The November issue of The Field, that’s the one with a man in tweed with a gun and a couple of dogs (doesn’t necessarily narrow it down that much?) has some excellent articles in it. You can get some tips on brushing up your ability to bring down high pheasants and then how to cook them, and if your blood pressure hasn’t been raised by the lead shot or the article on releasing rehabililitated foxes in the countryside then have a look at my article on pages 80-83.
Across pages 80 and 81 is a very large image of a very beautiful hen harrier and inside the article I tell of the conversation I had with Colin McClean on the Glen Tanar Estate back in late August. That estate seems to be doing a lot of good things.
Maybe £4.20 for a copy of The Field is beyond your pocket but for that price you also get, on average, an image of one and a half guns per page, Zara Phillips advertising… (you’ll have to buy it to see), lots of wellies and dogs and some adverts from Bidwells for the type of upland forestry (if you have a spare £4.5m+) that will have helped reduce ground-nesting bird numbers in the Scottish Borders.
I think my article is the only one to mention the fish and chip shop in Jedburgh – maybe I can start a trend…? Or maybe not.
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Clicking on the news items from the Field gives you the chance to see an article about the National Trust closing a shoot in Surrey because the public using the estate have risen from around 100,000 to 260,000. These numbers make it impossible to run a shoot along side an army of users in a vast urban population. Look to the other side if the estate was closed off to the public where would this population go to reduce stress, loose weight, walk dogs and of course improve their lives. Shooting does have the effect of closing large areas of the countryside to the general public. Of course the National Trust are now called ‘antis’!!
‘Shooting does have the effect of closing large areas of countryside to the general public’? Crickey John – and I thought that was just farming!
I was delighted to see your article, Mark, which of course echoes much of what you said in your blog in August. It was refreshing to see such an imaginative and conciliatory piece and I warmly hope that it will influence your former colleagues – and indeed others in the conservation community – in their approach to the conflict resolution process.
Lazywell – errrr, thank you.