Ben Eagle

Biodiversity Offsetting – lose a wood, gain a wood

Some positive thoughts here on the increasingly controversial biodiversity offsetting approach to planning. The key aspect to stress from this post is ‘local’. Local systems, local offsetting, local partnerships, local responsibility and local biodiversity. Personally I am not a big fan of biodiversity offsetting as a concept (as you can see in a previous articleContinueContinue reading “Biodiversity Offsetting – lose a wood, gain a wood”

Can we make nature exciting?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWqrbYwn7K4&feature=player_detailpage This post was my first to be published at activisionary, a new independent group focusing upon environmental writing within which I am volunteering as an environmental journalist. Take a look at their site and my first article here. The automatic response to the posing of the above question may be one of disbelief forContinueContinue reading “Can we make nature exciting?”

Seeking sustainable crops

Originally posted on Science on the Land:
Elisabeth Braw at the Guardian tells us about the search for sustainable crops. She says that we in the rich world focus too much on a tiny number of staple food species. But ‘at one time during the past 10,000 years, [people] used some 30,000 plants.’ Now some…

Gleason Ranch: Risking Everything

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IP3zeyCvxjo This short clip advertises a documentary following the lives of the people running a 5th generation family ranch. Illustrating the harsh realities of real life farming and real life struggles I encourage you to read more about the story at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/gleason-ranch-risking-everything/.

Wolves Dogs and Sheep

Originally posted on a new nature blog:
Where’s the wolf Fido? By User:Squigman (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons I used to be quite good at statistics, but that was a very long time ago. Now I marvel at my colleagues at Footprint Ecology, who painlessly manipulate huge datasets, often with complex spatial elements…