At the New Networks for Nature event there were lots of good bits.
There was a bit where three people talked about Sense or Spirit of Place. One of the speakers was poet Andrew Forster who lives in the Lake District now, but used to live somewhere else, in Scotland.
I guess that there were probably only one or two people to whom the name of the place where Andrew Forster used to live meant anything – but it did to me and it was a somewhat dark spirit of place. For the place was Leadhills, in Lanarkshire, one of the unluckiest grouse moors in Scotland – it’s as though it’s a magnet for poisoned and shot wildlife. Just look at the litany of killed Hen Harriers, Golden Eagles, Peregrines, Buzzards, Red Kites and Otters from this small and rather attractive part of Lanarkshire on the raptorpersecutionscotland website.
I was at Leadhills with a six-foot Hen Harrier in June this year.
But if you didn’t know what an unlucky place it is then you would think it just a lovely little spot.
Please support the e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting by signing it.
I am almost certain The Guardian covered the gamekeeper’s conviction, I am so glad the single farm payment has been severely reduced. Why oh why is this being concealed by Defra etc?