The politics of water pollution heats up
Plus the latest green reads for the whole family with the book recommendations for this month
Good morning! I’m Sarah Hartley and this is The Northern Eco weekly update. As you’ve received this newsletter then either you subscribed, or someone forwarded it to you. If the latter, then you can click on this handy little button below.
As it’s the last Tuesday of the month, we’re starting today’s newsletter with the latest book recommendations with a green tinge from Claire and Alan at The Wonky Tree bookshop who say "we have chosen books this month that were the winners of, or highly commended for the 2024 Wainwright Prize. Every year the prize is awarded to books which successfully inspire readers to embrace the outdoors and foster a respect for the environment. Why not give these inspiring reads a try and re-energise your own love of the outdoors!" (For news, scroll down the page.)
Late Light - Michael Malay
Winner of the 2024 Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing
This is a book about falling in love with vanishing things Late Light is the story of Michael Malay's own journey, an Indonesian Australian making a home for himself in England and finding strange parallels between his life and the lives of the animals he examines.
Mixing natural history with memoir, this book explores the mystery of our animal neighbours, in all their richness and variety.
It is about the wonder these animals inspired in our ancestors, the hope they inspire in us, and the joy they might still hold for our children. Late Light is about migration, belonging and extinction. Through the close examination of four particular 'unloved' animals - eels, moths, crickets and mussels - Michael Malay tells the story of the economic, political and cultural events that have shaped the modern landscape of Britain.
You can order this book here.
Groundbreakers - Chantal Lyons
Highly commended - 2024 Wainwright Prize for Writing on Conservation
After centuries of absence, wild boar are back in Britain. What does this mean for us – and them? Big, messy and mysterious – crossing paths with a wild boar can conjure fear and joy in equal measure. Driven to extinction seven hundred years ago, a combination of the species’ own tenacity and illegal releases from the 1980s has seen several populations of this beast of myth begin to roam English and Scottish woods once more.
With growing worry over the impacts on both people and the countryside, the boar’s right to exist in Britain has been heavily debated. Their habitat-regenerating actions benefit a host of other wildlife, yet unlike beavers, these ecosystem engineers remain unloved by many. Why is there no clamour to reintroduce them across the land? And, with the few boar in England threatened by poaching and culling, why are we not doing more to prevent their re-extinction? In Groundbreakers, Chantal Lyons moves to the boar’s stronghold of the Forest of Dean to get up close and personal with this complex, intelligent and quirky species, and she meets with people across Britain and beyond who celebrate their presence – or want them gone. Join Chantal on a journey of discovery as she reveals what it might take for us to coexist with wild boar.
You can order this book here.
Foxlight - Katya Balen
Winner of the 2024 Wainwright Prize for Children’s Writing on Nature and Conservation.
A heartbreaking and heart-warming story about sisterhood, found family and accepting love in the most unusual and unknown places. Fen and Rey were found curled up small and tight in the fiery fur of the foxes at the very edge of the wildlands. Fen is loud and fierce and free.
She feels a connection to foxes and a calling from the wild that she's desperate to return to. Rey is quiet and shy and an expert on nature. She reads about the birds, feeds the lands and nurtures the world around her.
They are twin sisters. Different and the same. Separate and connected. They will always have each other, even if they don't have a mother and don't know their beginning. But they do want answers. Answers to who their mother is and where she might be.
What their story is and how it began. So when a fox appears late one night at the house, Fen and Rey see it as a sign - it's here to lead them to their truth, find their real family and fill the missing piece they have felt since they were born.
But the wildlands are exactly that: wild. They are wicked and cruel and brutal and this journey will be harder and more life changing than either Fen or Rey ever imagined ...
You can order this book here.
Talking of books…..
It was fascinating to hear from reader Tim of Leeds based Adventurous Ink who is relaunching his book subscription service. Tim says:
“I’m relaunching to feature less books each year, curated in four seasonal selections and extending our scope beyond adventure and nature writing to include authors with something to say about this pivotal moment for life on Earth; like Jenny Odell, whose first book How to Do Nothing sets the tone for our shift. I launched this unique subscription eight years ago, to share authors and adventurers who help us reconnect with ourselves and the rest of the natural world.”
If you like the sound of that, find out more about his campaign here.
The three most clicked links from last week were:
Smoggy Hog’s Hedgehog Rescue Middlesbrough Teesside
Is pollution in England’s rivers really getting worse? There’s more good news than you might think
Water pollution news
💦 My report from the weekend’s Cleaning up our Rivers, Lakes & Seas – The Answers event in Ilkley is here. Groups from around the country are preparing for the government's first 100 days - but there was still no-show from the regulator.
💦 Tens of billions of pounds of private finance is guaranteed to be spent over the next five years to build new sewage overflows, reservoirs and major pipe upgrades, the Environment Secretary has said, reports Richard Vaughan at the i.
💦 One of the world's rarest lichens has been discovered in a Cumbrian River for the first time in memory and represents a significant biodiversity milestone. EA Press release here.
💦 There’s fears of a pollution incident on the River Nidd after a dam wall near Pateley Bridge collapsed this week. John Plummer at The Stray Ferret has more.
North Yorkshire based cartoonist Mike Barfield is always on the button with Apparently, his commentary on modern life in Private Eye. If you’d like to see more (or maybe purchase the original, signed print above for your loo!) he has an exhibition opening next month with 200 original artworks. Details here.
In other news
🌊 A new series of reports published last week revealed that 37.4 million tonnes of organic carbon are stored in just the top 10cm of seabed mud in the North Sea. The Blue Carbon Mapping Project provides the first estimate of carbon stored in UK seabed habitats, including in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This makes the UK the first nation to map and estimate the amount of carbon stored in its seabed habitats, including in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). As app readers will already have seen, my full report is here.
🐢 An injured loggerhead sea turtle has been given a third chance at life following a successful rehabilitation programme. Nazare was discovered washed up on a beach in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria on February 4 showing no signs of movement, reports Aisling Grace and Elena Giuliano, at PA.
📝 The Nidderdale National Landscape Team has a new five-year management plan for the area underway and is asking people to complete a short online survey here. Deadline is 14th October.
⚖️ A judge has thrown out criminal damage charges against Greenpeace activists who scaled Rishi Sunak’s constituency home and draped it in black fabric, ruling that the evidence was too “tenuous” for them to be convicted. More from Hull Live.
🦋 Wildlife experts warn of 'butterfly emergency' after count reveals record low numbers. Sky News reports that Butterfly Conservation found an "obsession with tidiness" in British gardens and green spaces that is "just really bad for nature", after the public counted record low butterfly numbers this summer. But that's not the only reason the insects are declining, it said.
🌏 Congratulations to the indie news publishers over the other side of the River Tweed. Through the collaboration of the Scottish Beacon, they’re bringing attention to local actions that are shaping Scotland’s future, offering inspiration and practical examples of how progress is being made. They say:
“Over 100 days, we aim to collectively publish more than 50 stories that highlight community solutions that are already making a difference.”
You can subscribe to follow here and if any indie publishers south of the Tweed would like to similarly collaborate for the benefit of all our readers - you know where to find me!
🪶 and finally…… I’m a big fan of curlews and this stop-motion animation about the iconic, ground nesting bird by children for Nidderdale National Landscape is just adorable. See you next week!
🌼 Thank you for reading edition number 96 of The Northern Eco. This newsletter remains independent, free unless you want to pay, ad-free and proudly reader supported thanks to paying subscribers. The main newsletter is sent out at 7am on a Tuesday and wouldn’t exist without paying subscribers. Please do subscribe to keep it going - I can’t do it without your support. Thanks!