Neil wrote:It seems there is more to this than I first imagined and that quite a lot has been going on. With an 'earth slippage' drastic measures will have to take place, but not knowing anything about the area you describe, I can only hope MJ has quietly got in touch with Pete Stevens from Natural England and that he will be contacting you soon.
Neil.
I'm afraid I don't really know what has happened to Pete Stevens of late. After the sad fiasco of the March 2009 Fungus Conservation Forum meeting, which effectively sealed the demise of the FCF, he does seem to have faded from the scene vis-a-vis mycology. If he is active I can't say. I have emailed him several times with a guest invitation to the ABFG AGM on this Sunday, which I had hoped would get him back in the loop, but received no reply to any of those messages. On 13th February I reminded him again, with the comment: 'I do hope I can get you (or someone else from NE if you are busy) to the AGM, because it may amount to quite a defining moment ***.' However, the last communication I had from Pete was early in February asking only if the ABFG could help a research worker in Aberdeen with information on a BAP list species, but this was little more than passing on a message. The only other possibly significant comment from Pete was back in January when he noted that NE 'has not the funding or resources to carry out all of the surveying and monitoring.' This message really seemed to imply that it was 'down to us' at least for the time being.
*** I am delivering a paper on Sunday about the continuing nonsensical situation vis-a-vis the BMS and ABFG, which is not entirely without relevance to the above, and which needs to be resolved in a more intelligent way than is being demonstrated at the moment.
MJ