Jo Caird

Writer and farmer Isabella Tree helped kickstart the rewilding revolution in Britain with the publication of her bestselling book 2018, Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm. She has been working with her husband, the conservationist Charlie Burrell, to rewild Knepp, their 3,500-acre estate in Sussex.

Anna Whitehouse, AKA Mother Pukka, is a journalist, radio presenter and bestselling author turned campaigner. Her Flex Appeal movement helped usher in UK government legislation giving workers more flexibility. It comes into force this week, meaning that – from 6 April – employees will be able to request flexible work...

After a long, cold winter, there’s nothing like the sight of a forest floor carpetted in bluebells, or a cherry tree in full bloom to put a spring in your step.
What begins with snowdrops and crocuses in early spring continues with the arrival of daffodils and blackthorn, followed by blue...

Jo Caird explores the dramatic underwater landscape of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, with Photographs by Steve Pretty
Bright blue light filtered down through the hole in the ceiling. I switched my torch off and let myself be pulled gently to and fro by the swell, basking in the otherworldly glow inside the flooded lava tube. The site was El Tubo, a 150m-long tunnel through basalt rock a short zodiac ride from the village of Garachico on Tenerife’s northern coast.
There was too much swell to...

The dodo, a large flightless bird endemic to the small Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, has been extinct since the 17th century. But this poster species for extinction is now one step closer to a return to its island home.
Ambitious plans to bring back the dodo were announced in January 2023, following the news that scientists at the Genomics Institute at the University of California, Santa Cruz had sequenced the dodo’s genome from a DNA sample taken from a museum specimen.
Now Colossal Bios...

His eyes are often wonky, his belly misshaped and his legs bowed. Sometimes his outfit features elaborate detail, and other times it looks as though he may have no outfit at all. But, no matter what shape or size he might come in, nothing gets us in the mood for the holiday season more than the smell of Grittibänz being baked in kitchens across Zurich.
These little bread people, made with sweet dough, have been a traditional part of a Swiss Advent for as long as anyone can remember. At the Lo...

Tree-planting rates in the UK are lagging against government targets, but ambitions remain high. One way to boost figures is to team up with farmers to diversify their land, but what’s the smartest way to do this? We speak to landowners and experts to find out

Forest creation is a slow business. “You plant the trees,” says Leicestershire farmer James Ludlum, “but it’s five years before you’ve realised that you...

By this point of a new year many of us will be reflecting on new year’s resolutions which have turned out to be a roaring success or, alas, fallen by the wayside.
As far as short-term resolutions go, the ‘Dry January’ campaign, which started in 2013, remains popular, as people refrain from alcohol for the first month of the year, perhaps to offset one too many festive sherries!
However, for some, abstaining from alcohol – or reducing the amount they drink – is more of a long-term positive lif...

The most extreme environments on the planet call for some of the most amazing adaptations in the plant world. From the frozen deserts of the polar regions to the scorching sandscapes of Africa, we’re learning ever more about the wonders of desert plant species both tiny and huge, short-lived and slow-growing, widespread and vanishingly rare.
How do desert plants survive?
Various coping mechanisms are used. Acacia trees have long roots that can tap water sources deep below ground, while cacti ...

Fearing the impact of phone use on their children’s mental health, a small Irish town came up with a town-wide, voluntary pact. Eight months on, signs are that it’s working well – and the government is using it as a blueprint
Parents of tweens will likely be aware of the daily battle over when to give their child a smartphone. They are probably forced into discussing it over breakfast, on the school run, at bedtime – after all, no kid wants to be left out if all their friends all have one.
Wh...

As the longest-accredited international school in Switzerland, ZIS’s heritage stretches all the way back to its foundation as the American International School of Zurich (AISZ) in 1963.
From humble beginnings, the school’s focus on delivering exactly what students need from their education means it has developed an outstanding reputation for the quality of its ac...

An ambitious scheme is bringing life back to the heavily industrialised River Trent
Report by Jo Caird
Salmon used to be plentiful in the River Trent. So plentiful, in fact, that in the 1800s, Nottingham apprentices had a clause added to their contracts to specify that their dietary allowance would include salmon not more than twice a week. It was a similar story for lamprey and eels, migratory species that also used to swim up and down the Trent in huge numbers en route to their spawning gro...