If you happened to be walking across Westminster Bridge earlier this week and encountered the odd sight of some people in waders haranguing a wind swept government minister then let me just explain.
The people inside the waders were members of some of the UK’s many river action groups – the people who campaign on issues like pollution in your local river. They were joined by anglers and conservationists to take environment minister Huw Irranca-Davies to task over the government’s plans for rivers.
These plans will be published next month and set out how rivers in England and Wales will be cared for until 2015. You may recall stories in media from earlier this year when it was revealed that three quarters of rivers are failing European quality targets.
The RSPB is part of the Our Rivers campaign alongside the WWF, the Angling Trust and the Association of Rivers Trusts. With such a strong coalition of campaigning organisations all focussed on one issue Mr Irranca-Davies was only too happy to meet us and hear our concerns – despite the inclement weather.
We put our concerns to him on pollution, over abstraction and other issues which are putting our river wildlife under threat and he told us the government would take these issues on board. Whether robust and ambitious plans to bring our waterways up to scratch will become a reality remains to be seen, but we will continue to knock on the government’s door until we get the best deal for our beleaguered native fish, riverbank mammals, birds and invertebrates.
Here at the RSPB we like to take the message about our work with wildlife out and about to the general public. And occasionally we find ourselves in some pretty unusual places.
At the weekend we made some new friends at Erotica 2009, an event at London’s Olympia which showcases the best in… errrm… bedroom paraphernalia, literature and clothing. However it seems that despite all these titillating wares on display, our stall still managed to turn a few peoples heads.
If you’re over 18 then here’s what contributors to The Register and Londonist.com websites thought.
The RSPB is among those celebrating the return of Ratty, otherwise known as the water vole, to some of the UK’s waterways. As reported in today’s Daily Mail.
As Robin Page rightly says, Ratty has managed to hang on, just, in remote places. But there are some easily accessible places where it’s not too hard to catch up with the friendly creature.
RSPB nature reserves Rainham Marshes and Elmey Marshes have of the highest water vole densities in sites surveyed across England and Wales.
You could also see them at our Northward Hill, Titchwell and Minsmere reserves, among others.
Water vole populations are undoubtedly still in crisis thanks to habitat destruction and predation pressures. But if you get a chance to visit one of their strongholds, I promise it will be well worth it.
I’ll never forget my first glimpse of the tiny creature at RSPB Sandwell Valley near Birmingham. I’d been told there were some there, but didn’t for one minute think I’d be lucky enough to see one on my first attempt. I’m someone that is always looking into the crowd when a goal is scored at a football match or looking the wrong way when something funny happens that can’t be re-enacted. So I was sure my chances of seeing the often elusive water vole were slim to none.
But as I walked along the boardwalk, hopefully scanning the water’s edge, I saw a brightly coloured object ahead. It was a discarded upturned baseball cap, and sitting I it casually grooming its adorable face, was a water vole. I felt extremely honoured to see it and it seemed like an age until it realised I was getting closer, gawping at it. Tiny, vulnerable and nimble, it let me enjoy it for a while before disappearing off into the reeds.
I couldn’t believe my luck.
Seabirds, and other marine wildlife species, have been in the news this week.
Firstly albatrosses came under the spotlight thanks to top level talks on tuna fishing and its impact on seabirds. Scientists gathered in Brazil on Monday to agree fishing quotas in the Atlantic.
RSPB marine conservationist Dr Cleo Small was there to remind those in attendance that longline fisheries pose a major threat to seabirds and that measures must be adopted by fisheries to prevent further loss and even extinction of some seabirds, especially albatrosses.
Long line fishing is having a devastating impact on albatrosses, which are often attracted to the lines by the bait and then get caught on hooks and dragged underwater where they drown. 18 of the world's 22 species of albatross are now heading for extinction.
Closer to home things are looking up for our native seabirds with the passing of the new Marine Act. While much of the coverage of the act has concentrated on the public access to coastal areas that it will create, we are most excited about what it will mean for marine wildlife. After all, how much better walk along the coast is when you can look out and see wildlife teeming above and below the waves.
Birds like the shag and the kittiwake, which have struggling in recent years, will benefit from the act, but only if the new powers contained within it are properly utilised. Now the government has these new tools under its belt to tackle declines in marine wildlife, it has to get on and create special conservation areas along our coasts to help threatened sealife.
We’ve identified 21 of the most important marine sites around the country and rest assured we’ll be banging on the government’s door until they get the protection they so urgently need.
Yesterday the great and the good of the farming industry packed into a chilly barn on the border of Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to get very enthusiastic about saving wildlife.
There was enthusiastic talk of changing the way our countryside is farmed to help protect birds, and admissions from farming leaders that the intensification of farming in recent decades has had negative impacts on the environment. They even invited government minister Hilary Benn along and nodded in agreement to every word he said.
Sound a little far fetched? Well get with the programme because things are changing in our countryside and this could be the beginning of something pretty special. Yesterday saw the launch of the Campaign for the Farmed Environment – and it’s hit the headlines in the farming press as well as the national newspapers.
The venue was the family farm of NFU president Peter Kendall and with guests including decision makers from all the main farming industry organisations, government environmental bodies and countryside conservation groups, this was clearly being taken seriously by all those involved.
But why? Campaigns, environmental schemes and rural projects are being launched all the time and few of them ever get this kind of fanfare and attention. Well a little background will help put things in perspective.
Back in the 70s and 80s grain and butter mountains caused by over production of food were resulting in falling produce prices. In response the Government introduced the policy of set aside. All this land left out of production provided a great habitat for farmland birds which was lost when the markets changed course, food prices rose and set aside was abolished in 2007.
Farmland birds are already suffering – they are now at half the level they were at in 1970 – so loss of this habitat could prove to be disastrous in the long term. In response the Government started looking for a way to replace the set aside policy and protect farmland birds and other wildlife. And after a lot of negotiation, debate and general to-ing and fro-ing, we have now arrived at the Campaign for the Farmed Environment.
It’s a voluntary scheme, so – aptly for the target audience of farmers – it’s more about carrots than sticks. But it’s one we urgently need to be successful, because if we lose skylarks from our skies, yellowhammers from our hedgerows and grey partridges from our wheat fields then our countryside will lose its heart.