Locals from the Peak District are rightly outraged by what is happening in their National Park. I’ve already highlighted some written evidence from Bob Berzins, the Peak District Raptor Monitoring Group, Nick Brown and the Sheffield Bird Study Group. Here are some more views:
- I walk frequently in the Staffordshire Moorlands where the Leek Moors Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) covers 3,785 ha or c.38km2. Contiguous with it to the north is the 1,325 ha (c.13km2) Goyt Valley SSSI. These areas were designated (in 1988 and 1990 respectively) for the exceptional qualities of moorland and upland field habitats including diversity and rarity of plant species found there and in particular the range of species and breeding densities of upland birds such as Curlew, Golden Plover, Snipe and birds of prey such as Short Eared Owl and Merlin.
- I have lived and worked in the Staffordshire Moorlands since 1989. In 1997 a pair of Hen Harriers nested within the Leek Moors SSSI at the head of the Goyt Valley – a location just within the High Peak Constituency of Andrew Bingham MP. I remember going to view them from an RSPB/Peak Park organised round-the-clock watch. More recently I have seen these moors subject to a significant intensification of management with burning of the vegetation in unsightly large quadrangular patches, re-furbishment of shooting butts and creation of parking facility.
- The RSPB and others have for decades been attempting to bring this issue to the fore by dialogue with government and the land owners. Nothing effectual has been achieved. This year, however, in another extraordinary revelation the Director of the Moorland Association, Amanda Anderson, was quoted in a Sunday Times article as saying that, “If we let the Hen Harrier in we will soon have nothing else.” There seems to be open admission from shooting quarters, even at the highest level of their leadership, that they actively keep Hen Harriers out.
- It is clear that left to their own devices the landed estates, promoting an ever increasing commerciality of grouse shooting, have become the proponents of a run-away menace. When I walk over Axe Edge and Axe Edge Moor I follow a route which evidently the keepers also use to put out grit trays for the grouse (like many bird species grouse must ingest grit to assist with digestion of their coarse food). With the grit the keepers add a worming medication and it is said to be this ultimately which has enabled grouse numbers to be promoted at otherwise unfeasibly high densities, and hence achieve this modern day gross resurgence in grouse shooting.
- Whether or not you are as convinced as I have now become about the appropriateness of a ban on driven grouse shooting I hope you will at least be convinced that significant correction is called for and at the very least there needs to be both a ‘cultural’ shift in attitude to the law from the land owners and managers, and the backing from Government of significantly strengthened enforcement. It surely cannot be too much to ask that the law of protection for our wild birds be obeyed and enforced. A new means of making that happen needs to be found.
- I write as a constituent of Sheffield Hallam Constituency to suggest that the law on grouse shooting should indeed be changed; preferably by a Government ban on driven grouse shooting as soon as possible.
- I have lived on the beautiful outskirts of Sheffield for many years . . .on moving to this scenic area I often enjoyed superb views of Short-eared Owls (our only day flying Owl) in the Redmires & Strines areas. I cannot recall the last one I saw since drive grouse shooting appears to have been ‘re-activated’ in these areas. However, I think, the issue which really disgusted me whilst learning more about the grim toll of ‘collateral’ damage from grouse shooters to our wildlife, was the senseless destruction of Mountain (Blue) Hares! Apparently, this is because, sometimes, Mountain Hares acquire ‘ticks’; which they, sometimes, pass to Red Grouse — which, of course, must be prevented at all cost — so they can be blasted out of the sky — for fun!!!???
- I live on the edge of the Peak District and spend many hours walking and bird watching all around Derbyshire. The one thing that stands out is the lack of birds of prey, I see the occasional Kestrel or the odd Buzzard but I should be seeing so much more. The illegal persecution of our raptors brings shame and embarrassment to our country. We condemn the poachers in Africa for killing Elephant and Rhino yet turn a blind eye to magnificent birds like Hen Harriers being slaughtered in our own back yard.
- Rewilding our uplands and using the pull of all of the wildlife that it would attract would make these areas of great importance a mecca for wildlife tourism. Letting trees back onto the hills would bring back a more natural landscape and help hold rain water in the uplands rather than draining them. Drainage ditches cut to dry out the peat so heather will grow should be outlawed. The carbon storage of peat is another reason to end these practices.
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