Somedays my work is easier than others - for example, as the photograph shows, I have been lounging around in the hammock reading a book - and it is work!
Tomorrow (Wednesday 3rd July) I will be hosting the launch of Alex White's first book. I have known Alex for a few years now ... he is 16 and he has a book published. By all accounts that should make me seethe with jealousy - so damn talented - a great book to inspire and inform - his photographs throughout as well - it will be something for young people to treasure ... if only I had been that good 36 years ago!
Get Your Boots On is a primer for nature watching in the UK. Accessibly written, chatty, lots of comments from other nature lovers and well illustrated - it takes the mystery out of nature watching. And it encourages all of us (not just the young) to stop being afraid of what others might think of our passion.
And it got me thinking - there is no age box on this petition or on the Facebook group - so I do not know how old people are. But I am guessing that most contributors to the petition and to FB are of the more mature disposition.
It is great that we have people who care - but I worry about the younger generation - as Alex does in his book. When there are the competing demands of school, computer games and social media, how can an innate love of nature get a look in?
So this post is a call out for ideas - I find hedgehogs brilliant at engaging primary school children - but it is harder in secondary. Just the other week I did hedgehog talks at both a primary school and year 8 of a secondary. The younger kids were enthralled - the older ones, well, you could see the influence of a few 'cool' kids who just did not care over the majority who were not sure. It was only at the end when those who wanted to ask more questions were told to hang around that I was reminded of me as a kid ... the passion for knowledge about wildlife.
What can we do? How can we use hedgehogs (there are other species too, I do know!) to win over the hearts and minds of younger people - to get them to understand that without a healthy ecosystem we are all doomed? Would the idea of a GCSE in Natural History help? Do you find hope in movements like the School Strike for Climate? Or Extinction Rebellion? Because if we do not create a dramatic change, all the hedgehog holes in the world are not going to solve the problems we will face ...
Before I go - I will abuse my position again - for another proud dad moment - my daughter, Mati, has written her first feature - and it is published in the BBC Wildlife Magazine, coming out this Thursday (4th July). It is about her experiences at the School Strike. I am doubly thrilled as it was the BBC Wildlife Magazine that let me write my first feature for them in 1993 .... when I was 27 ... again - damn youngsters making me feel old and inadequate!