It's traditional to reflect over the year as December limps towards its conclusion,, and who am I to defy tradition?
January started with a focus on farming and it remained one of 2013's big themes. The others being aviation and wildflowers.
The thread that ran ... and continues to run ... throughout is the scary decline of our wildlife. Nature is vanishing and if Dr Who existed, he'd be alarmed for all humanity and would be frantically waving his sonic screwdriver around.
There was great support for the Big Garden Birdwatch 2013 and I enjoyed wandering round the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, accompanied by veterans from the fighting in the middle east who are still learning how to come to terms with their experiences. The healing power of nature is helping, but only time and support will help them feel whole. The same is true of the natural world. It is damaged and needs time and space to heal, not more damage inflicted upon it.
In February, Prime Minister David Cameron delivered what we called a "regressive deal" for wildlife from Europe. As the figurehead of "the greenest Government ever", he had to rely on others to try to deliver for nature. Communities and local government minister Eric Pickles told an RSPB organised conference that he wanted to hear people's views on developments to ensure projects "..are good on the ground and good for the environment, because that is good for business". I applauded loudly. I'm still waiting for proof that this approach is being followed. Decisions on major schemes such as aviation expansion, High Speed rail, new crossings for the Thames and clarity on the requirements placed on farmers to manage our landscapes have all been delayed; mostly until after we (electors) can pass judgement on ministers performance by voting in the next elections.
As spring sprang, we started to hear back from people we'd sent wildflower seeds to the previous year. Poppies, cornflowers and sunflowers were blooming. Not everyone had a garden so they'd found other places to sow their seeds, like Jan Buffoni who sent this image of her parents and sisters' grave in Finchley.
The wildflowers were part of a project to increase wildlife in London. The nectar supports pollinators and the stems are home to all sorts of bugs and minibeasts, restocking nature's larder for birds, hedgehogs and other critters further up the food chain. Our capital city is Europe's greenest, but we're still losing wildlife at a dizzyingly frantic rate. It wasn't until late April that the weather brightened-up enough for me to mow my small lawn at home. It was at this point that the RSPB and others published a forensic report into the paucity of economic benefits that expanding aviation will bring.
The following month in May, the Government's own Transport Select Committee wrote off Mayor Boris Johnson's idea of building an airport in the Thames Estuary, the seventh such report to reach the same conclusion since 1946. There's now an eighth as Sir Howard Davies has also written it off as too environmentally damaging and expensive. But, like an unwelcome bad odour in a music festival portaloo, it remains hanging in the air. It appears to be anchored there by the sheer chutzpah of Boris Johnson's weighty personality and the knife-edge survival of politicians who'd loudly voiced opposition to the alternatives.
One pollinator which had been extinct in our countryside was reintroduced on our Dungeness nature reserve. Short-haired bumblebees are now breeding, supported by the creation of wildflower meadows.
Landscape scale management is becoming a speciality of ours. Material excavated from beneath London for the Crossrail tunnels is shipped down the Thames to Wallasea, where a reclaimed island is being reshaped and reborn as part of the big and beautiful Thames Estuary. Further south and west near Portsmouth, we're also creating another natural wonder at Medmerry. Both schemes are designed to add extra and much needed protection from flooding, as the year also brought record-breaking storms. In East Anglia, we're still repairing the extensive damage from the last one.
August saw the birth of a new RSPB initiative to try to reunite people with nature. Our Big Wild Sleepout was a great success, but many said they'd like the chance to participate in warmer times, so in 2014, we'll see the Sleepout earlier. Start thinking about your camp site NOW!
The pressure on nature didn't let-up in 2013. We and many others invested huge effort in lobbying minsiters, so they fought back with plans to curb our right to lobby them. Spurring us on was the publication of the State of Nature, which revealed 60% of all UK wildlife is in decline. That's common and garden stuff like hedgehogs, sparrows and even the fish in our rivers. Diseases, pests and land management also threaten many woodlands, plants and habitats.
A man called Bond stirred and shook us in October with the release of his film, Project Wildthing. David Bond revealed how the majority of people struggle to name birds and trees and live lives disconnected from the natural world that supports us all. You'd be forgiven for thinking we fear that other world as the few environmental stories that make it to the media involve violence. The final quarter of 2013 saw pigeons shot dead and dumped in a Kentish Town street, a duck shot with a crossbow in Hackney's Springfield Park and a Canada Goose injured by a crossbow bolt in Victoria Park this December.
2013 was a tough year, but saw conservationistsa draw lines in the sand. Record losses of wildlife, shrinking budgets to support nature and the whittling away of legislation to protect it. What was previously missing was an annual MOT to show defects, faults and damage. Conservationists have come together and we now have the checklists we need to issue a certificate of road-worthiness, Laws to enforce it all DO exist, such as the agreement on reducing carbon emissions. 2014 will see that evidence refreshed and pursued, because I'm certain action is not just necessary, it's now overdue.