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Helen Baczkowska

@helenb92.bsky.social
226 followers 85 following 228 posts

Ecologist, environmental activist and writer, fascinated by the many lives of Britain's common lands. My first book Twyford Rising, is a story of land and resistance. Find out more on: helenbaczkowska.com

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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
James Bullock @jmbecologist.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Many talk about ecological complexity, but is the concept useful in practice? Our new paper shows complexity is measurable in the field & can be restored But it isn’t reducible to simple indicators - we must measure multiple ecosystem properties besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Drivers of complexity in ecosystem restoration
This study shows that ecological complexity is empirically measurable, and its development in restoration can be influenced by key variables, which have mechanistic underpinnings. The foundational ro...
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
National Trust @nationaltrust.org.uk · 11/05/2026
"It’s a bit of a sanctuary" This is Fallowlees Farm – a welcoming, safe space on the Wallington estate in Northumberland - is run by West End Women & Girls Centre. The farm gives 1300 women and girls from Newcastle’s West End space to grow, learn new skills and spend time outdoors.
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‘Be happy! Life is too short.’ This women’s-only farm is changing lives in Newcastle
Have you and your mates ever dreamed of having a farm? Well, that’s exactly what these women did. Fallowlees Farm in Northumberland is full of laughs, but it’s also SO much more than that. Hufty,…
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Another ghost common, this one from @oldmutter.bsky.social. i love that the landscape & habitat still echo the lost common.
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Great film that looks at clear air, water, soils and more as global commons - to be protected and not enclosed and commodified. 200 years ago poet John Clare wrote 'when profit gets his clutches in, there's nothing he will spare'. Yep. #filmsforaction www.filmsforaction.org/watch/the-co...
filmsforaction.org
The Commons: Reclaiming What Is Ours (2019) Full Documentary
110 minutes | The Commons is a documentary film about communities re-asserting sustainable futures using consensus, equity and shared resources – ancient Commons principles. The film explores increasi...
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
There are ghosts of common land all over the English landscape - here are some I have encountered. Where are yours? #commonland #righttoroam #openspacessociety open.substack.com/pub/commonpl...
open.substack.com
Lark Rise and other ghosts
A common land year, April
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
Landworkers' Alliance @landworkersuk.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
A Land Use Framework for England: What do we need next? Our 2025 report ‘Share The Land’ found that the UK could produce the majority of its food at home through an agroecological land-sharing approach. Read more in the article below: tinyurl.com/2sbrk52a
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
Lesley @lesleyjgrahame.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
I’ve just emailed energy secretary Ed Miliband asking him to send the frackers packing, for good. We need a full fracking ban in England and existing loopholes closed. There’s a short window to act – get involved! foe.uk/79uit @friends-earth.bsky.social
foe.uk
Ed Miliband: send the frackers packing for good
Fracking in England isn’t over − yet. Right now, there’s a temporary ban on fracking. But it’s not written into law, and loopholes mean so-called low-volume fracking could still go ahead. This leaves ...
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Dusk, bird song and a touching encounter with a rescued pony.... open.substack.com/pub/commonpl...
open.substack.com
The running man and the pony.
At New Year, I took on the care of two ponies.
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
I don't know where the ravens near me are nesting, but just pass dawn they fly over, croaking a bass note to the treble of the song thrush.
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
joelcaresalot.bsky.social @joelcaresalot.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Find out more and buy tickets here and please share: www.tickettailor.com/events/joele... @sarahsteinlubrano.bsky.social
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
The latest instalment of my year looking at Britain's common lands; this time a March trip across the Fens, and nature lost and found at John Clare's Swaddy Well. #commonland #JohnClare #TheFens substack.com/@commonplace...
substack.com
A common land year, March
At Swaddy Well
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
Really loving today's glut of flower photos - all that spring life and colour!
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
Just opening their pale yellow loveliness on my local common too.
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
Jane Wisbey @janewisbey.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
A whole frame full of wildflowers for #wildflowerhour: dandelions, red dead-nettle, speedwell, shepherd’s purse, common chickweed and hairy bittercress. Yesterday in a Gloucestershire field.
A patch of low-growing wildflowers in a grassy field: four dandelions, red dead-nettle, speedwell, shepherd’s purse, common chickweed and hairy bittercress.
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
The Scottish Ornithologists' Club @scottishbirding.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
DucklingWatch The DucklingWatch citizen science project, led by Hannah Coburn at the University of Essex, returns for its second year. Submitting your records of Mallard ducklings will help improve understanding of duckling survival rates and drivers of population trends.
DucklingWatch poster. The information displayed on the poster can be found at citsci.org/projects/ducklingwatch
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Caught by the River @caughtbytheriver.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Just announced: our annual Day Out in Sussex, taking place on 2nd May. Now in its 5th year, it is a unique day of talks, music, food and beer spread across the Downland village of Kingston, a few miles from both Lewes and Brighton. Full details and tickets: www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/03/caug...
