I am a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and I am hoping to carry out some research into why individuals record and report on natural phenomena. I am interested in how we should account for biodiversity and have recently written a chapter in a book edited by Professor Mike Jones entitled Accounting for Biodiversity. Basically I think nature is under threat from mankinds activities and somehow humans have become detached from nature. I also think the only way to protect nature is to reawaken our links with her and I am proposing that one way is via a public account. By account I mean an ongoing, interactive display or presentation of the local ecology in every community, further I think the best way to start with building this idea is via local recorders, reporters, writers and artists. I hope to gain insights into why people record and report and also ask them whether they would they contribute to a public account in their community.
To this end I hope to contact and interview a number of recorders in the Stalybridge and Mossley area to see how they would feel about contributing to such an account. I intend to send messages via this website and I hope the recipients will not feel this is intrusive. Please accept my apologies in advance should you feel this way, I can only hope you realise my intentions are in the best possible cause, the protection of wildlife and birds in particular.
On a more personal note whilst I have been an accountant for over thirty years I have been interested in natural history for over fifty years. I am 60 years old and am sad at the way we are losing so much of our biodiversity. There were tree sparrows in Dukinfield when I first became interested in nature (1961ish). And where are the Golden Plovers and Ring Ousels I used to see on the moors above Carrbrook (1977)? That said I remember my first sightings of Canada Goose and Stonechat at Dovestones that same year.