Celebrity gardener Charlie Dimmock is urging British gardeners to help stop the spread of potentially dangerous and highly invasive aquatic plants.

The broadcaster joined Defra and the Scottish Government to champion the Be Plant Wise campaign, which highlights the spread of plants such as the fast-growing New Zealand pigmyweed, water primrose or water fern.

Many of the plants form dense mats on the water that looks like dry land, making the danger of drowning very real for people and livestock.

Gardeners can unwittingly exacerbate the problem of invasive species by disposing of unwanted pond plants without composting them properly, or throwing out pond or fish tank water incorrectly.

'Ponds and rivers give us a bounty of amazing wildlife, but sometimes the balance can be upset, harming our natural biodiversity,' said Ms Dimmock.

'Pond-lovers, like me, must all play our part in making sure invasive aquatic plants don't cause serious damage to our beautiful waterways.'

Pond owners are advised to:

• Pick plants that are right for the pond, and choose non-invasive species where possible.
• Manage plants carefully.
• Compost carefully and ensure the whole plant is disposed of properly.
• Dispose of waste pond or fish tank water away from streams, rivers, ponds or lakes.

Natural Environment Minister Huw Irranca-Davies - who launched the campaign on Wednesday, February 24 - warned that Britain's waterways were being 'invaded'.

'We all know about grey squirrels and Japanese knotweed,' he said. 'But how many people know that invasive aquatic plants can out-compete native species, choke waterways, harm native wildlife, disrupt the navigation of boats, and interfere with recreational activities such as fishing and boating?'

The minister also pointed out that even accidentally introducing invasive species into the wild could result in prosecution.

For more information, visit www.direct.gov.uk/beplantwise for England, or www.scotland.gov.uk/beplantwise for information in Scotland.

Yorkshire-grown rhubarb will join the ranks of Champagne and Parma ham on a list of Europe's specially protected food and drink.

The vegetable has been awarded Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status by the European Commission's Protected Food Name scheme, after it was recommended by Defra. The status provides protection of food names on a geographical or traditional recipe basis.

Yorkshire forced rhubarb is grown and harvested by candlelight in an area known as the Rhubarb Triangle, located between Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds. Growers use unique and traditional methods that result in a sweet, tender, pink rhubarb.

Chief executive of the Regional Food Group for Yorkshire and Humber (RFG), Jonathan Knight, said it was a great achievement for the region.

'Patience, persistence and a lot of effort on all parts has culminated in a fantastic result, which will help to confirm the unique Yorkshire rhubarb triangle as the home of forced rhubarb,' he said.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said he was very happy the rhubarb had gained the status, but said he wanted to see more British products get it.

'I was really pleased to meet Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb growers at Defra's Christmas market, which showcased many excellent products from all over Britain,' he said.

'I'm very happy that their hard work has paid off.'

Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb is the 41st British product to be added to the list of legally protected names, joining the likes of Swaledale Cheese, Melton Mowbray pork pies, West Country farmhouse Cheddar and Cornish sardines.

Farmers are happy to sit at the same table as the government - but it must not dump regulation on the plates of those in the industry, and then charge for the privilege.

That was according to NFU president Peter Kendall, who made the comments at the NFU's two-day Annual General Meeting in Birmingham.

During his opening speech on Tuesday, February 23, Mr Kendall said he understood Defra had a responsibility to ensure public value for money, but added it could not use farming as a way to claw back poorly spent money.

'The recent National Audit Office report talks about [Defra] having 'scant regard...for the proper management of public funds',' he told the conference.

He pointed out that the cost of administering each Single Payment Scheme (SPS) claim in England was £1,740, but in Scotland it is £285.

Mr Kendall also said that he believed TB would be a 'major factor' in how rural communities voted in the forthcoming general election, and challenged the main political parties to outline how they intended to deal with the disease.

He also told farmers that consumers could be the strongest allies they had, therefore they had to put them first. According to a recent survey by food and grocery experts IGD, the amount of shoppers actively seeking local food had doubled since 2006.

'We'd be making a big mistake if we failed to tap into that,' the president continued.

He also thanked Defra for championing the new grocery ombudsman that is currently being established by the government. However, he pledged that the NFU would work to ensure the body was 'a pro-active enforcer with real teeth'.

NFU president Peter Kendall has been re-elected for a third term after securing more than three quarters of the vote from NFU Council members.

Meurig Raymond was also re-elected as deputy president for a third term; with dairy board chairman Gwyn Jones being elected as vice-president for the first time. The new office holders will serve for two years.

NFU president Peter Kendall said he was pleased to be working with Meurig for another term, and welcomed Gwyn to the team.

'As this year's conference has demonstrated productive agriculture is at the heart of the political agenda,' he continued.

'It will be our job to ensure the next government fully understands how farming can deliver both the food we need and protect our environment.'

Speaking after the elections, acting NFU director general Martin Haworth said it was an important and challenging time for British agriculture, and he would be looking forward to working with the new office holders.

The voting took place during the NFU's Annual General Meeting, held in Birmingham on Tuesday, February 23 and Wednesday, February 24.

