THE NESS……From ‘Right To Roam’…..From ‘Wild Justice’….
by Bernie Bell - 08:57 on 09 August 2024
THE NESS……
Take a deep breath….
https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/2024-day-36/
Exceptional finds often turn up at the end of a dig – but these are turning up at the end of all digs at the site….for now….
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From ‘Right To Roam’….
"A Right to Roam offering: Wild Service in Action Workshop
This email is an invitation to join us for a weekend of workshops on Saturday 31 August and Sunday 01 September. If you've thought about getting involved with taking action for nature where you live and don't know where to start, then this might be for you so read on.
The right to roam is just one important step to reversing the centuries old practice of extracting too much from the land for the accumulation of wealth and recreation for a very limited few.
Having a right to roam means that even though we don't own the land, we can nurture a sense of collective belonging and responsibility. In other words, we'll repair our relationship with nature and feel compelled to care for it. Without this first and crucial step, what happens on the 92% of land that we've no legal right to access goes unseen and unchallenged. All the while, the state of nature continues to decline.
Despite this, we've found that hope exists in the actions and determination of people who have decided to be a guardian for nature - without asking for permission first or having it in their job title. Groups like Friends of the River Wye, Moorland monitors and Sheffield Tree Action Group have been an inspiration to us. These groups are not landowners, they're not legislators, governmental bodies or huge NGO's. These are people who have come to care about places and the wildlife that lives there and are making a huge difference. The Sheffield Tree Action Group for example, is a group of residents who organised so that trees in Sheffield wouldn't succumb to the councils chainsaw - and they won.
It's not easy to start a big action or campaign from scratch if you've never done it before. A bit like knowing how to do a tax return, there's a lot of tools and useful information out there that we're not taught, and that includes how to campaign and to be a guardian for nature.
The event
We've paired up with our friends at Lawyers for Nature, Wild Justice, Wild Card, River Action and Trash Free Trails to deliver a Wild Service in Action weekend; we'll be sharing our knowledge and experience of campaigning.
Workshops include things like understanding your rights, on how to build an inclusive campaign, how to tell compelling stories, spotting wildlife crime and using social media effectively. You'll find details of all the workshops and more information here.
Booking a place
There are limited places, so we can't promise you'll get a spot. If you have any questions, please email nadia@righttoroam.org.uk .
Nadia & the Right to Roam team
P.S. We’re a campaign that punches well above its weight, but we’re run on a shoestring budget. Can you join our band of 500 amazing supporters chipping in £5 or more a month? With a new government in power and the Dartmoor Supreme Court case looming this October, we have big plans to ramp up our campaigning, but need your help to fund it. Thanks for anything you can donate!”
To find out more.... https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/
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From ‘Wild Justice’….
“Today’s newsletter brings you updates on our new challenge of Badger culling, two events where you might like to join us, disturbance at Thursley Common and on our challenge on Dartmoor.
We’re taking the next step in our legal challenge against the granting of Badger culling licences: Wild Justice has teamed up with our friends in the Badger Trust to begin a new legal challenge of Badger culls. We know that Natural England has issued 26 supplementary Badger cull licences against scientific advice from its own experts. We sent a Pre-action Protocol letter to NE last month - but we weren't satisfied by their response and are now taking the next step and seeking a formal Judicial Review. The legal papers were filed with the court last week.
NE has stated that one of its reasons for issuing the licences was to maintain the confidence of farmers. We argue that these licences were issued unlawfully rather than for the proper purpose of preventing the spread of disease.
In a press release from Leigh Day, Wild Justice said:
“The previous Conservative government leant on Natural England to approve these licences. Why would the new Labour government, which offered 'change' in its election manifesto, be prepared to defend that action in the courts? Not only is it not 'change', it's spending taxpayers' money on the previous government's flawed decisions.”.
The full press release will be available on our blog shortly.
See you this weekend?: Hen Harrier Action’s Action for Wildlife Day on 10 August. Reminder - this free event is taking place at Carsington Water in Derbyshire on Saturday (and the weather forecast looks good - fingers crossed!). All three of us – Chris, Ruth and Mark – will be there. We’ll be attending with a Wild Justice stand (and some of our team), speaking on stage and signing books. Come and say hello! Information about the event - click here.
Would you like to join us at a workshop this month?: Wild Justice is teaming up with Right to Roam and a group of other organisations to deliver a Wild Service in Action workshop in Leicestershire on the weekend of the 31 August and 1 September 2024.
We will be delivering a workshop called: Raptor Persecution: what is it, how to spot it and what action to take when you do.
We’re putting the invite out to you – our supporters. If it sounds like your sort of thing, you can find out more about logistics, facilities and what the weekend involves by clicking here. If you’re interested in coming, please fill out the form – we’ll be selecting attendees at random. Please register your interest by 12th August.
Disturbance on Thursley Common, the story so far: we contacted Natural England about apparent disturbance by a film crew to heathland habitat used by reptiles and several rare birds on 4 July. The latest news from Natural England is that they will respond to us on or by 9 August - that’s tomorrow. We wonder why it is taking more than a month to construct a response. Maybe Natural England doesn’t know what happened at this National Nature Reserve, Site of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Area and Special Area of Conservation or maybe they find it difficult to explain what happened. We await their response with interest.
Dartmoor over-grazing: attendees at last week’s meeting of the Dartmoor Commoners’ Council were told that there would be a reply to Wild Justice’s Pre-action protocol letter by 9 August - that’s tomorrow. We’ll study its contents carefully.
That's it for now - we'll be back in touch soon with more!
Thank you,
Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).”
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