DREAM COME TRUE! Slipped into the Lowther in #Cumbria and immediately found the clear, sun-dappled waters of this limestone river packed with enchanting Atlantic SALMON parr! The first I have swum with. New favourite river for me! Thank you Jim Lowther. #MySwim #TeamFish 1/21

The time series (left) shows mean acorn numbers per shoot of Quercus robur in Silwood Park from 1979 to 2024. The acorn crop in 2025 is going to be huge (right). Is the acorn crop unusually high throughout England, I wonder?

I'm watching "The conservationist helping swallows, swifts and house martins" itv.com/watch/news/the-conse… via @ITVX

Kyrgyz Republic unveils 800,000-hectare ecological corridor for biodiversity unep.org/news-and-stories/pr…

On Labour’s announcement of a broad, national conservation on land use… I think you’ve got this one wrong @_RobbieMoore. Labour is doing good here and Conservatives ought to support it. It was the last Conservative government that originally committed to launch a national consultation on land use. It was an excellent idea then and it’s good news that Labour is following through on that pledge. This is not about central planning. Taxpayers spend a fortune supporting farming, infrastructure development, housing, nature recovery and all kinds of activities across all of our land. With so many demands on a finite amount of land, it makes perfect sense that we as a society have some idea of the outcomes we wish to achieve and where. For example, regulations and incentives relating to scarce top quality agricultural land ought be geared towards farmers sustainably growing food for people, rather than using them for bogus ‘green’ energy crops, solar arrays, feed for factory farmed livestock, golf courses etc. And in our least productive landscapes, such as those within our national parks, where the land is simply unsuitable for productive farming (just 1-2% of our food is grown on the least productive 20% of the land) incentivising a grand, farmer-led nature recovery makes perfect sense. Most pressingly, we need our landscapes once again to absorb heavy rainfall, storing it, cleaning it and releasing it slowly through the year. Sponge landscapes rich in nature are vital to our national wellbeing, helping to insulate us from flash flooding, summer drought and even wildfire. Overwhelmingly our society wants nature and wildlife back. People understand how desperately depleted those are in Britain. Prioritising nature in landscapes not suited to high agricultural productivity makes perfect sense - and many farmers in those landscapes stand ready to take charge in delivering this. I really don’t think Conservatives do themselves any favours standing as the party of anti-nature, and mobbing Labour for fulfilling pledges that indeed were made by the last Conservative government.

Listened to some amazing scientists yesterday explaining the growing evidence that how we farm, and our soil biome health, is passing through food to make us sick and also the reverse, how good food from good soil can make us well again, including mental health

Delighted that @gow_derek's book BIRDS, BEASTS and BEDLAM is out in paperback this September with a gorgeous cover from @micaelaalcaino! This book tells of Derek's journey to create a 300-acre rewilding haven for beavers, water voles, lynx, wildcats, harvest mice, wild boar and more. Pre-order now! amzn.to/3WrYwB2

One interesting aspect of the Knepp wilding project is how species, such as purple emperor and turtle dove, haven’t read the ecology textbook and thrive in the wrong habitat. Here I wind up the visionary ⁦@CharlieBurrell_⁩ More Knepp videos at youtube.com/@bill_sutherland

Amazing snorkel up @KneppWilding beaver swamp, navigating obstacle course formed by engineering works of these industrious creatures.🙏@CharlieBurrell_ for suggesting this; somehow seemed a less industrial landscape than created by the Stour beavers x.com/numenini/status/157948… 1/14

Another amazing podcast from ⁦@BenGoldsmith⁩ podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcas…

Take a minute. Watch this. ‘A racist abusive coward that could permanently damage the fabric of our society’ Celebs Against Trump:

The longhorns at @KneppWilding actively participated in @Bill_Sutherland Ecology of dung youtu.be/hsHD-XRJtS8?feature… via @YouTube Follow link to hear @CharlieBurrell_ & myself enthusing over some very fresh faeces. So many copulating coprophagous flies 😎🪰 @NHM_London @RoyEntSoc

Wildcats are a British species. It's good news that projects to restore them are now well underway in England and Wales.

On Sunday met this big beauty hiding away in its lair on the River Gadder downstream of Gooderstone sewage works, but compared to upstream, remarkably few - only a handful - other Brown Trout on this 750 m stretch of Norfolk chalk stream. #MySwim #Browntrout #Breckland 1/11

The argument for not leaving carcasses because of ‘public sensitivity’ is ludicrous - inform the public (essential for nutrients to be recycled back into the environment) why this is necessary @CharlieBurrell_ @Bill_Sutherland scotsman.com/hays-way/why-cu…

The ecology of carcasses youtu.be/6Zp4eajdRP8?feature… via @YouTube Join myself, @CharlieBurrell_ and Prof @Bill_Sutherland talking about decomposing carcasses and how these dead animals sustain the living @KneppWilding @NHM_London

Erica McAlister @flygirlNHM explaining how ecologists consider the different components of biodiversity and why this is important for conservation planting. Filmed at @KneppWilding. More conservation videos at youtube.com/@bill_sutherland

Why do we need taxonomists? Naturalists? Ecologists? Because nature isn’t just a number - what species are and what they do, how they interact - everything about them - that is nature Obvs flies are the best nature @NHM_London @RoyEntSoc @BritishEcolSoc

At Knepp with Charlie Burrell. Whether an area starts as set-aside or arable field determines whether it becomes dense sallow wood or open grassland. Rather than a single Knepp story of ecological succession it seems there is a family of different stories youtube.com/watch?v=GXNgtNZV…

The Evidence Effect: How a conservation revolution is protecting biodive... youtu.be/jdrv15QoUUc?si=YKZs… via @YouTube