Not an exaggeration. Crops are being absolutely decimated.

So much land is under RSPB ownership and they are now buying machinery to work the land as they have realised that letting it go wild is not the answer, that we need livestock etc there to control habitats to allow the birds etc to live there but it is now too late. A huge amount of knowledge has been lost which would have been passed down through generations of, for example, hill farmers with sheep, which would have helped biodiversity to thrive.

If I try to look into the greylag geese issue, all I see is that them being called out as being native? Especially those in the North/West which seem to be the native versions that are not meant to migrate. The Icelandic variety being in the South/East and does migrate.

e.g. www.scotsmagazine.com/articles/greylag-geese/

www.bto.org/our-science/projects/wetland-bird-survey/publications/webs-annual-report/numbers-trends/methods/analysis-and-presentation/spatial-allocation/53

And that the cause for the population increase is varied: ccght.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Rathlin-Island-Sward-Damage-Report-Nov-21.pdf

(That study also seems to suggest one of the biggest causes is intensive farming practices creating habitats that benefit the geese).

I'm not trying to start an argument: I was genuonely trying to find more information abou the matter and whether the RSPB had really caused widespread problems.

Happy to continue reading if there is material you can recommend?

Apologies I should have been clearer, they are native in a migratory sense so it would be expected that they are in the UK seasonally, however they are now resident year round.

In the Northern and western Isles they are decimating barley crops which are grown mainly for subsistence purposes, so each farmer would be growing for themselves and what they need to see them through the winter. I would argue that it is not intensive farming in these places as the land is unlikely to be any use for much else, other than livestock production.

There is a lot of information in the agricultural press regarding it, I appreciate this could be considered biased from some perspectives however.

Done.

Done. This also needs tying in with the government's war on solar - solar farms protect the land and almost universally boost biodiversity and provide habitat enhancements for local wildlife.

Morning all - we've now moved this to our Petitions topic.

Done

Thanks everyone

To let people know, there are some organised protests in Birmingham on Sunday and the RSPB will be organising one too if you’d like to go show your support.

Bumping

Isn't previous migrant birds now permanently here, more down to climate change?
On our recently built wet lands, we are seeing species that were extremely rare, now common place.

Listening to Ch4 on crabs shell fish etc dying off on the coast of Whitby & how the EA and Dfe have denied chemical poisoning and blaming algae, being blown out the water by Hull Uni - Govt knew all along it was chemical poisoning from steel works.

High environmental protection? Total tosh.

Guardian opinion

82,508 people have already asked their MP to take action

Done. We're already RSPB members and I don't have much faith in our mp but it's something anyway.

Midday bump

Evening bump