National or regional (GLA) government needs to liberate London’s river system for walking too. Try walking the Roding between Barking Creek & Redbridge?! Impossible where it offers the most benefit in statistically low walking areas. Try the Ravensbourne; canalised/buried even in most green spaces!

As our big, flagship access policy this is pretty rubbish tbh: a very short walk, no new access or footpaths. Nice but... ...yeah, hardly a right to roam replacement is it? Small beer is being kind

It seems the first of the new 'nine river walks' the Government announced in place of a real access policy... won't actually create any new access? They're just upgrading the existing path and adding some signs and benches. A really rubbish level of ambition. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Government's proposed new National River Walk a damp squib says @openspacessociety.bsky.social -it's not new, but on existing rights of way. Priority should be green paper on access to nature, and new legislation. www.oss.org.uk/new-national... @ramblers.org.uk @naturalengland.bsky.social

The Government has announced the first of their ‘nine new river walks’: a section of the River Mersey near Stockport. Yet what’s being presented as a national breakthrough is, in reality, a set of long-overdue local council upgrades to existing riverside paths. A skim through the details... 🧵

This Telegraph article is a distillation of the horseshit propping up the idea of a 'rural v urban culture war'. 'BBC ACCUSED OF METROPOLITAN BIAS TOWARD RURAL BRITAIN' it claims, citing a poll commissioned by the Regional Moorland Association (i.e. gamekeepers) www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

The River Dart in spate flowing through (and over!) Totnes following heavy & prolonged rainfall. And this is one week past spring tides!

The Government have today announced an Access Green Paper which will consult on how to ‘strengthen the public’s legal right to access’. This is welcome - but further delay isn't: Labour MPs & access NGOs are united on the need for access legislation now. @righttoroam.bsky.social comment:

Tonnes of topsoil heading seaward, washed out by rainfall from the River Dart Catchment, South Devon. With heavy rainfall events becoming more frequent as a result of climate breakdown, leaving fields bare at this time of year is a recipe for literal disaster.

ChatGPT’s signature writing style is everywhere now, and I hate it. It reminds me of when we tried mixing all the beverages at the soda fountain in middle school. We didn’t actually create the perfect drink, we just made a cloying monstrosity that lost everything good about its constituent parts.

Why Your House Is Full of Stuff You'll Never Use.

Trees high on Dartmoor have been deliberately poisoned. Perhaps an act rooted in frustration and of sorrow at the passing of an unfettered time... but an act of ecological vandalism nonetheless. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

@ebenmyrddin.bsky.social repping wild camping at the Basecamp stage at Kendal Mountain Festival.

A real joy to be at Kendal Mountain Festival with @righttoroam.bsky.social and friends -- raising our voices for equitable access to nature.

Wild camping: we won the battle on Dartmoor, now what? Listening to @lewis-winks.bsky.social, @maryannochota.bsky.social & Aila Taylor discussing extending the right to wild camp in England - at Kendal Mountain Festival, in (appropriately enough) a very big tent

'the abandoned paper mill was actually a deeply contaminated and highly radioactive former frack waste treatment plan' Hard to overstate the enduring filth released by fossil fuel extraction

Great trespass along the River Dart today to kick off @righttoroam.bsky.social's 9 river trespasses in November - protesting the inadequacy & unworkability of the Govt's 9 river walks pledge We trespassed in an estate owned in the Cayman Islands & later met up with kayakers from Friends of the Dart

Over 200 charities, businesses & organisations have signed our open letter to Keir Starmer asking him not to weaken the laws protecting National Parks and Landscapes. We're so thankful to everyone who added their name 💪 This letter represents millions of people and shows that #NationalParksMatter

Very excited to share that I'm writing a new book, THE GHOSTS OF CHALK COUNTRY - about the loss of England's chalk downland: a tale of flowers, fascism & freedom. To be published by @wmcollinsbooks.bsky.social in April 2027: www.thebookseller.com/rights/willi... Website: ghostsofchalkcountry.org

How do we fix this mess?

Absolutely delighted that my book THE LIE OF THE LAND has won the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing! This week, one of the book’s recommendations, a ban on moorland burning, became a reality. Next, we need a Nature Bill for England… bsky.app/profile/wain...

This week's column. The details will make you gasp and rage. This massive desecration of nature is almost unbelievable, but it is happening in the UK right now. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This prize draw is generously supported by some of the cream of British nature writing. A fiver to enter might win you books, art and other goodies. That’s the ‘maybe’… the ‘definitely’ is that it will support our work to connect everyone in England and Wales with their nearby nature.

Your chance to support Right to Roam's trailblazing grassroots work to expand responsible access to land and water. All proceeds will go towards a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shift in our relationship with the countryside PLUS a chance to win some nature inspired prizes! ⬇️✨

My mate Damien is currently undertaking the world's longest litter pick - the Lu'Crusade - on his bicycle, to raise money for Trash Free Trails. If you can, please support his efforts! www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding...

