12 Replies to “New grouse butts going in in the Forest of Bowland”

  1. So within the SSSI I believe. That means with the consent of Natural England? In the meantime the SSSI is notified for hen harrier (most notable according to the citation) and yet most of the SSSI is green (that is unfavourable recovering or favourable) although the Mallowdale area is unfav declining (due to decline in lesser black-backed gulls) no mention of harriers?! So if population levels of hen harriers are well below what they should be – like say a population of gulls, why is the whole SSSI not unfavourable?

    1. No one likes the truth based on science, pr and media spin makes better headlines – ask the establishment & their pals in Wesminster?

      NE need to be seen to deliver, so sign up to a WLMP & hey presto you get favourable recovering rather than unfavourable or declining. No need to implement, just sign up ….

      In defence of the poor puppets perhaps they are pulled by puppeteers, aka politicians in & out of the public body?

  2. And again, a trip to Magic Map tells us the public funding being granted to the land holders. Just over £1.1Million to one of them for 1,579 ha under an agreement including land at this location dated 1st January 2011 with £515,263 paid to date.

  3. It was the forest of Boland from which three male hen harriers “disappeared” earlier in the year. This development serves to rub that in. The message it sends is: “This land is ours now, it’s for grouse shooting, not conservation. Don’t ever expect to see your verminous hen harriers here again”

      1. Anand -I should have spotted that myself. Very close isn’t it. Looks to me as if the new butts went in a little to the south of where Sky and Hope ‘disappeared’.

  4. I did fill in required fields last time. To repeat myself:
    The Forest of Boland was the area from which four male male hen harriers “disappeared” earlier this year. This action serves to underline that. It sends the message: “This land is ours now. It’s for grouse shooting not conservation and don’t ever expect to see your verminous hen harriers here again”

  5. John – the old landowning message: give us YOUR money, now get off OUR land.

    To put the £60m quoted as the pub
    Ic subsidy to grouse moors in perspective, the nett cost to the taxpayer of Forestry Commission land in England is just £20m -yet is under constant discussion and no doubt the Treasury and Defra will be trying hard to cut it – it is about time the huge amounts of public money dished out to landowners, often with negative public benefit, starts to be seriously questioned.

  7. Funny isn’t it that the argument my MP, the right execrable James Gray, North Wiltshire, uses to justify the persecution of Hen Harriers (yes, really) is that it generates so much revenue and employs so many people.

    1. Simon – you and Mr Gray will be interested to see the blog which will appear here at 1pm today.

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