Fantastic news! A win for Protected Landscapes and for all of us who want to see PLd reach their potential as thriving, biodiverse landscapes 🏞️

Proud to be a finalist in the poster competition held for MMU's Festival of Research (@manmetuni.bsky.social) 🥳🗺️ Visit the Geoffrey Manton atrium to see how we mapped 35 years of land use change across the Peak District & an unprotected buffer zone, plus other work from @sbac-manmetuni.bsky.social

1/ The Wild Bird Indicators, using BTO data, have been updated today by Defra! ⬇️

Sadly, the ‘all bird species’ index, comprising the population trends of 130 species, has been in a slow continuous decline in the UK since the 1970s, down by 18% and by 4% in the last five years. 📉 #Ornithology

Travelling down to attend the BES Climate Change SIG Conference this morning and looking forward to taking inspiration from speakers & attendees 🌎🦋

Wrote a piece for @manmetuni.bsky.social Doctoral Research Blog about the first chapter of my thesis, attending the @landscapeecologyuk.bsky.social 20205 Conference & finding inspiration in Lauriston Farm's vision of nature and community: www.manmetpgr.co.uk/blog/07-2025... 🕊️🛰️

Thank you to everyone who joined and supported our conference on Monitoring Ecosystem Recovery at the Landscape Scale this week. We are so pleased a wide range of delegates from academia, policy and practice decided to join us - we hope you made many new and valuable connections 🌳

Teamwork makes the dream work. Officially PhDone 🎓

Thanks to the lovely lot at @livevobiomech.bsky.social, my supervisors @acsharp.bsky.social, @drphilcox.bsky.social and @nathanj.bsky.social and my awesome wife @naturecaroline.bsky.social.

We're not done here 👀 Watch this space 💀🧠🐴🦍🦁🐂🐅🐫🦌🦏🦒🫎

NEW – Chart: UK misses tree-planting targets by forest the ‘size of Isle of Wight’ | @joshgabbatiss.bsky.social

Read here: buff.ly/ksxZIvW

Thank you to @landscapeecologyuk.bsky.social Conference organisers & attendees, esp. those who asked questions or shared stories/thoughts following my talk about assessing long-term land use change in the #PeakDistrict with @manmetuni.bsky.social & @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social. Great feedback! 🏞️

If you ask the public about what National Parks are for, the same answer comes up time after time. Wildlife. Nature. Places to connect with the wild.

A ‘nature first’ commitment could be the basis for a new social contract between the National Parks and the nation.

www.cnp.org.uk/blog/put-nat...

Also lovely to visit Gang Mine SSSI & SAC and appreciate the vibrancy of Dyer's greenweed, then later in the week a visit to Hoylake's Atlantic salt meadow to see the Marsh orchids with @apwoodbailey.bsky.social 🌊

Fab time on the search for Fly orchids and Frog orchids in Derbyshire last week with @alexanderlees.bsky.social whose keen eyes spotted both ❇️

Looking forward to attending the Landscape Ecology conference next week! Great list of talks and posters & I'll be presenting the findings from my first chapter 🌍🌳🚜

Rabbits and hares (leporid lagomorphs) have uniquely fenestrated skulls, but why? Using finite element analysis, a new study found that fenestrations don’t impact biting efficiency but may lighten the skull for agility.
Wood-Bailey & Sharp: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Do you have expertise in UK land use? We want to hear from you!

The UK government is currently consulting on the future of land use in England. To ensure the voice of the ecological community is heard, we will be producing a response to this consultation.