Female Wildlife Conservationists (past and present)
Emily Williamson, the Victorian woman who co-founded the RSPB.
England has a rich history of wildlife conservation, and many of the forebearers were women, often a time when when they were not even allowed to vote.
Read our posts on creating safe havens for garden birds, and how to stop birds flying into windows.
The RSPB was founded in 1889 by a small group of women activists, campaigning against the feather trade. Back in late Victorian times, the main threat to birds was not climate change or habitat loss, but hat-makers demanding feathers to adorn the tops. This was sending many species (including little Egrets) almost extinct.
The campaign rapidly grew, and soon (a bit like today when shops say they won’t sell fur), hat-makers everywhere were refusing to sell headwear with bird feathers.
Emily Williamson and others founded the society, granted a royal charter in 1904. She invited fellow female conservationists to her home in Didsbury (Manchester) to sign a pledge to wear no feathers, to help her favourite species (the great crested grebe) from being hunted to extinction for its plumage. She called the activities of the hat trade ‘murderous millinery’.
Her letters to the British Ornithologists’ Union were ignored, so this is why she co-founded the RSPB (originally called the ‘Fur, Fin and Feather Folk of Croydon!’ And in 1921, an act was passed to ban the import of exotic bird skins.
Emily and her solicitor husband Robert Wood had no children, so put their energies into a large Alpine garden near their home, which today is Fletcher Moss Park, a haven for local wildlife.
Emily also founded a local training college for nurses to help babies, a Gentlewoman’s employment association and a loan training fund to help fund education for women.
Kate Stephenson (our new ‘Sir David Attenborough?)’
Connections with Nature is a wonderful read, by one of our favourite wildlife bloggers and campaigners. Kate has a first-class English degree, and has used her writing skills for 15 years to help all animals.
She’s made friends with everyone from Sir David Attenborough and Chris Packham to wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan and Queen guitarist Brian May (who campaigns to save badgers).
This is basically an anthology by 50 members of her ‘wildlife crowd’, on a journey to meet the wild. From wondering at the moon (rather than stare at a screen), studying the details of a barn owl feather (along with a 7-year old!) and watching the ‘moorland fairground’ at dusk.
This book shows how entwined we are with the natural world. And you’ll be hooked, once you visit her upbeat and interesting blog.
Kate is a conservationist and campaigner for animal welfare, who is passionate on educating future generations. She was the youngest trustee of Born Free and head of communications at Whitley Fund for Nature.
Professor Nathalie Seddon (your chief ‘besider!’)
Professor Nathalie Seddon is an ecologist who is kind of England’s top conservationist expert, using her science knowledge to work quietly behind the scenes at Oxford University to stop our native species going extinct.
She directs a leadership team for nature recovery and is co-founder of the charity I Stand Beside which encourages everyone to taka small actions, which includes the lovely idea of ‘turning up at your local council’s meeting to ‘speak up on your being’s behalf’ (whether that’s a dog, badger or bird):
We Stand Beside the overlooked and forgotten beings,
The voiceless heroes of our Earth and its miraculous Web of Life.
We empower each other to champion species and form deep connections,
Turning passion into action, through artistic celebration and creative advocacy.
Together we catalyse a positive shift in our relationship with Nature,
Inspiring a global movement of advocates for the flourishing of all life.
This is such a lovely idea. Instead of ‘animal activism’, her take is that other creatures are ‘beings’. And we are their ‘besiders’. Does not that feel more hopeful and empowering?
Trained as an evolutionary ecologist at Cambridge University, she’s an expert on animal communication and biodiversity. Her key passion is how societies might renew cultures of care for the living world.
The statistics for native wildlife in the UK are alarming:
- One in six species is at risk of extinction
- Nightingale populations have declined by 92% since 1970.
- Hedgehog numbers have declined by 50% since 2000.
- Turtle dove populations have decreased by 98% since 1970.
- Common toads have declined by 68% in the last 30 years.
Yet with Natalie on your side (your chief ‘besider!’) there’s a chance that we can save them all. Because if you get stuck, she has the scientific knowledge and resources on the site to fight your case locally.
Lara Jackson (using photography to save the rhinos)
Lara Jackson is a conservationist who uses award-winning wildlife photography to highlight the causes of endangered species worldwide. She is particularly active in campaigns to save critically endangered rhinos, at risk from habitat loss, palm oil and poaching.
Even as a child, Lara would wrap up an injured hedgehog and take it to the local wildlife rescue. And this passion never left her. She studied wildlife conservation at Southampton University and now is at the forefront of helping creatures all over the planet.
Philippa Forrester (stories of wild women)
Wild Woman is an engaging blend of conservation stories and personal humorous anecdotes by TV presenter Philippa Forrester who has chosen to live and work in the wild (wildlife fans will know her from programmes filming otters with her husband Charlie Hamilton-Jones).
In this book, she studies and celebrates women who have chosen to live and work in wild and challenging landscapes.
Relating some of her own experiences (she has a degree in ecology & conservation) from 30 years of travelling to some of the wildest places on earth, she looks how at how women benefit from a life spent in the wilderness, and considers what the natural world gains from them.
And as she explores our relationship with the wild, Philippa contemplates what we expect and need from nature, and ponders why we still feel a pull towards it.
For six years, Philippa lived in Wyoming, encountering wolves, grizzly bears, moose and the odd cowboy. But after returning to live here in summer 2020, she is rediscovering her own patch of wilderness and the joys of the English countryside (especially her favourite wild animal – otters!)
When I see a fox run by, my immediate thought is ‘What’s he up to? Where’s he going?’ Journeys are so much of life.
Philippa Forrester is a TV and radio presenter, producer and writer. She has a degree in ecology and conservation, and works with several wildlife organisations, to promote their work.