Urgent repair work to 154 Grade I and Grade II-listed places of worship is to be supported with grant support from English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

The awards totalling more than £15.7 million are being made under the organisations' joint Repair Grants for Places of Worship scheme. English Heritage says it is the country's largest single source of fund to help congregations care for historic places of worship including churches, chapels and synagogues.

Among the ones benefiting from the scheme's latest grants towards repair and improvement programmes are the churches of St George in Cullercoats, North Shields, and St Peter in West Liss, East Hampshire, and Liverpool's Prince's Road Synagogue.

'We are delighted with the continued success of this important national scheme which has helped to restore and preserve some of the country's most historic places of worship,' said English Heritage's chief executive Dr Simon Thurley.

'Historic places of worship are at the heart of their communities. They give us beautiful public spaces where people can find peace or companionship, enjoy exhibitions or benefit from practical services such as post offices, shops, nurseries,' he added.

HLF's chief executive Carole Souter described such buildings as a key part of England's heritage, but ones that largely relied on the 'hard work and generosity' of local communities and volunteers to keep in good order.

'This money will help support the passion and commitment of these communities and safeguard these precious and important buildings.'

The project announced by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) is the latest initiative in the organisation's efforts to tackle an 86 per cent decline in this species. GWCT describes grey partridges as one of the UK's most threatened farmland birds.

It has just completed a recovery project on arable land at Royston, in Hertfordshire, which reached the target of achieving an average 18.4 pairs of grey partridges per square kilometre on the scheme site. This equated to a 640 per cent rise in numbers since the start of intensive management in 2002.

GWCT has launched the new five-year project at Rotherfield Park to help drive partridge recovery initiatives in more areas across the country.

'Because Rotherfield Park has heavier land and substantial woodland it provides an important new opportunity to demonstrate the techniques that are necessary to restore a wide range of species on lowland farmland that is more typical to many farmers and land managers across the UK,' a GWCT spokesperson said.

'Baseline monitoring of farmland birds, wild game and other farm wildlife has already started and the locally extinct wild grey partridge population will be re-established using the trust's new re-introduction techniques.

'Over the next five years, the trust aims to show levels of productivity that can be achieved across a wide range of farm wildlife including wild pheasants and wild grey partridges,' the spokesperson added.

Farmers, landowners, tenants and commoners in the New Forest National Park are being offered independent advice and practical help on land management with environmental benefits through a pioneering scheme.

The New Forest Land Advice Service is also open to land managers in the wider New Forest and Avon Valley areas.

It will provide help on topics ranging from accessing grants for environmental stewardship to diversification.

The service is a joint initiative of the New Forest National Park Authority, Natural England and the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. It is understood to be the first time that a national park, Natural England and a non-profit organisation have joined forces to offer such a service.

'We will be available to offer support to all types of landowner and land manager - from larger-scale farmers to people with pony paddocks - who want to manage their land for wildlife and the environment,' said the New Forest Land Advice Service's manager Julie Stubbs.

'For example, we can help them look at making their farm more efficient, how they might gain some environmental improvements, how to supplement their income by accessing grants and other schemes, even down to completing application forms.'

Ms Stubbs said the service also has plans to look at involving volunteers to assist with jobs including clearing scrub, ragwort or invasive plants.

The NFU has supported new powers being given to the Environment Agency and Natural England, which will allow the bodies to enforce environmental law more effectively.

The regulators have been given more flexibility to respond to the seriousness of non-compliance in more proportionate ways. This will create fairer approaches in enforcing environmental criminal law in England and Wales.

'We appreciate the work that Defra and its regulators have put in to develop a more flexible and proportionate approach to environmental enforcement, and for having involved us in that work,' said Andrew Clarke, NFU head of policy services.

'The availability of sanctions - rather than just criminal prosecution - in dealing with business that do not comply with the law is long overdue.'

However, he called on regulators to use a 'no surprises' approach when carrying out enforcement action on agricultural businesses, and added that the sanctions must not replace existing informal methods, such as advice and guidance.

The European Commission has announced the winner of its EU organic logo competition.

More than 130,000 people voted online to choose the new design, which will be obligatory for pre-packaged organic products produced across the EU.

German student Dusan Milenkovic polled 63 per cent of the votes with his  'Euro-leaf', which will appear on products as from July 2010. Nearly 3,500 logos were originally submitted in the pan-European contest, which was open to art and design students. The final three were then put forward to the online vote.

Mariann Fischer Boel, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, said she was delighted to have a fresh EU organic food logo.

'This exercise has raised the profile of organic food, and we now have a logo which everyone will be able to identify with,' she added.

'It's a nice, elegant design and I look forward to buying products carrying this logo from July this year.'

The logo is optional for products imported from outside Europe, however other private, regional or national logos can appear alongside the EU label.

A new and restructured advisory committee has been set up to advise the government on packaging.

Minister for Rural Affairs and the Environment Dan Norris launched the Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP) on Monday, February 8. The committee will advise Government on how to achieve the ambitions outlined in the UK's Packaging Strategy, entitled Making the Most of Packaging, which included the increased use of recycled materials.