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
Claire Laila Dines @freedomtodoubt.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Fabulously well done Tir Natur, spreading nature far and wide 👏👏👏
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Been away from social media awhile, travelling Welsh lanes the slow, old way. Sunshine and wind, kite call and raven, gorse flowers and the first white flowers of greater stitchwort in the clawdd (banks). The horses are Roger on the right and Gwen of the fine backside on the left. And breathe.
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
IPBES @ipbes.net · 15/03/2026
The landmark IPBES Business and Biodiversity Report found that global economic growth occurs at the expense of biodiversity, the loss of which poses a critical, systemic risk to the economy & human wellbeing. 🎥 Watch this short video to learn more. 🔗 www.ipbes.net/bba-report/media-rele…
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Yesterday, I stood silently with Norwich Women in Black - part of a global movement opposing war and promoting justice. I was distracted by goldfinches singing in a city centre tree, prompting me to write about the ecological impacts of war. open.substack.com/pub/commonpl... #WomenInBlack
open.substack.com
The nature of war
Saturday was one of those spring days when the sunshine is warm, but the shadows are still winter cold.
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Good to find this on my thread....my 2 years of fatigue after a fairly mild bout of covid are easing. But still no real sense of smell or of taste, which is more distressing that it sounds! It has robbed me of much interest in food and changing gas bottles is more dangerous than ever!
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
James Bullock @jmbecologist.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
My letter in the Guardian countering an article by a pro-growth lobbyist from Britain Remade attacking environmental legislation “Ecologists & conservationists would be surprised by his claim that the UK doesn’t & never will build enough to drive nature loss” 1/2 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
We must protect our natural habitats before they disappear | Letters
Letters: Readers respond to Sam Dumitriu’s article on protecting Britain’s environment
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
I am interested in creating a genetically engineered mammoth - I just want us to spend our efforts on a world where the primrose and cowslip can thrive; where bats are cherished and safe, where toads call from their ancestral ponds and old woods slumber on without threat.
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
Caught by the River @caughtbytheriver.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
A great but undervalued collection of nature poems by Ted Hughes was reissued by Faber this week (illustrated by Leonard Baskin). Tim Dee thinks it contains some of the best of Hughes 🦗 www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/03/flow... Image: Leonard Baskin, Grasshopper © Leonard Baskin Art Trust, 1985
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Bat Conservation Trust @batconservation.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Bats play vital roles in the ecosystem we all rely on, beyond that it's worth remembering Sir David Attenborough's powerful words about the natural world: "It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.” www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/w...
bats.org.uk
Why bats matter - About Bats - Bat Conservation Trust
Bats matter across the UK and around the world. Bat species play a vital role in ecosystems, from agricultural land to tropical forests. They pollinate ...
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
Dorset Wildlife Trust @dorsetwildlife.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Happy Mother's Day to all of the wild mums out there! 💚🙌 ~ Jack 📷 Jo Hackman Photography
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
Natalie Bennett @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
#GoodNews: Slowly we are starting to get a handle on agroecological management of #biodiversity www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Why have longhorn cows been spotted at seaside on Sefton Coast?
A herd of English longhorn cows have moved to pastures new along the coast on Merseyside.
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
Abilu Tangwa. @abilutangwa.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
We are watching climate change accelerate in real time: Wars Deforestation Pollution And our leaders? They wage full-scale war on the very environment that keeps us alive — with zero remorse. The house is on fire and they’re busy arguing about the curtains.
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
I love posts like this, giving me a little insight into a place and its lives. Send me more! Here in the flatlands, fieldfare and redwing are still moving north, but small waves of chiffchaffs are arriving in their wake.
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
I had an interesting discussion in Wales last year, with someone who told me that the land there was especially sacred, as signified by all the standing stones. But, I said, was not all land sacred once, and in places without rocks (like the Fens), other signifiers were used? Feel free to discuss!
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
Patrick Barkham @patrickbarkham.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Vital story by my colleague Helena Horton – about the number of people who don't live within a 15-min walk of green space. Freely accessible, wildlife-rich green space should be a modern-day human right! And good govts should see it as a public health essential. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Analysis finds urban areas in England where no one lives within 15-minute walk of nature
Government says it is working to solve ‘postcode lottery’ of access to green or blue spaces
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
Lovely write up of the memorial for the wonderful Romain Roch, who died in January, aged 22..poet, anarchist, lover of the wild and one of the kindest people I have ever met. In these shattered times, love and kindest are radical and necessary.
