That's the message we are trying to get across to politicians ahead of the decisions on spending cuts which will be announced in October.
We are taking that message to decision-makers in lots of ways, but this week we have taken the message to the constituencies of the Secretary of State for Defra, Caroline Spelman, who has the difficult task of making the cuts demanded by The Treasury, Oliver Letwin who is a member of the Star Chamber which will decide the cuts (and who is generally sympathetic to the environment) and to the Chancellor, George Osborne, who probably has the biggest say in all of this.
Local farmers have enthusiastically allowed us to put up placards in their fields, there are cycles travelling around with signs, helium balloons, banners over the M6 and being unfurled from windows and lots of other things!
Here (below) is an example of a banner - this one on the roof of our visitor centre at Radipole!
In addition, we have placed adverts like the one above in publications as diverse as Private Eye, the Times and Guardian, the Spectator and elsewhere.
A placard never saved a skylark - but a campaign can! Add your voice to those of over 270,000 others in our Letter to the Future campaign.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Hi Mark at the moment find it hard what to think as I dislike cuts just as much as anyone but somehow I feel we will all have to have our share of cuts simply because of the last Governments wasteful way of catching votes by dishing money out left right and centre.Find it obscene that we now have candidates for Labour leadership who held high positions in Government and backed all Gordon Browns decisions now saying lots of things he did was wrong,where are their morals,cannot really say what I think as you would obviously be unable to print it.Personally my priorities would be no cuts on Heath and Education and on lots of other things we shall have to become more efficient as after all reports state that workers only spend 50% of working hours actually working so plenty of room there for being more efficient and that figure of £78,000 debt of every person in U K reported in Telegraph is horrendous as presumably includes children.That will take some special effort to pay off.
Did you take the chance while in Somerset to see the Cranes?.Cannot wait to have a go at seeing them even if Sweep has to be chauffeur but she will be as keen as me anyway.
I have a lot of thinking to do about wildlife cuts as perhaps in most cases we shall have to volunteer for more things.Contentious issue I know but find the amount of bird ringing just as a excuse for handling birds to get a buzz from it is probably doing more harm than good as most birds we now know the basics and I am far from convinced that netting and the stress they suffer often just before migration is fair on the birds,seems ringers often take helpers with no experience.