This piece by Laura Barton on the Guardian website is a timely reminder about Government plans for our public forests. Our forests are rich habitats that, like all woodland the world over, need to be managed and preserved not only for the good of some abstract ecological notion, but also because indiscriminate felling or management of them for anything other than their natural value is madness. The Coalition Government has recently announced it is to sell off ALL of our national forests. Not only would this put habitats and wildlife in severe danger, but it wouldn’t even raise very much money - making it all look less like a response to a financial crisis and more like an ideologically-sponsored privatisation; less like selling the family silver, more like putting our back garden up for sale. Anyone who cares about our landscape is strongly urged to join over 116,000 signatories and sign the 38 Degrees petition now - maybe they’ll think again when they see the numbers.

A Happy New Year to all British Landscape Club members, but we’re also celebrating our first birthday as we opened the site on the 1st January last year. We’ve quickly grown to several hundred members, but there’s always room for more and we even still have a couple of hundred of our lovely square ‘founder members’ badges that we’ll happily send anywhere in the UK. To get one click here and send us your details.



In other New Year news, Amazon and The Book Depository are currently offering The Lie of the Land for under half-price as part of their seasonal sales.

Our exclusive Christmas card designs are in the BLC Shop now. Take a look.

We’re delighted to let you know that the first raft of members’ packs, including the badges, are now on their way to BLC members up and down the country. If you haven’t yet given us your details, why don’t you do it now in time for our next mail-out early next week.

Non-members can now join without going through the palaver of subscribing to the members’ newsletter re:view. Just click on Members’ area above and send us your details direct.

Members: We’ve just taken delivery of our lovely “Founding Member” badges which were, apparently, held up in some way by an unpronounceable Icelandic volcano. The irony of the business of the Landscape Club being held back momentarily by the actions of the landscape is not lost on us.

We only have a few hundred of these special “Founding Member” badges and there will be no more printed so if you haven’t already done so, send us your details to get your hands on one. Fill in the Members’ Area form and we’ll put one in the post to you for nothing, along with an exquisitely designed sample chapter from the BLC forthcoming manual, The Lie of the Land.

Non-members: You have to be a member of the British Landscape Club to get a member’s badge, any other way - we think you’ll agree - is madness. Membership - like the badge - is completely free and only requires that you sign-up for our occasional newsletter re:view. All we ever do is send you a link to where you may find it and we never, ever give, sell or otherwise divulge your email address or any other personal details to anyone.

Members: We’re expecting delivery of a few hundred of these lovely badges in the next week or so. If you haven’t sent us your details to get hold of one then fill in the Members’ Area form and we’ll put one in the post to you for free as soon as we get them.

Non-members: You have to be a member of the British Landscape Club to get a member’s badge, any other way - we think you’ll agree - is madness. Membership - like the badge - is completely free and only requires that you sign-up for our occasional newsletter re:view. All we ever do is send you a link to where you may find it and we never, ever give, sell or otherwise divulge your email address or any other personal details to anyone.