James Bullock
@jmbecologist
Applied ecologist working on the ecological emergency Studying ecosystem restoration, rewilding, dispersal, spatial ecology, ecosystem services, agro-ecology, global change. Views are my own & personal/unofficial
This lovely old oak tree long pre-dates the rather unlovely housing estate that now surrounds it
But don’t worry Times readers, climate change-driven wildfires will light up the sky
Offsetting is widely promoted but poorly founded in ecology Our modelling study shows: effective offsetting requires restored areas larger than those impacted & protection over long timescales high habitat conversion rates reduce offsetting success conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Great to hear NERC are bringing back Exploring the Frontiers to support small, speculative research projects 👏 👏 👏 content.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKR...
Around our town, developers are threatening green belt & nature-rich land While local people & sometime councils oppose this, the government is making environmental damage for financial profit so easy for developers
The constant conflation of climate action with action for nature leads to the conservation policy & practice obsession with carbon - eg forests & peatlands Other habitats are just as important for biodiversity (& so, human wellbeing too)
This sort of argument is often made against not just rewilding, but ecological restoration & conservation in general But many people don’t realise that we use almost 60% of our cropland to grow livestock feed Reducing eating meat would free up huge areas of land to benefit nature (& thus people)
Cognitive dissonance BBC printing hype about the Jackdaw gas field alongside the consequences of the fossil fuel industry’s actions Really, the fossil fuel industry will do anything to prolong their calamitous activities
I know the response will be: we have to do something & can’t wait But this interesting #ECCB2026 talk about modelling likely ecosystem impacts of conservation introductions raises questions around the overwhelming positive framing of introductions for rewilding
Glad to hear more & more in conservation science accepting that our research is political If we maintain the idea we are value-free & independent we risk supporting the status quo Marja Spierenburg at #ECCB2026
Important points by Marja Spierenburg about social sciences & conservation Plenary at the European Congress of Conservation Biology
At another conference Already noted: the disheveled student regaling colleagues with last night’s exploits; the senior professor holding court; the postgrad rushing to attend as many talks as possible; and the jaded academic who’s seen it all before (But the baby grebe was cute)
Interesting plant community on the Dorset coast A mix of natives & non-natives from different parts of the world A community degraded by invasion or a novel ecosystem?
The BBC leads with fluff How about the real news on climate catastrophe, war, far right hate, billionaire corruption, tech bro BS, voter disengagement…
Looking forward to #ECCB2026 next week I’ll be talking in the symposium on Restoring Europe’s Semi-Natural Grasslands On restoring for ecological complexity rather than historical targets - here’s a taster
No, it’s not the new normal It’s going to get worse And recent days have shown just how ill-prepared the UK is for increasing climate extremes
While even right wing newspapers have front page headlines about the terrifying heatwave Only the Daily Mail ignores it & instead, without apparent irony, carries on its campaign against Net Zero Maybe their brains have fried in the heat
Hot weather bringing out the stag beetles Just rescued this beautiful one from the road
Just booked my train journey to attend the European Congress of Conservation Biology in Leiden next month @eccb26leiden.bsky.social As usual, difficult booking trains across Europe, but important to be #flightfree (I’ll be talking in the grassland symposium on restoration & environmental change)
Gilbert White’s The Natural History of Selborne - the only nature book worth reading
And for those interested in more nuanced considerations of natural capital, see our paper www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Lila reminding me that I don’t work Fridays, so the weekend starts now!
In a good day for nominative determinism, Mr Gore talks to the Guardian about Dracula and BP remove A Manifold
Many 10s of 1000s of UK deer are killed in the name of conservation every year Many passionately defend it, others abhor it, & some suggest reintroducing predators is the answer But this sad fact needs to be talked about & solutions found, rather than assuming killing wild animals is justified
While nature recovery can help mitigate climate change, I’m increasingly unconvinced by arguments focusing on ‘natural climate solutions’ They bias conservation towards habitats thought to hold more carbon And can imply emissions can be simply offset by planting loads of trees, etc