The Wildlife Trusts! Friends of our environment, or incubating a serious problem?

Ron, don't take this the wrong way please, but don't think if people aren't for you, they are against you, i'm sure this isn't true, there are lots of opinions as to what is the right way to manage land. I've never seen the land in question, so i can't really comment on it, i do know that the open space in my county and surrounding, is pretty good on the whole, and the wildlife trusts are doing a pretty good job, against a lot of pollution from the public and businesses!

Have you approached them, and asked what their plans are for it? if so what was the reply?  they are human too, you may be able to sway the way its 'managed' by talking to them, if they know someone is interested it may make a lot of difference, why have they let it stagnate? they must be able to answer you. Your not a shy man Ron, i'm sure you could get them on your side and make the difference.

very interesting thread ron.

Like others have said its all down to our own particular area"s and it seems like your having a bit of a rough time where you are but your certainly doing the right thing by making it public and i do agree that something needs to be done, all over britain local councils etc are turning a blind eye to these area"s when they shouldnt be.

To be honest in lancashire,especially around the wigan area where i live they are doing a stirling job and the local flashes have been that well looked after over the last few years that we have attracted a huge amount of rare birds/insects that have stopped in the area and are making there homes  here, David Bellamy recently opened the local flashes again after extensive work and he was rather impressed with the work that had been done, As people may know, wigan was an industrial town and we had a hell of a lot of slag heaps which are now classed has nature reserves, we have come a long way over the years and i for one are proud of what we"ve achieved.

I know your area can be great again because of people like yourself who are willing to fight for it and that makes me proud to be british.

Keep up the good work, it will all come good in the end

We had a similar problem last year with algae and one of the local dogwalkers dogs was poisoned because of it and died a couple of days later, i believe the situation was rectified quite quickly but its not much of a consolation to the poor woman who lost her dog.

In certain area"s around wigan that are a bit off the beaten track, which i prefer to walk to be honest over the years i"ve come across old ponds that have either dried up or are an absolute mess but because people are unaware they are there (kids dont play in the woods anymore) the local authoritys rarely do anything about it until someone complains about it and even then it takes an age for anyone to actually listen.

The only thing we can do about it is keep complaining about it until something is done regardless of how long it takes

Hi Ron,

I must agree with Roy Jackson in that in our area Durham Wildlife Trust does a magnificent job.  I have not seen any dereliction of any sort at Rainton Meadows, Washington Wildfowl or Herrington Country Park where DWT have had a very active part.  Our warden at H.C.P. is himself a very active member of DWT.

For the past 4-5 years both Rainton Meadows and H.C.P. have achieved ‘Green Flag’ status.  Ron is certainly correct about H.C.P. in that his pictures of birds were taken in an area which 10 years ago was under 11,000.000 cu. mtrs of pit slag.

We have recently recorded our one hundred and second species of birds in the Park and that can’t be bad in seven years.

I would like to think Roy would call in at the visitors centre and introduce himself.  He certainly has some very nice pictures of birds from our park.

I think I'll just stick to scenery until I've had a few more lessons.