11 Replies to “Chris Packham interviews me about our e-petition”

  1. It took me a while to find out more about the driven Grouse issue but now I have a good grasp of it and passionate about habitat and conservation as I am, it really is obvious what to do. I was a farm worker for eighteen years and listened to the debates leading up to the ban on Fox hunting which I was luke warm about either way. I use to jibe people arguing against it by saying don’t argue for a ban unless you are a vegetarian assuring them that there is far more cruelty involved with putting meat on your plate as I had had first hand experience of less than devoted livestock-men. The exciting thing with this is just imagine what the uplands could be like with different habitat management and driven Grouse shooting a faded memory! The depressing thing is that it is so steeped in tradition and part of the establishment, I don’t think that I will see it in my lifetime. But you have to be commended for starting the ball rolling which I am sure will role with more and more momentum. Great, well done Mark and others, for making so many people aware of this and getting this far.

  2. Oh my word, you 2 are so deluded! A moor with no grouse shooting is a moor full of predators and ticks which will devastate all the ground nesting waders and harriers! Try spending time on Halal meat which truly is barbaric!

    1. Andy Burns – thank you for your comment. Thank God that he created man a little while ago or nature would never have coped without the men in tweed.

  5. I painted 3 oil paintings of Hen Harriers to highlight their plight and to raise awareness about Driven Grouse shooting. It is an appalling cowardly sport which should be banned.

  6. Mark, I was so disappointed that during your interview with Chris Packham this week, although you highlighted the disappearance of many, but not all, raptors from the Yorkshire dales, the north York moors and the Peak District, you totally omitted to mention the unprecedented disappearance of all Hen Harriers and Peregrines as breeding species from the Forest of Bowland. Was there an underlying reason for choosing not to mention Bowland or the complete loss of these two breeding species which of course have now resulted in Bowland becoming England’s first moorland ‘native raptor breeding free zone’?

    You are not alone in choosing not to highlight the disappearance of these protected species missing from the Forest of Bowland. The RSPB are none too eager to talk about what has taken place in Bowland either, but that is perhaps understandable as the Society had been paid to protect these birds for many years by United Utilities.

    Following the publication of an article I wrote in 2014 in which I highlighted the unprecedented disappearance of Peregrines from the Forest of Bowland Graham Jones, the RSPB’s North West Regional Conservation Officer, submitted an explanation published in the same magazine two months later. These are the exact words Graham used to try and explain the Peregrine losses, ” The RSPB acknowledge that the Peregrine population in Bowland is at a concerning level. There are a number of factors that can affect Peregrine breeding success including weather, food availability, infertility, predation and illegal persecution. Determining a specific cause can be difficult.” Graham’s explanation was very interesting but at the same time was certainly misleading in this instance. Hindsight is a great thing, because when the RSPB had to explain the disappearance of Sky and Hope the 2 Bowland satellite tagged Hen Harriers lost in 2014, followed by the disappearance of the 4 male Hen Harriers from Bowland in 2015, none of the reasons Graham Jones mentions above for the Peregrine were even mentioned, except for the last one ‘Persecution.’

    Making a claim that several possible scenarios may have resulted in the loss from Bowland of all Peregrines, but then strongly hinting at a single scenario that was the cause of the Hen Harrier losses from the same moorland region, i.e., persecution seems illogical and misleading, after all both species experience the same weather conditions, food availability, infertility, predation and last but not least persecution. These are the reasons why I think you made an error by omitting to mention the Forest of Bowland in your latest interview with Chris Packham.

    1. Terry – the list of things not mentioned was very long. I have written about Bowland here often and your Guest Blog was of course a very important part of the case too.

      1. Mark I fully accept what you are saying, however despite this I do feel that what has now happened throughout the Forest of Bowland, the embarrassing disappearance of both peregrine and hen harrier as breeding species, is being swept under the carpet, but perhaps not by yourself.

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