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Tommy's Outdoors: Conservation and Science

I am an outdoorsman, podcaster and speaker. I talk and write about the natural environment, biodiversity, conservation, hunting and fishing, rewilding and more. I am particularly interested in wildlife and human-wildlife interactions. I enjoy reading scientific papers on those subjects as much as being outdoors weathering the elements and getting first-hand experiences.

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Podcast episode cover art for Tommy's Outdoors Conservation and Science featuring a woman with glasses and dark hair pulled back, wearing a black blazer over a white top, smiling while looking downward in an indoor setting. The episode title 'EU Wolf Down
Featured Post

EU Wolves and the Conservation Success Conundrum

Conservation and Science Those of you who have been with me for at least a year will remember that, almost to the day, one year ago I wrote a blog post titled 'Let's Talk About Europe's Wolf Protection Laws'. This was a natural continuation of the topic of lowering the protection status of wolves in the EU that I've been covering from the very beginning. In that blog, I was making the point that there are both good and bad outcomes possible and that the discussion of this topic in the media...

16 days ago • 3 min read
Podcast cover art for Tommy's Outdoors featuring the book 'Just Earth: How a Fairer World Will Save the Planet' by Tony Juniper alongside an author interview. The left side displays the book cover with an illustration of brass scales balancing a tree agai

Conservation and Science When I was reading the book featured in this week's newsletter, two thoughts came to mind. First, this is a great book, albeit slightly depressing, as it lays bare our failure to take care of our environment due (mostly) to greed and misguided values. Second, I would love to make an episode about this book, but knowing the author's profile, he would be unlikely to find the time to come on the show. Please remember that the first is a gross oversimplification and...

about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Podcast cover art for 'Tommy's Outdoors: Conservation and Science' featuring an episode titled 'Bringing Back the Wild'. A smiling man wearing glasses and an olive green shirt sits in front of a wall displaying taxidermy mounts of various wildlife species

Conservation and Science With this episode I'm going back to the roots of the podcast, in a sense. You see, when I started, the show was mostly about outdoor pursuits and the importance of hunters and anglers for conservation. Since then, my views have developed and although I still think that hunters and anglers have a huge role to play in habitat and wildlife conservation, I now see clearly the issues with our approach (I count myself as a member of this group). So when I was approached to...

about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Podcast cover art for 'Tommy's Outdoors Conservation and Science' featuring a split layout with dramatic coastal scenery on the left showing a lighthouse perched atop steep cliff faces at Rathlin Island against a blue sky with white clouds, and a smiling

Conservation and Science The only fair way to start this newsletter is to acknowledge that it is late by a week. As you probably gathered from the last one, written in the airport, stuff happened, hence the delay. This is an unavoidable part of being a solo creator. And speaking of that, I want to thank all of you who support me through 'buy me a coffee', either as one-off support or memberships. This is a great help in what I do. This week, I'm bringing you one of those episodes that has...

about 2 months ago • 3 min read
A promotional image for Tommy's Outdoors podcast episode featuring 'Conservation and Science' with the subtitle 'Snow Leopard Trail'. The image shows a split layout with a presenter (a smiling man with a beard wearing a dark shirt, with elephant artwork v

Conservation and Science I'm writing this newsletter while waiting to board my flight. This is not a typical setting and the circumstances are also not typical and, here I say it, rather suboptimal. So, this newsletter is short and to the point. Our guest today is once again Jonny Hanson, and as you may imagine, that means we're talking once again about the realities and practicalities of coexistence with large carnivores. This time, however, Jonny is bringing us his first short documentary...

3 months ago • 2 min read
A middle-aged man with a bald head sits in front of bookshelves filled with scientific and academic texts in what appears to be a home office or study. He's wearing a dark grey jumper and has a slight smile whilst looking directly at the camera.

Conservation and Science This week, it is my great pleasure to once again bring you my conversation with Alexander Lees. Alex is one of those special people - a walking encyclopaedia on the topic of birds and all things ecological. On top of that, he's an incredibly effective science communicator and an all-round good chap! I definitely encourage you to give him a follow on social media. If social media is useful for anything, it's to pay attention to people like Alex. Oh, and in case you're...

3 months ago • 3 min read
Podcast episode cover art featuring two men in a split-screen format against a green background. On the left, a guest wearing a baseball cap and dark zip-up hoodie sits indoors with framed pictures visible on the wall behind him. On the right, the podcast

Conservation and Science Fair warning folks, this might be a controversial one for some of you. I got in touch with today's guest after a listener contacted me following one of the previous episodes. Shout out to Rod and thank you! In the end, the episode isn't about what Rod had suggested, though I think the topic is no less interesting. While talking to Ryan, I knew we were going to discuss a topic that is highly controversial and one I dealt with back in the day in episode 76. Some people...

4 months ago • 3 min read
Podcast episode cover featuring two men in a split-screen video call format. On the left, a middle-aged man with greying hair and beard wearing a salmon-coloured t-shirt sits in an indoor setting with framed wildlife photographs visible on the wall behind

Conservation and Science The topic of interactions between beavers and salmon was something I wanted to cover for some time. The most interesting aspect for me was that anglers are usually on the side of nature, conservation and restoration. In this case however, anglers were the group who weren't so keen on the return of beavers to British rivers, despite the unequivocal benefits beavers bring to ecosystems. How strange! Sometimes the "boots on the ground" attitude might be the source of...

4 months ago • 2 min read
Podcast cover art featuring two men in a split-screen format against a green background. On the left, a young man with curly brown hair wearing black-rimmed glasses and a light blue shirt, speaking into a microphone with headphones on, positioned in what

Conservation and Science This issue of the newsletter is fully dedicated to the latest episode of the podcast and to the book that sparked the idea for this episode. There are several reasons why I consider this book special. First, the topic, or more precisely, the group of birds this book discusses. It's not a comprehensive, dry, scientific description. You should treat this book like field notes of sorts. I enjoyed reading a book in this format, especially as I've discussed the topic of...

4 months ago • 3 min read
Podcast episode cover art featuring two men in a split-screen video call format. On the left is an older gentleman with white hair and a white beard, wearing a light grey collared shirt and black headphones, smiling warmly against a plain background. On t

Conservation and Science Welcome to the late July edition of my newsletter. An extra warm welcome if you're new here. It's great to see the influx of new subscribers, given it's the middle of holiday season, which is usually characterised by a lull in podcast listenership and viewership. Today we're following on from the topic of land access discussed in episode 202. After that episode was published, a listener wrote in (I always encourage you to simply hit the reply button and share your...

5 months ago • 2 min read