"Look at it this way"

Those teaching in or near to Somerset  gained another possible option for field visits following the 2023 announcement that Mendip became a National Nature Reserve. Mendip in #Somerset is our newest ‘super’ #NationalNatureReserve 🎉 Home to a vibrant landscape and nationally endangered species such as horseshoe #bats , this 1,400 hectare #NNR will boost #NatureRecovery whilst connecting people to nature. Read more: https://t.co/Au8d4RFbgC pic.twitter.com/4dSgNu5eSi — Natural England (@NaturalEngland) October 19, 2023  Mendip is a place that I have visited a few times over the years.

  I hope you have something planned for today! Between 2018 and 2020 I worked as a GetOutside Champion for the Ordnance Survey: part of a team of people in various locations around the country encouraging people to get outside in different ways. Some of them were athletes, bloggers, Instagrammers, runners, paralympians and TV personalities. I was just a geography teacher using my blogging and role to encourage fieldwork and other outdoor activities in the curriculum. We added a Fieldwork Week to my Presidential year, with thanks to Paula Richardson for her efforts there, and expanded it to a Fieldwork Fortnight last year. There is plenty of advice on the Ordnance Survey's page for this day when people are encouraged to spend time outdoors. And don't forget to follow the Countryside Code.

Helen Macdonald, author of 'H is for Hawk' has completed a journey around the M25 exploring the wildlife that lies along its margins. Catch it on iPlayer. Is there a wild side to Britain’s busiest road? Author and naturalist Helen Macdonald embarks on a clockwise loop around London’s orbital motorway - searching for hidden wildness and natural beauty within the sight and sound of the M25. Along her journey, Helen encounters the remarkable people, plants and animals living above, beside and beneath the motorway, and delves into the controversial history of the UK’s longest and least-loved bypass. The M25 has been part of Britain’s landscape for nearly 35 years, so how has the natural world adapted to the motorway carving a path through its environment? Starting just south of the Thames at Kent’s Junction 1, Helen explores the woodland that lines the first 40 miles of the M25. In a first sign of how animals’ lives are shaped by the man-made world, great tits are changing the p...

This tweet from the writer Melissa Harrison, of whom I'm a great fan, struck a chord earlier as I was flitting from one project and deadline to the next to keep the plates spinning, and thinking about some writing I have pencilled in for the Easter holidays. I stand by every word of this. There's no entrance exam for being a nature writer; nor should there be. The ability to engage interest, inspire connection and rouse curiosity is what's required to change lives and create a new cohort of people who will protect nature. #WildLines https://t.co/23zEYlnHAw — Melissa Harrison 🌾 (@M_Z_Harrison) March 9, 2018