Membership of the new committee, which will start work on the 1st March 2010, includes representatives from local authorities and consumer groups.

A local approach to delivering £105 million in rural funding will provide the best results for rural areas, according to the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE)

The comment was made at the second national RDPE Network meeting for Local Action Groups (LAGs), held on Thursday, February 4 in the West Midlands.

Funded by the EU and UK government, the RDPE supports a range of schemes for land-based businesses - farmers, growers, foresters and primary processors - rural tourism, rural businesses and community organisations.

Rebecca Frost, programme manager for the RDPE Network, said the LAGs would play a crucial role in ensuring money from the programme was spent tackling key issues in villages and towns. 'Through small capital grants, strategic investment funding and action plans, the programme will aim to safeguard and enhance the countryside, helping communities to thrive in the process,' she explained.

'[The meeting] was an opportunity to look at how this money can be spent to help bring our local communities out of recession by encouraging businesses to diversify.'

The LAGs have developed Local Development Strategies that set out plans and projects that could be supported by the funds.

'We are already seeing some really exciting projects coming forward,' Rebecca added.

'Now is the time for LAGs to make sure even more local individuals and organisations benefit by encouraging them to claim their share of the funding.'

The RPDE Network is managed by the Commission for Rural Communities (CRC).

Schoolchildren are to team up with wildlife experts in a bid to improve barn owl numbers in Northern England.

Youngsters from two schools in South Cumbria have been working with experts from the World Owl Trust and Forestry Commission to protect the birds. The children, who attend Hawkshead and Levens Valley Primary Schools, have been working to protect barn owls living at nearby Grizedale and Rusland Valley.

As part of the project, experts have been working with children to teach them about barn owls, and conservation work taking place on their doorstep.

Tania Crockett, people engagement manager for the Forestry Commission at Grizedale, explained that the schools had taken part in a number of hands-on activities, including artwork and examining what the birds ate.

'The combination of activities worked really well, such as seeing a barn owl up close and thinking in detail about its eyes and feathers, as well as creating artwork about them,' she explained. 'The highlight has been finding the bones from a bat in an owl pellet - fairly uncommon food for a barn owl.'

The World Owl Trust and Forestry Commission also hope that by encouraging landowners to provide nest boxes and leave areas of rough grassland, young owls will disperse through the valley and boost the local population.

Hilary Lange, UK conservation officer of the World Owl Trust, said she hoped the work would ensure the barn owl's future in the area.  

For more information about the World Owl Trust, visit www.owls.org and for more information about the Forestry Commission in North West England, visit www.forestry.gov.uk/northwestengland  

Work has started on protecting four at-risk scheduled ancient monuments within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

As reported in January's Countryside Magazine, the AONB Partnership's Heritage Lottery Fund-backed Living North Pennines project includes a phase involving consolidating Ninebanks Tower, a peel tower in Northumberland; Shildon Engine House near Blanchland, the only surviving Cornish-style mine engine house in the North Pennines; 13^th century Muggleswick Grange in Durham, and Whitesyke and Bentyfield Lead Mines near Alston, Cumbria.

Snow and record freezing temperatures had delayed the start of work for more than a month. But now specialist contractors are on site at Shildon and Muggleswick to start the planned consolidation work on the four historic structures, which have suffered from centuries of exposure to icy weather.

Living North Pennines project manager Jon Charlton said the buildings tell the story of how people lived and worked in the area over the centuries.

'Over time they would have crumbled and disappeared completely. We want to protect what remains so that we and future generations can see these legacies in the landscape of what it was like to live those past lives.'

Work will involve clearing sites of vegetation and consolidating unstable stonework. There will be week-long opportunities for local people to learn lime mortar pointing, a traditional skill now widely used in historic building conservation. Introductory 'taster days' will enable locals to learn more about the four structures and try specialist building skills. Archaeological investigations are also being undertaken on the sites.

Once the consolidation work is completed, the North Pennines AONB Partnership says all four sites will be removed from English Heritage's Heritage at Risk register.

Special shooting training events aimed at women are being organised.

The first of these events, which are being set up by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), will take place in South Derbyshire on March 11. The day session will cater for all levels of experience from complete beginners to experienced shots, with qualified BASC coaches providing one-to-one tuition.

Among the topics being covered will be the basics of gun safety and handling, practical clay shooting, game shooting etiquette, the law and shotgun licensing.

Another ladies training day is being organised by BASC in Staffordshire on May 8. Each of these events costs £68 per person to attend, which covers the provision of all equipment including guns and cartridges, coaching, refreshments and a barbecue.

BASC says thousands of women already shoot but some can be put off because they might not know how to get started.

'It can be a daunting experience to find your way around what is generally perceived as a man's world and to have your genuine interest taken seriously,' said former Great Britain team shooter Liz Lamb, BASC's Midlands regional officer. 'BASC ladies' training days address this problem by introducing new contacts and offering all the follow-up support needed.'

Further information about the events is available by contacting Ms Lamb (telephone: 01335 324507).