conservation

Beware the bat police

3 August 2024 9:00 am

My friend Andrew is angry. He has just had the bat people round to look at his building project in…

The sad history of the Hawaiian crow

3 August 2024 9:00 am

Sophie Osborn describes how this sociable, inquisitive, loud-cackling bird became extinct in the wild – and her own efforts to save the California Condor from the same fate

The good old ways: nature’s best chance of recovery

15 June 2024 9:00 am

Traditional agricultural methods still operating in pockets of Europe maintain an enviable balance of ecology and economy and an extraordinary diversity of wildlife

The craft renaissance

8 June 2024 9:00 am

As long ago as the 1960s, the poet Edward James was worried that traditional crafts were dying out. Having frittered…

Do we really want to bring back the wolf?

2 March 2024 9:00 am

The apex predator is making a startling resurgence in Europe – many say to the enrichment of the landscape. But it’ll take a lot to convince the British of that

Between woods and water

10 June 2023 9:00 am

Patrick Barkham pays tribute to the much-missed nature writer, whose core response to the call of the wild animated everything he did

A glimmer of hope for the blue planet

11 June 2022 9:00 am

David Profumo wonders whether newly created marine reserves can really reverse decades of devastation

Four difficult women who fought to preserve the English countryside

16 April 2022 9:00 am

One thing that Covid lockdown made us appreciate was the importance of being outdoors. When we were finally allowed into…

The fury and frustration of living in a listed building

24 April 2021 9:00 am

The perils of living in a listed building

Beware of beaver fever

22 August 2020 9:00 am

We shouldn’t celebrate the return of the beaver

Is it too late to save Britain’s ash trees?

13 June 2020 9:00 am

Can Britain’s trees be saved?

conservatism

How coronavirus could kill conservatism

21 March 2020 12:29 am

‘No corporate bailouts,’ says Michigan Rep. Justin Amash as lawmakers debate an economic stimulus package in response to coronavirus. Washington…

Portrait of Ruskin dated 1870

John Ruskin: the making of a modern prophet

16 February 2019 9:00 am

At the time of his death in 1900, John Ruskin was, according to Andrew Hill, ‘perhaps the most famous living…

Root and branch: Richard Powers is determined to save the world’s trees

5 May 2018 9:00 am

This is a novel about trees, written in the shape of a tree (eight introductory background chapters, called ‘Roots’; a…

Elephants are special – the Romans knew it too

7 May 2016 9:00 am

In order to deter poachers, hundreds of tons of elephants’ tusks are being incinerated in Kenya. But even for Romans,…

The noisy, filthy, scary glory of geese

5 March 2016 9:00 am

They’re noisy, filthy, scary – and glorious. No wonder we have such complicated feelings about them

The Clouded Yellow, especially vulnerable to cold, wet weather, is rare in Britain and usually confined to the South Downs and south coast

We all love butterflies — so why are we wiping them out?

1 August 2015 9:00 am

Last month, at Edinburgh School of Art, I was interested to come across a student who’d chosen Marlowe’s Dr Faustus…

Don’t tell me not to be scared of sharks

20 June 2015 9:00 am

If naturalists accept they’re terrifying, we’ll have a better chance of saving them

Morning mist in the valleys of northeast Dartmoor, seen from the summit of Brent Tor

What can we do with Dartmoor?

13 June 2015 9:00 am

In his poem ‘Eden Rock’, Charles Causley conjures up a dreamy memory of a childhood picnic ‘somewhere beyond Eden Rock’.…

Lu Kongjiang, taking part in a ‘bee beard’ competition in Shaoyang, Hunan Province, China, 2011 From In Praise of Bees: A Cabinet of Curiosities by Elizabeth Birchall (Quiller Publishing, £30, pp. 255, ISBN 9781846891922)

Bees make magic: an inspirational case for biodiversity

13 September 2014 9:00 am

The importance of biodiversity, a handy concept that embraces diversity of eco-systems, species, genes and molecules, has been promoted for…