Inspiration.

This morning Nigel and myself took a trip to the Hancock, oh alright, the Great North, Museum, to attend the ERIC [Environmental Records Information Centre] conference. There were eight short talks, refreshments half way and a buffet lunch at the end, all for free, what's not to like !

All of the speakers were interesting with seven of them being professional ecologists and the like, however, my favourite was the only amateur in the line up, Pat Robson. She discussed her particular project, the environmental side of a village atlas production at Hetton le Hole in county Durham.  Her investigations into the biodiversity of her village has lead on to other conservation matters such as challenges to planning applications that are placing habitats at risk, and reporting pollution incidents in her local water sources. She is now quite into the River Fly project, studying the invertebrate life of her small streams and local nature reserves.

It is this type of thing that should inspire us, as amateurs, to get out and enjoy what we do and if possible, try to help the environment in some way, no matter how small.

It was nice to attend such a varied and friendly event like this. There were about a hundred attendees, and all seemed to enjoy it.

I am looking forward to next year's already!