Love #Dartmoor? Now’s your chance to influence its future. People who care passionately about the National Park are invited to share their views on the priorities that will guide this unique landscape for years to come. Complete the Public Opinion Survey: forms.office.com/pages/respon...

I got hold of the latest *official* stats for how many pheasants are being bred, reared and released in England It's a big number - 25.9 million - but it's far less than the reality It points to widespread rule-breaking by shooting estates failing to register: whoownsengland.org/2025/07/31/l...

Great leader in today's Guardian building on our research into ownership of rivers: "...there is no guarantee that landowners will allow the public to enjoy these landscapes. This, surely, has to change." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Happy #RewildingRoundup 🐛💚 🌊 Research by @lewis-winks.bsky.social has shown that Devon's river Dart has a staggering 108 owners, many of whom are aristocracy, demonstrating the vital link between conserving nature and addressing the country's need for more public access & ownership.

Excellent to hear @lewis-winks.bsky.social on the Today programme this morning discussing his research on 'Who owns the River Dart' - and why this shows we need a right of responsible access Listen here (45mins in): www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... Guardian story: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Over the past 18 months I've been walking estates, speaking with landowners, examining angling maps, and trawling online records to determine who owns the River Dart in Devon- finally I can share the results! Research: whoownsengland.org/2025/07/29/w... Article: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

@lewis-winks.bsky.social, who compiled the River Dart research: “We’re calling for a rights-based approach to river access – similar to the system in Scotland, where the public has the right to responsibly walk, swim, paddle and canoe along most rivers and lochs, with sensible exceptions.”

I've spent many hours on, in and beside the Dart. I found this fascinating, enraging and illuminating - and it probably applies to a river near you.

Who owns the River Dart? 108 separate landowners, it turns out - with 11 miles of it owned by offshore companies! Great research by @lewis-winks.bsky.social which shows why the Government's 9 river walks policy won't work without a right of responsible access 1/ www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This looks like really positive news. Very happy to be proven posthumously correct and see many of my concerns addressed. Well done to @the-wildlifetrusts.bsky.social @wclnews.bsky.social, @rspb.bsky.social and everyone who fought for proper nature protections in planning.

Back in court for day 2 of our Dartmoor legal challenge today....and a timely, excellent piece from @phoebeweston.bsky.social on overgrazing. Expert local opinion from the brilliant @tonydartmoor.bsky.social & @guyshrubsole.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Some politicians like to pretend it's people's wellbeing or nature's. In truth, people benefit from the same conditions - cool shade, clean air, pure water - that wildlife needs. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The more we discover, the worse it gets. Now we learn the water companies wrote the guidance ensuring sewage sludge is not tested for the vast majority of contaminants before being spread on farmland. They gave themselves a free licence to dump hazardous waste. 🧵 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

And here's why things are out of control: How England’s outdated water tracking system leaves regulators in the dark 4/4 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Bridehead Unvisited… Today around a hundred of us trespassed in the Bridehead Estate, where access was recently closed to the public by the new corporate owners - to protest the fragility of permissive access & how companies are enclosing the countryside www.bridportnews.co.uk/news/2529187...

Today, the UK government intends to ban the non-violent protesters Palestine Action as a "terrorist" group, exposing anyone supporting them to terrorism charges. In 2 days, 380,000 people have watched this video on YT alone. You're going to need a bigger prison. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECkV...

“The real conflict is not town v country, but money & power v people.” Profound piece by @georgemonbiot.bsky.social on the forthcoming eviction of an entire village by a faceless plutocrat, the enclosure of access, & @righttoroam.bsky.social’s next mass trespass: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This is a grim, rather extreme example in Dorset, but whenever I’m in England I hate to see permissive access signs. Without rights, permission can always be withdrawn. @righttoroam.bsky.social

The people of Littlebredy, a village of 32 homes, wholly owned by the Bridehead Estate Ltd, say they have been ordered to leave from Jan. But who owns Bridehead Estate Ltd? No one seems to know, but the company is registered to the same address as Belport Ltd. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I’ve been looking into this for some time, as has @lewis-winks.bsky.social, but we can’t definitively find out who the faceless new owner of Bridehead Estate is… we need an open Land Registry and for all beneficial owners of trusts & companies (overseas, UK) to be made transparent

"Power hides by setting us against each other. This is never more true than in the countryside, where the impacts of an extreme concentration of ownership and control are blamed on those who have nothing to do with it." Superb piece by @georgemonbiot.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Much kudos to this new campaign group - give them a follow! @reclaimourmoors.bsky.social raptorpersecutionuk.org/2025/06/19/r...

The most meaningful nature is often that which is closest to us. But slowly, quietly, these spaces are being taken away. Micro-enclosures are happening all around us. If you have a special connection to Bridehead, we invite you to join us: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/bridehead-...

Fantastic list here - so much we can do in our own neighborhoods, gardens, schools and verges to help insects. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I'm appalled at Derby University charging £250 per ticket for their Nature Connections conference. It amazes me that people can have sincere conversations about nature connection & completely miss the social justice & inclusivity aspects which encompass our relationship with nature, or lack thereof.