Volume 35, number 5, April 2024. I have written about the opening article on mink eradication here Beaver bombs part I – Animal Wild. As I have said before, I love that contributors do not shy away from being outspoken, nor extremely niche.
There are pages and pages devoted almost entirely to the Speckled Footman moth, another piece about the Marsh Lousewort, useful in fens as a parasite of certain dominant rushes and sedges, which includes a reference to the fabulously named Devil’s-bit Scabious, taxonomically challenging wild roses (roses generally “Perhaps more than any other group of plants … can make you question the species concept as a set of neat boxes into which a group of individuals may be unambiguously placed”), and Amy-Jane Beer delights yet again, writing of a meeting with an ash tree and its refusal of her grief in celebration of ancient wisdom.
James Robertson, a small farmer and environmentalist, tired of the false claims by certain farmers in Wales, wonders whether “We the environment and the climate would better off without any farming subsidy. Give it to schools and hospitals. A turnover of farms would mean new blood and new ideas coming into the industry.” It’s a brave stance to take, but like the climate change protesters who it seems are now not even permitted to mention the reasons for their actions in court, when they have been permitted to protest at all, realise that there’s a bigger picture and that the time for change is now. Farmers are not all villains but subsidies have driven the worst farming practices.
Hugh Raven admits to the guilt and shame he feels, having been part of the process possibly driving wild fish to extinction: salmon farming. How refreshing and honest. He paraphrases Upton Sinclair – it is very difficult to get someone to understand something when their salary depends on their not understanding it. There’s “An introduction to terrestrial [as opposed to marine] nemertines” which are in essence tiny worms. Mark Avery writes of the wonderful legislative successes brought about by Wild Justice (and acknowledges some of the setbacks but explains that “even when we lose we win a little, because the prospect of legal action creates a landscape of fear in the corridors of power that makes dodgy decision-making less likely.”)
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