FROM WILD JUSTICE — THE NEWSLETTER IS FULL OF INFORMATION & WORTH A READ

Good morning! In today's newsletter; a new look for our website, a campaign to stop a Sitka plantation, a petition to help save local wildlife, an interesting podcast, and a consultation on a trail hunting ban. A new look for Wild Justice! When Wild Justice started in 2019, one of the first tasks on our list was to create a website. This website became a place lots of you will have visited, hopefully to read our blog, updates on our cases, and when possible, donate to support our work. But you might have noticed it was starting to look a little old-fashioned (times change) and was becoming a bit clunky and creaky. We’re pleased to tell you that if you head to wildjustice.org.uk today, you’ll see a brand new website. All of our old blogs and news articles are still there, sorted by category and date (and searchable), everything just looks a bit slicker (we think, at least). You’ll notice there are some new pages covering various subjects on which Wild Justice campaigns. Here we will provide some background information on a range of issues, from driven grouse shooting to Badger culling. We’ll also lay out our stance on different topics, and link this to the work Wild Justice carries out. Watch this space – we’ll be adding more content in the coming weeks and months! The website is a work in progress, so we'll also be updating our donations page and other content there soon. Please bear with us as we iron out any remaining creases! Heads up on a crowd-funder – save a wildlife-rich part of Scotland from Sitka Spruce plantation: We like seeing other groups and campaigns taking the fight for wildlife to the courts, and we’ve been impressed at how well this challenge by Restore Nature Ltd is going in Scotland. The group are campaigning to protect an area called Todrig, which is at risk of becoming yet another Sitka Spruce plantation. Mature Sitka Spruce plantation Photo: A mature forestry plantation in Scotland They’ve already had some success, recently managing to get one decision by Scottish Forestry (SF) legally cancelled. SF had decided the site didn’t need an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA); it was suspiciously ‘screened out’ months before the public had any chance for input into plans for the area. The cancellation of this decision is good news, however Restore Nature Ltd still need more funds to see this through to the bitter end, and ensure that a comprehensive EIA takes place. This is a small group standing up against the deep pockets of a government quango, spurred on by hedge fund backers. It looks like a tenacious fight worth supporting if you are interested in the preservation of remote wild landscapes. Please donate to support their crowd-funder - click here. A petition for you to sign, to help wildlife including toads Basingstoke, in Hampshire, is facing a threat to its biodiversity that mirrors what many of us are witnessing across England. You might not think of Basingstoke as a wildlife stronghold, but the town and its surrounding countryside supports a remarkable range of species and habitats. Ancient woodlands, chalk streams, populations of Hazel Dormouse and Great Crested Newt, and nationally significant migrations of Common Toads all exist within and around the borough. Photo of Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin at a Toad patrol held by Natural Basingstoke Photo: Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin at a Toad patrol held by Natural Basingstoke This biodiversity is now under serious pressure from a government-imposed requirement for 17,000 new homes over the next five years - development that, if poorly located, could cause irreversible damage to these habitats. The timing of this pressure coincides with a critical moment in local planning. Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council is currently drafting a new Local Plan, and there is a genuine opportunity to influence its content before it is finalised. Natural Basingstoke, a local conservation charity supported by the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, has produced a detailed proposal centered on Cufaude Lane that would establish a nature reserve and Green Corridor, offering a practical framework for protecting the northern fringe of the town from the worst impacts of urban expansion. To gather support for these proposals, Natural Basingstoke have started a petition. It calls for the Council to adopt stronger environmental protections within the Local Plan, including robust biodiversity net gain requirements and the integration of Hampshire's Local Nature Recovery Strategy into planning policy. The decisions made in the coming months will determine what remains of Basingstoke's natural environment for the long term. This petition is one way to ensure that wildlife interests are given proper weight in that process – please take the time to sign it by clicking here. Something for you to listen to: The world of planning can be technical and somewhat dry-sounding, but it is undoubtedly very important when it comes to outcomes for wildlife. We’d like to point you to a recent episode of this podcast – ‘Have we got planning news for you?’ – in which Wild Justice gets at least two shout outs. In it, barristers from the planning world interview Richard Benwell, Chief Executive at Wildlife & Countryside Link. You can listen to it by clicking here. Take part in a public consultation on how to implement a ban on so-called trail hunting Last week the UK Government announced a public consultation on how to implement a ban on so-called trail hunting - see here. Trail hunting is supposed to be a substitute for Fox hunting (which was banned under the Hunting Act 2004 by the previous Labour government) where hounds follow an artificial scent trail laid by humans. However, there has been significant evidence that trail hunting has been used by many hunts to conceal or provide plausible deniability for Fox hunting, leading to Labour’s election manifesto commitment to ban it. We welcome this consultation, which is open until 18 June 2026, and we’d encourage you to participate. Our friends at the League Against Cruel Sports, one of many organisations who have campaigned on this issue for years, have produced a helpful question-by-question guide for those wanting to take part - click here to respond. Coming on Monday – consultation guidance for Woodcock and more! Last week we told you about another new consultation from the government, which includes proposals for modifying the shooting seasons for several species of bird, including Woodcock. We’ve spent the last week formulating our own response, on a species-by-species basis, as well as pulling together some guidance to help you respond to the consultation yourselves. We’ll be sending this out on Monday, so please keep an eye out, and set aside some time to respond if you can. Thank you! This is the 265th Wild Justice newsletter. This email was sent to you because you subscribed to it through the Wild Justice website or through an e-action or a petition where you ticked a box. Thank you. We will only use your personal details to send you the Wild Justice newsletter. We will not give or sell your details to anyone else. You can unsubscribe at any time: there is an unsubscribe button at the foot of this email or you can reply to this email and ask us to remove you from the list (the former will happen immediately, the latter might take a few days). 124, City Road London Greater London EC1V 2NX UNITED KINGDOM Unsubscribe | Change Subscriber Options