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
Iain Robinson 🌳 @iainrobinson.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
“The report warns that multiple ecosystem collapses are now likely, not merely hypothetical. These failures, it states, will have “dire implications” for national security and will require serious strategic adaptation merely to limit the damage.” eastangliabylines.co.uk/opinion/a-su...
eastangliabylines.co.uk
A suppressed warning finally appears: ecosystem collapse as a national security threat
A government report on the national security implications of ecosystem collapse is finally out, and it’s even more shocking than feared
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
Jon Dunn @dunnjons.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Gannets are fabulous. But they've had it tough lately. Marine pollution's a constant problem, and avian influenza hit them hard. The last thing they need is an annual hunt, even a small one in the name of tradition. Please consider signing to stop the hunt: petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE...
Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) dying of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenze (HPAI). Once contracted, this disease invariably proved fatal for Gannets, and in 2022 ripped through Britain's breeding population, killing countless thousands of birds. Image © Jon Dunn
Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) gathering marine waste to line its nest. This can have fatal consequences when birds entangle in plastic or nylon. Image © Jon Dunn
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Martin Brown @martinbr.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Hazel - a tree of wisdom and inspiration, that gives joy with early catkins - one of the very first pollen sources of the year and a lifeline for queen bumblebees now emerging from hibernation. #Wildflowerhour @wildflowerhour.bsky.social
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Yesterday we planted 2 oak trees in memory of Romain Roch (poet, anarchist, friend & more) who died a month ago aged 22. We read one of his poems, the words seeming all the more important hearing this morning news from Iran: 'Grow your heart to the size of the world.'
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Looking forward to this!
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Reposted by Helen Baczkowska
Alex Prendergast @bramblebotanist.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Blackthorn! No it’s Cherry Plum! No it’s Blackthorn! Sort it out. Cherry Plum has green twigs, no thorns, reflexed sepals and flowers now. And is pretty gorgeous. Blackthorn equally so but in a few weeks #Wildflowerhour
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Adding this to what we in my family call twitchy trees...those that clearly get up at night and move about a bit.
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
I first heard this as a teenager, when we lived in fear of a nuclear war. It was 20 years old then. And still rings true.
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Plantlife @plantlifeuk.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
We’re telling the Government to put an end to peat sales now! 📢 The destruction of peatlands has got to stop! We've handed in a petition with 16,000 signatures, calling for the government to ban peat sales in 2026.⚠️ Read more👇 loom.ly/KMRiz34 & email your MP to support
Campaigners, overlooking Parliament in London, holding placards calling for an end to peat sales Five people in front of No 10 Downing Street holding a petition boxPerson in a bog costume with a box holding 16,742 signaturesCampaigners, overlooking Parliament in London, holding placards calling for an end to peat sales
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James Emerson @norwichbirder.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Wheatfen reserve needs a new warden! Details of the job and how to apply can be found here: wheatfen.org/about-us/car...
wheatfen.org
Careers | Wheatfen Nature Reserve | Broads National Park
Discover careers and job opportunities working in the great outdoors at Wheatfen Nature Reserve.
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Increasingly feel that actual ecologists are often overlooked in so much decision making. Species rich grasslands are crucial for nature, and so rare now.
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Nick Acheson @themarshtit.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
In celebration of Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s centenary, our friends The Book Hive have curated 10 years of my Norfolk Magazine columns - & words from other Norfolk authors - into This Wild Dream. Details of the book and events at www.thebookhive.co.uk/product/this... ALL profits go to NWT & nature.
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Years ago I wrote an action plan for this fickle fungus, nice to see it still popping up in odd spots!
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Caught by the River @caughtbytheriver.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
As persecution of wildlife becomes increasingly culturally embedded, Contributing Editor Tallulah Brennan urges us to side with the newts and microscopic snails for a chance at a richer life 🐌 www.caughtbytheriver.net/2026/02/shad...
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
Escaped sheep, nuclear warheads, fractured memories of road protests and this year's damp February days. Just part of the many lives of Britain's common lands open.substack.com/pub/commonpl... helenbaczkowska.com
open.substack.com
A common land year,
Exploring the many lives of Britain's common lands.
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Helen Baczkowska @helenb92.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
'There's no common land left in England', someone told me once - there is and it is still being fought over. @patrickbarkham.bsky.social shows how vulnerable commons can still be. Enclosure for development this time - always about profits from land. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
‘It’s now or never’: Tunbridge Wells residents race to save commons from developers
Campaign launched amid fears land in heart of Kent town that has been put up for sale could be turned into flats
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Prof Frank McDonough @fxmc1957.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
FACT OF THE DAY. 21 February 1946. Aneurin Bevan announced the Labour Government’s proposals for a National Health Service. The service began on 5 July 1948. Its introduction represented one of the greatest social reforms in British History which helped every citizen.
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Helen Day @lbflyawayhome.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
“After the snow has melted, western winds have brought mild weather, and when the sun shines many signs of springtime appear” Writer: EL Grant Watson Artist: CF Tunnicliffe ‘What to Look for in Winter, 1959’
Two partridges are visible on the rough hillside. Overhead a sparrow flies holding a feather to line its nest.
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