Wildlife Circus

 A good Anthropocene demands that humans use their growing social, economic and technological powers, to make life better for people, stabilise the climate and protect nature. The Ecomodernist Manifesto Today  at the South Bank Purcell Room, the inspirational Daniel Raven Ellis, asked of a large and positive audience "What if we made Greater London a National Park City"?  This was the 'Welcome to Reimagine London', a day to explore the idea of London becoming the world’s first National Park City. Last year when he came to talk to the Kingston Biodiversity Network, he found himself sharing a platform with Kevin Davis, the Leader of Kingston Council and discovered a fortuitous synergy in goals. Kingston became the first council to sign up to Daniel's vision, which he told us  is now 'our' vision. Mr Davis was invited as a speaker, at the conference finale, where he shared a platform with distinguished London politicos, after a day packed with a huge...

The South East Rivers Trust have been knocking out the weirs along the Hogsmill. Last year they undertook improvements at Knights Park near Kingston Town Centre see previous posts on the  Hogsmill-valley .  At the start of the project there were  fifteen obstructions on the river preventing fish from passing. These included weirs, culverts, concrete bridge footings and the gauging station near Watersplash Close. This results in the available habitat being highly fragmented causing bottlenecks at various life stages, making some fish species very vulnerable.  The concrete bridge footings at the A240 Kingston Bypass formed a complete barrier to fish passage. A rock ramp has now been built to drown out the weir and increase the depth of water under the bridge. To facilitate vehicular access, some of the vegetation has been removed, which will allow light into the dingy floor and breathe new life into the linear  copse, where ivy has smothered the...