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Countryside specialists Countryside Jobs Service (CJS) is an ethical business working in harmony with environmental professionals to conserve the British countryside and natural world. They’re motivated by conservation success not profits, and their website provides a one-stop shop for everyone in the countryside, conservation, ecology and wildlife sectors. We’re delighted to have been chosen as CJS’s featured …

Restoring Broadwater Warren Broadwater Warren – a 180ha nature reserve – was acquired by the RSPB in 2007. It’s a remnant of Waterdown Forest, a medieval hunting forest in the High Weald where, historically, the landscape would have been open heath with pockets of woodland. RSPB’s aim was to restore rare lowland heath and woodland …

Earlier this month, with the dormouse monitoring season almost over, I excitedly packed my wet weather gear and travelled to northern Germany. I was joining Björn Schulz, Sven Büchner and their families and friends to look for evidence of hazel dormice on the German/Danish border. Finding evidence of dormouse in Germany Germany, like all EU …

We were incredibly sad to hear from Sue Portsmouth that one of our long-term dormouse monitors, Karen Bigmore, passed away at her home in April. Karen has been a dedicated monitor and a well-known part of the dormouse community for years. She started monitoring dormice at Hadleigh Great Wood in Essex in 2006, training Sue …

The Blackmoor Copse Dormouse Monitoring Team made some surprising discoveries regarding the nesting material hazel dormice were using in their woodland during the hot summer of 2022. Blackmoor Copse, a 90-acre oak-over-hazel-coppice wood, is owned by Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and lies deep in south-east Wiltshire. The dormouse nest boxes – which have numbered between 90 …

You’d suppose, given that Rudolph is traditionally a boy’s name, that Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer is male (or a bull, as male reindeer are known) but one thing – in fact, two – suggest otherwise… Girl power Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) are unique among deer species in that females, as well as males, grow antlers. Each …

Lions will only survive if conservationists make bold, brave decisions and devise innovative strategies – and that’s what PTES Conservation Partner Amy Dickman is doing across swathes of East Africa where lions are found. Dangers to lions and humans Imagine, says Amy Dickman, joint chief executive of the conservation group Lion Landscapes, that you were …

5th May 2022 Dear Minister, Re: Assault on nature protections   We are deeply concerned about the UK Government’s Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, laid on 22 September. This represents the single biggest potential modification of environmental law in the UK in recent history. It puts at risk hundreds of laws that are …

As Halloween approaches and the days shorten, the lights will come on a little earlier. It’s a feature of urban environments we often overlook, but for many species it’s the dark, and not the light, that’s home. Night and day Artificial light at night (ALAN) means fewer dark habitats, and while it makes our own …

Hedgerow management at the individual level is underpinned by the hedgerow management lifecycle (developed based on work by Nigel Adams): recognising the fact that hedges are living and dynamic entities. The next step in the journey of hedge management is to consider the wider landscape context. Developing a hedgerow management plan raises many questions. Which …

It’s National Hedgerow Week and this year we are celebrating hedgerows as homes for wildlife. From bats in the tree canopy, to song thrushes in the scrub layer and hedgehogs at the hedge base, a multitude of species call the hedgerow network home. In fact, one study counted 2070 species in one 85m stretch of …

Badgers and boars Male badgers are known as boars, and female badgers, as sows and, while wild boar and badgers are very different beasts, it isn’t hard to see a resemblance… Wild boar (Sus scrofa) belong to the group Artiodactyla (hoofed mammals with an even number of toes), along with deer. Badgers (Meles meles), on …