Rob Yorke

curlews calling in the English uplands (Forest of Bowland)

📢 up! #ornithology

extract from a rewilding the uplands graphic showing what seems to be a wild cat kitten staring at a marbled white butterfly, blueberries, heather and a yellow wagtail in the foreground with grazing deer, roads, fields, woodland, trees, housing, river and a lake in the background

be realistic - more gritty, less cute - on "interrogating how idealisations of ‘how nature should look’"

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#rewilding #socialscience 🧪

about 2acres if that. have a read of the related blog/ not much but chainsaw crucial and general helf required a weekend bimonthly

an experimental woodland, in under 60 seconds, at 14 years old

with song thrush and woodcock, to boot

context > robyorke.co.uk/2018/04/natu...

farmland bird feeder in hedge-line alongside a grass/mixed species headland and infield crop of oil seed rape in Leicestershire, UK

diverse farmland landscapes provide for healthier soils

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

#farmland #ecology 🧪

Kielder forest provides a reservoir of roe deer of huge cull proportions

agree, small family groups of roe moving into Wales are starting to move in groups together

extract of paper on insects and mowing dates

you are right Dan on the exact timing of mowing

I misappropriated the popular hashtag to bring unpopular nuance to more adaptive management grassland (something I fear may fail to gain traction with council employed verge maintenance contractors)

a bright green coloured thick-legged flower beetle on a yellow buttercup with a backdrop of blurred grass

'increased mowing frequency of productive grass verges may benefit arthropods'

convenient for beetles, inconvenient for #NoMowMay campaigns

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

#wildlife #conservation 🧪

a tree growing around an unused circular metal fodder feeder for livestock with other trees growing on ex-pasture

resilience of nature
land abandonment
natural regeneration of trees
stranded asset

semantics, how you frame it, matters

#environmental #dialogue

Stranded assets in European agriculture during food system transformations - Nature Food Stranded assets could pose a challenge to food system transformation. Estimates of the stranded agricultural assets that may arise from a shift to plant-based diets in the European Union and UK unders...

I’m not sure if “according to the Guardian” is the best reference

This research on agricultural ‘stranded assets’ may more pertinent www.nature.com/articles/s43...

what I do - my specialist skill hosting environmental and rural in-person events robyorke.co.uk/track-ii-com...

#Environmental #Dialogue

a controlled fire burning grassland with oak trees in the background, UK

recurring fire can mitigate negative effects of invasive grasses and create conditions favourable for oak regeneration in temperate deciduous forests

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

#woodland #conservation 🧪

a copy of a letter in the financial times

on nature-rich hotspots, gardening, farming, rewilding and breakfast

my letter published in the Financial Times

#environmental #dialogue

blurred cameratrap picture of a badger at night

chilly badger's impact on breeding lapwing in rough farmland

nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#wildlife #conservation 🧪

like it, not all ponds require graded banks

heads-up, multifunctional forestry "...a new duty for the Forestry Commission to take all reasonable steps to contribute to the Government’s statutory climate and nature targets...in exercising its functions"

www.parallelparliament.co.uk/lord/barones...

a screengrab of a piece in the Sunday Times in Jan 2026 with the headline 'Trees are a national security issue. We are not planting enough'

if you want woodland and forestry, lean-in towards planting a resilient diversity of tree species

a paywall-free version of statements from the Chair of the Forestry Commission and the Chair of Natural England

robyorke.co.uk/wp-content/u...

#trees #socialscience 🧪

if you want nature, engage with agriculture, honestly

- a provocation from a set of old (90 yrs) and new (16 yrs) UK farming conferences in Oxford [ford of the oxen]

#farming #food #nature

15th year of both Oxf farming confs

plenty of good stuff going on - mostly under reported

farmers / land managers - reclaim your ponds as places of water within the landscape

#land #conservation #management

“Year-round low-intensity grazing is expected to increase biodiversity, as biomass removal by grazing animals during the winter months results in decreasing litter cover, significantly increases bare soil, and can lead to a significant increase in light availability”

an interesting context-sp read

Nor'west by east field intel - Rob Yorke An invite to the far east meant an opportunity to head north to garner ‘field intel’ on what going on ‘out there’. Mainly in pictures, as the word content would take up too much space. [spoiler, as ev...

'the recognition of reality is the beginning of wisdom'

a blog for 2026 on stuff learnt from a broad-church 'field intel' trip

robyorke.co.uk/2025/12/norw...

#environmental #dialogue

a man carrying a Norway spruce grown and harvested from his 13 year old woodland, to be placed in a local church - Patricio - way up in the Black Mountains, south Wales

seasonal greetings and goodwill to all resilient rural communities, remote, close and beyond

lapwing on grazed pasture in north Kent, Elmley

closer scrutiny of woodland creation in relation to breeding wading birds of conservation concern within open landscapes

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

#wildlife #conservation 🧪

Scots pine and birch trees with understory of rhododendron and bracken in East Anglia

pine marten prefer pine woodland, in the loosest of terms, though best connected to other suitable habitat

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

#wildlife #conservation 🧪

I skipped the ad to read on

The information about agricultural soils is woeful and this is mirrored by the arbitrary UK soil classifications grade one to 4 – due for an update (whether funded by Bezos or not) and how to best optimise the protection or use of soils

good work

is this a new metric or at least a new way of reporting a snapshot?
jncc.gov.uk/our-work/uk-...

30 sec snapshot of what I learn on my ‘field intel’ trips in off-beat places observing rural/environmental landscapes as they evolve

#Environmental #Dialogue

very

and often depends how the topic framed

and by whom