There, we’ve done it. Truth is, we simply couldn’t hold back any longer. We simply had to talk to someone.
While the Countryside Council for Wales continues to prepare for a substantial publishing run on its main website, we’ve decided to engage with the greater ‘conversation’, and launch our first English language blog – ‘The Welsh View’.
The goal? To generate debate and interest around the current issues facing the Welsh environment with other organisations and communities. And people of course – social media is all about the grass-roots after all.
The Countryside Council for Wales new blog, 'The Welsh View'
Hopefully, this will help us open up many of the issues and stories behind the breadth of CCW’s work – from global threats such as climate change to local work to improve opportunities for people to enjoy nature.
Roger Thomas, CCW’s Chief Executive, will blog on a fortnightly basis on a series of topical issues. His first entry looks at whether or not we should continue to have a network of protected areas such as SSSIs, National Parks and so on.
Roger will be joined by other CCW posters, be they scientists, reserve managers or policy and countryside officers. A big thanks already to Phil Newman of Skomer Marine Nature Reserve and a thanks in advance to the other reserve staff who’ll be able to chip in from time-to-time on the activities happening around CCW’s other reserves.
Cameron Edwards, CCW’s Web Editor said:
“Our goal is simply to engage with the people of Wales through this first blog. More and more people want to chat and interact online these days and we see the development of ‘The Welsh View’ as a way of revealing what CCW does on a daily basis, informing the general public, whilst also making CCW more accountable for its decisions. We want to talk to passionate people, stimulate conversation and beg questions of the general public in Wales.”
The blog will also be joined very shortly by its Welsh sibling ‘Ein Golygfa’.
Other than corporate messages from Roger Thomas, ‘The Welsh View’ and ‘Ein Golygfa’ aim to bring you all the online chatter from the halls of CCW in English and Welsh, separately. Though the two blogs will be full siblings, they are not dependant on each other at all – in terms of language, or of content.
Social media is all about fluid publishing and, in freeing up the publishing agenda for both blogs we look forward to examining a different selection of blog topics in each language, independently. ‘Ein Golygfa’ will be with you in the next two-three weeks.
In the meantime, help us make ‘The Welsh View’ a top blog – SUBSCRIBE. You can do this by throwing just a few clicks on the subscribe options at the top of the page, whether you prefer getting your post updates through an RSS reader or through the comfort of your preferred email account.
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Let us know what you think, throw us any ideas you might have – and, above all else, converse, converse, converse. B9CPN5U2FTGD
Are your scenic views down in sunny Wales as good as they are up here in Bonnie Scotland??? I wonder…
It’s great to see CCW news and views appearing in new places on the web and twittersphere – I’ll be following and forwarding with interest!
I have just returned from a holiday to the Scottish Highlands, stopping off on route in here in Wales’s Snowdonia. To compare? I think that all 3 areas provide outstanding scenery (to address Robert’s question on scenic views). The sheer extent of the Highlands is remarkable, as is the ability to get away from restricted access, double yellow lines and general tourist tat. There are now some remarkably good fish restaurants in remote places, and needless to say I was soon dragged into an excellent local ceilidh where I possibly managed to dance with every woman in the village! These experiences – good scenery, good food, and welcoming hospitlity are hard to beat.
But Snowdnia is on my doorstep and within a day’s walk I can enjoy such a huge variety of natural and cultural heritage, in places every bit as spectacular as in the Highlands, but concentrated within a much smaller area. At this time of year the difference in vegetation is very noticable, and I admit to being quite partial to Wales’s landscapes of little cottages, hedgrows and stone walled landscapes, for which we have many. Here I can still get away from it all, but seemingly within just a mile or two – which makes me think that holidaying here in Wales might actually provide most of the benefits and services I am looking for, but without that awful, huge mileage (and travel time) that my Highland trips tend to rack up.