Rob Yorke

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

a person (rob yorke) looking through a pair of binoculars

A screenshot showing a road trip route around west north and east England and south Scotland

A picture of a sign saying Terras Valley Nature reserve, previously known as Langholm Moor, in South West Scotland

A person standing next to a sign at the research demonstration farm run by the game and wildlife conservation trust

on ‘field intel’ manoeuvres – finding out what people really think rather than what they say

#Environmental #Dialogue

and a reply, yay, keeping nature in the letters page of increasingly disinterested* mainstream media

on swifts, red in tooth and claw

(*unless it’s pure enviro-doom)

#ornithology #conservation 🧪

YouTube video by Rob Yorke swifts, some context to a letter in The Times

youtu.be/O9spgh9hh74

sure, write to letters@thetimes.co.uk

if only to keep nature in the limelight

a screenshot of letter on swifts from The Times

on swifts, insects, sparrows and nest sites

my letter in The Times today with some backstory/context bills.parliament.uk/bills/3946/s...

#ornithology #ecosystems 🧪

YouTube video by Rob Yorke an autumnal snapshot of my small woodland

If I remember right, I can agree with Eoghan on plenty of (dogma-free) stuff!
Some of which I 'bang on' about in this 3.30min longform update from my wildly-planted woodland/forest-fungi ecosystem youtu.be/mm5a-UEXLqA

a golden plover in the Black Mountains, south Wales

Retaining red grouse moor management at lower intensities could mean declines in moorland species [such as golden plover] would be weaker than predicted

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

#moorland #ecology 🧪

an extract from a twitter poll asking 'why don't we eat more wild deer venison?'

cultural indifference, according to this 'informal poll'

as a highly urbanised country, the UK has highly regulated food safety system geared around reared/farmed livestock

alas, by default wild meat is untraceable and impossible to label as to how it lived, what it ate etc

to clarify, not copper tip, as in butterfly

but copper, as in bullet

(as practiced by this wildlife conservation NGO www.rspb.org.uk/helping-natu...)

#wildlife habitat #conservation 🧪

Light and ungulate browsing interact in shaping future woody plant diversity through natural regeneration Our results provide strong evidence that in the current context of increasing tree mortality and subsequent light availability, roe deer act as a keystone species. It is crucial to implement browsing...

if we want diversely structured woodlands, then we have to deal with Bambi (via carnivore or copper-tip)

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @britishecologicalsociety.org

#woodland #ecology 🧪

a Hereford beef cow in a pasture field with a woodland and hillside as a backdrop framed within a timber field gate in Wales

an explanatory panel referring to biotech and ecology at the Science Museum's temporary exhibition 'Future of Food', in London

an exhibit at the Science Museum's temporary exhibition 'Future of Food', in London asking 'would you eat cell-grown meat?'

urban pressure and agriculture : based on the British beef cattle industry and including this quote “I do not want to see, and we will not have, U.S.-style farming in this country” from a past Defra Sec of State

academic.oup.com/erae/advance...

#agriculture #socialscience 🧪

TWS Journals Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in the interior of North America have a wide dietary breadth. One key resource, army cutworm moths (Euxoa auxiliaris), migrate from the central plains to aggregate within...

forget honey: bears just want to dig out armies of calorific moths

wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... (pity not open access, as sure to contain a breadth of splendidly obscure grizzly detail)

#wildlife #biology 🧪

plastic covering soil and a crop somewhere in Cambs

indeed we do

alpine swifts, flocking, on an October evening, in Kerkyra (Corfu Town)

📢 up #ornithology

picture through a partly obscured binocular lens of a black-winged stilt in a salt pan

cool birds / uncool birds : shaping human experiences of nature and attitudes toward nature www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#ornithology #SocialScience 🧪

meanwhile in Paddington….

what owl?

an excerpt of a report showing four scenarios from a report “Roadmap for Resilience: A UK Food Plan for 2050” [with a laptop with a picture of the Burren in west Ireland]

delegates at the launch of the AFN Network’s report - Roadmap for Resilience: a UK Food Plan for 2050 (funded by the UKRI)

a jug of semi-skimmed milk (left) with a smaller jug of oat milk (right) at the launch of a UK Food Plan for 2050

an excellent report synthesising a nexus of issues, including farming, forestry and other land uses which require attention now, rather than later

much to digest, including a ‘call’ for political leadership

A mixed stand of conifer trees in the UK

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) – otherwise known as ‘wait-and-see’ policy rather than spending tons of ineffectual money for dealing with pest invasion of forests

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

#Forest #Ecology 🧪

solar panels in a sheep grazed field in Sussex

solar parks [farms] have the potential to combine biodiversity conservation on areas not covered by solar panels, but more insight is needed in design

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

#solar #ecology #farmland 🧪

An aquatic plant in a lake in the uplands

reposted link

my scratch is how planning authorities interpret the strict definition* of whether planning permission is required or not

/ pragmatically enabling or precautionary principle stymieing //

*any engineering operations, including moving of soil, spoil etc

A precautionary pond - Rob Yorke The local authority voice was apologetic, ‘I’m sorry but once in the planning system, we have to insist on further ecology surveys – even if the application is to enlarge a pond for wildlife.’ My clie...

the link reposted robyorke.co.uk/2015/07/a-pr...

pic : slow worm not related to the pond!

though I would argue that Jake is articulating in-field land ‘sharing and sparing’: by increasing crop productivity within the ‘tractor sprayer designed’ area this enables sparing of land for ‘wild’ nature elsewhere

though technically, strictly speaking…https://robyorke.co.uk/2015/07/a-precautionary-pond/

a copy of a letter in The Times newspaper on solar and nuclear power

my latest letter published in The Times today on solar and nuclear power is really about continuing an ability to have these contested conversations, without fear or favour

#environmental #dialogue

plus a contextualising 90sec vlog
youtu.be/9SY1uH5mCIE

I sense that we might have airbrushed some of the history about how much we know about birds…. an extraordinary account! #ornithogy

picture of a national park sign with fields and hills in the background

"would allow statutory undertakers such as power and water companies, railways and highways to do what they like in national landscapes..."

incorrect from Charles Clover, as primary legislation such as the Water Industry Act 1991 unaffected (oh, and rural ppl in Nat Parks still require water)