Editing Edward Max Nicholson (section)

==Ornithology and conservation==
Nicholson already had published his first work in 1926, ''Birds in England'', and had three similar books published soon after. In
''The Art of Bird-Watching'' (1931), he discussed the potential of co-operative birdwatching to inform the conservation debate. This led, in 1932, to the foundation of the [[British Trust for Ornithology]], of which he was the first secretary and later chairman (1947–1949). In 1947–1948, with the then director general of the [[United Nations]]' scientific and education organisation [[UNESCO]], [[Julian Huxley]], he was involved in forming the International Union for the Protection of Nature (IUPN) (now [[International Union for Conservation of Nature]] (IUCN)).

In 1949, he oversaw Part 3 of The [[National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949]] which established the [[Nature Conservancy]], a British state research council for natural sciences and 'biological service', and allowed for the legal protection of [[national nature reserve (United Kingdom)|national nature reserve]]s and Sites of Special Scientific Interest ([[SSSI]]). He replaced Captain [[Cyril Diver]] as Director General of the Nature Conservancy in 1952, serving until 1966, just after the Conservancy lost its independent status. During his leadership, the Conservancy established itself as a research and management body that promoted ecology as having broad relevance and application to land use decision-making and management. [[Monks Wood Experimental Station]], which helped set up, was perhaps the first to examine the effect of toxic chemicals on wildlife.<ref name=auk/>

In 1952, while in [[Baluchistan (Chief Commissioners Province)|Baluchistan]], he contracted [[polio]], which left him with a limp. In 1961, Nicholson, together with [[Victor Stolan]], [[Peter Scott|Sir Peter Scott]] and [[Guy Mountfort]], formed the organising group that created the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) (now the [[World Wide Fund for Nature]]).<ref name="Kellaway">Kate Kellaway (7 November 2010).  [https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/nov/07/wwf-world-wildlife-fund-huxley How the Observer brought the WWF into being] [[The Observer]].</ref> He was also a founder of the [[International Institute for Environment and Development]]. In 1966, he set up and headed environmental firm [[Land Use Consultants]] (LUC), remaining with them until 1989. One of LUC's first reports was 'Parkways in principle and Practice' (1967), in which Nicholson urged that "the problems of recreation, traffic, environmental quality and conservation should be studied together . .", to form a category of [[parkway]]s in Britain.

From 1951 to 1960, he was the senior editor of "British Birds" and was the chief editor of ''The [[Birds of the Western Palearctic]]'' ("BWP", 1977–1994, [[OUP]]) from 1965 to 1992. He was the only author to stay with the project from start to end, personally writing the habitat sections of all species in the nine volumes.<ref name=auk/> In 1971, he gave the [[Witherby Memorial Lecture]] on the subject of Geograms.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repositories/2/archival_objects/315692 |title=Witherby Memorial Lecture, British Trust for Ornithology, 4 Dec 1971, 1971 |publisher=Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts |access-date=10 July 2024}}</ref>

In 1976, he was an instrumental part of the setting up of Britain's first [[urban ecology]] park<ref>[http://www.urbanecology.org.uk/index.html Trust for Urban Ecology website]</ref> and the [[Trust for Urban Ecology]]. In 1978, Nicholson was instrumental in founding the [[ENDS Report]] which became a highly influential journal for environmental policy specialists. He was President of the [[Royal Society for the Protection of Birds]] from 1980 to 1985, helped set up the [[New Renaissance Group]] and was a trustee of [[Earthwatch Europe]]. In 1995, he appeared as a guest on ''[[Desert Island Discs]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0093pbh |title=Max Nicholson |publisher=BBC Radio 4|access-date=15 January 2015}}</ref>

He was awarded the [[Busk Medal]] by the [[Royal Geographical Society]] in 1990.<ref name="RGS-IBG">{{cite journal |title=Medals and Awards |url=https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/QSDT4 |website=OSF |date=2022 |publisher=RGS-IBG |doi=10.17605/OSF.IO/QSDT4 |access-date=9 December 2024 |author1=RGS-IBG }}</ref>