Sell England's Forests + Woods?......NEVER!

Forest - a wood, woodland, wold, weald, holt, frith or firth defines an area with a high density of trees. These are currently run (in the main) by The Forestry Commission, but the Coalition Government are planning to sell them off!
There is great danger in this policy because in private ownership entry would probably be denied to the general public, the preservation of wild life would be uncertain, (this is what happened when Pennygrove Wood, East Sussex was sold off),  private companies would cherry-pick sites for commercial development, and  voluntary groups would be left to look after ancient woodlands without a budget.
Caroline Spelman  (see this link for more information)  The Secretary  State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs is in charge. She has form - bad form. During the expenses debacle she had questions to answer regarding payments for nannying work, -(nannygate), she reportedly over-claimed hundreds of pounds towards her council tax, and received £40.000 for cleaning bills for her consituency home, but was it her main home?    She co-owns Spelman, Cormack and Associates, a lobbying firm for the food and biotechnology industry with her husband. An axe to grind?
To sell the woodlands and forests would be an act of insane vandalism, but once politicians get their teeth sunk into a proposal it is hard to stop them.  No doubt the lobbying Spelmans have their 'friends' waiting in the wings?
The overwhelming public feeling  is against the government's  plans.  Democracy?  What government ever cared about democracy!        To sign 'Save Our Trees' petition  contact
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/save-our-forests#petition

For the Great Bustard, great news!

Great news for the magnificent bird, the great bustard! .......and that's not a reference to Boris Johnson!
The EU are making a grant of £1.8 million to the Great Bustard Project based on Salisbury Plain.
These birds were driven to near extinction in UK in the 1800s due to extensive egg collection and hunting, the first chicks being hatched in the wild in 2004 since 1832.
Shaped similarly to a goose, it is larger with longer legs and a straighter neck. With a wingspan of 7 - 8ft, length of 3 - 3.6ft, and weight of 22 - 35 lb, the heaviest known was 46lb. These birds are possibly the heaviest flying animal. Originally from Southern and Central Europe and across temperate Asia they were also native in GB, and are still  part of the design of the Wiltshire Coat of Arms.

Tuna, Tesco looks dodgy.

Hugh F-W continued his programme on Channel 4 about the unsustainable fishing of tuna, and the practice of 'Discard'.
He showed  the difference between line-fishing and fishing for tuna from an enormous ship with gigantic catch-all nets in Ghana.
In the first case line-fishing catches tuna and tuna alone, in a sustainable manner.  Sainsburys sell tinned tuna of this type in their stores.
Tesco and 'Princes' sell a tinned variety of tuna that is not fished sustainably. Their tins state on the label 'dolphin friendly', but in the programme Greenpeace interviewed a member of the crew who stated categorically that their MASSIVE nets caught turtles, sharks,  dolphins, and  other rare fish, and these are thrown back  into the sea dead (sharks are often cruelly de-finned before being  thrown back alive into the sea)!
Hugh is very sincere and enthusiastic in his crusade to inform the general public about this scandal.  He takes part in most of the activities on board ship and has a charm that overcomes opposition, but he found  Tesco  reluctant to have a meeting with him, although they eventually put forward a surly representative who disputed his and Greenpeace's findings.
UPDATE on http://www.fishfight.net/!  Tesco has now stated they will stop buying tuna from their  Ghana fishery, and will only buy them from sustainable sources. The 'Princes' business has withdrawn  labels from their tins of tuna that state their tuna fishing is 'dolphin friendly'. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is to be thanked for this small victory. The fight now moves to the European Union where protesters will attempt to stop  the ridiculous practice of 'Discard'.

Fish quotas? Bad for everyone including the poor fish.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall did a great programme last night on tv about the scandal of EU fish quotas.  He was as shocked as his audience would have been when  the hundreds of unwanted (perfectly good fish) were thrown overboard dead.
Fisherman are allowed  quotas of a certain type of fish,  and when they have filled these quotas huge numbers of extra fish are wasted and thrown back into the sea. Due to over-fishing, fish that were fairly common up to about 15 years ago are now scarce or very small  though depletion of stocks of cod and other varieties have now been partially halted. The quota system  is a mad scheme when good food is deliberately wasted in order to fulfill some insane regulation brought in by that  scarcely representative  body, the European Union!
It was pointed out in the programme that the government minister for fisheries was unable even to identify the most common fish!
Mr. Fearnley-Whittingstall pursues his next 'fish' agenda with a programme about the assault on the tuna.