The Forest of Bowland AONB is consulting on its management plan – you have until 25 May to respond.
Please respond to this consultation – I shall.
Off the top of my head I might respond by saying;
- the logo of the AONB is inappropriate since the key species has been wiped out over the last few years through criminal activity. I suggest that the Hen Harrier be redrawn as a dead bird and all signage replaced with this more accurate representation of the Bowland Fells current status.
- the AONB should be looking to galvanise the public into protecting Hen Harriers in what used to be the species’s English stronghold with over 30 nesting females in some years. The failure of the AONB mechanism is starkly illustrated by this demise. This situation can be rcovered – what role will the AONB take?
- how many pairs of Peregrine Falcons would the AONB like to see nesting successfully in its area? these birds would be a great tourist attraction for this landscape.
- the AONB should be lobbying NE to ensure the return of the colony of moorland-nesting gulls of European importance that has declined so dramatically. This was a unique aspect of the natural beauty of this part of the the north of England.
- my visits to the Bowland AONB over the years show it to be suffereing from a plague of Pheasants these days -particularly in the Abbeystead region. These non-native birds are a traffic hazard and probably have harmful impacts of the area’s native fauna.
But that’s just off the top of my head – I’m sure that you (and I) can do much better than that.
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The use of the present Forest of Bowland AONB Logo is clearly inappropriate and does need to be changed. Using the Hen Harrier as a symbol to promote Bowland is a sham and misrepresentation of the facts, as the Hen Harrier can no longer be associated with this moorland region following their extensive persecution. Having talked to many visitors who come to Bowland to enjoy the scenery and in many cases since Hen Harrier day, also visit the region to watch the wildlife. In the last two years I have seen an image of a dodo place over the top of several of the official AONB logo at different location when entering the Forest of Bowland, this symbol seems more fitting and appropriate to me under the current situation which now exists and is unlikely to change.
Terry – thanks! I’ll post the image that you sent me tomorrow in a blog and this evening on Twitter.
Terry, I understand your sentiments but I think if the Hen Harrier logo is kept it will serve as an embarrassing reminder of our failure to protect our wild life and if the public keep asking about the dearth of these beautiful birds, yet the signs are still there, all the better to drive home that message.
Stop the slaughter of our wildlife in Forest of Bowland
Should Natural England be prosecuted for false advertising
At the rate these shooting estates are going they will be no wild life whatsoever only pheasants and grouse
The impact of Pheasants eating so many baby amphibians, reptiles and wildflower seeds can cause quite a detrimental effect for native wildlife – All for the profit of shooting estates.
Wouldn’t it be better to keep this logo. It will keep the pressure on the powers that be and constantly remind them of how useless they are at their jobs. Perhaps a line underneath saying ‘Used to be here’.
How about replacing the AONB logo with this iconic piece of artwork:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04rbcts
Need to move quickly though – don’t want to get into a bidding war with The Moorland Association.
Terry Pickford and I spent many days visiting the Trough in the late sixties and early seventies. The diversity of raptors was as low as it is now. In these days of so called environmental enlightment I am desperately unhappy with the authorities responsible for protecting these magnificent birds. The logo for the Trough is a sham and should be replaced with a gun carrying game keeper!
I asked about the mis-advertising and got a complete load of waffle back, including a brochure with maps telling me the best place to view Hen Harriers in Bowland !!! Farcical!!
We know that drumming home the message about raptor persecution is important but the AONB is more of a landscape led designation.
This is the consultation where we need to get across the message that the landscape scale impacts on habitats are not acceptable.
Removal of scrub and destruction of vegetation.
Patch burning of heather is ugly as well as damaging to biodiversity.
Drainage of blanket bogs.
Construction of buts.
Tracks scaring the landscape.
Seasonal restrictions on access.
Grouse farming harms the landscape and damages the character of the AONB. Dont let the “sea of purple heather” brigade win the aesthetic argument!
If the Bowland Moors were the Mona Lisa imagine the international outcry! I see this as an equal if not worse crime so any effort to bring this issue to public attention I would support.
Response made. For all the good it will do.
But even if you are a cynic like me, do please respond, it’s easy and quick. If you decide not to, there will be a shooter out there that will take your place.
I’m with Circus. It’s very satisfying slagging off the “faceless” AONB and ignoring the lot of good work they do do, but not very productive. Like an effective response to a planning application, comments need to address things that are within the AONB’s remit to do something about, and Circus’s landscape-led list is a very good angle to use if you want to affect change rather than just vent anger. Be good to mention the adverse reputational and tourism impacts too.
Just remember that the AONB can’t dictate land management practices, doesn’t have the statutory wildlife and habitat responsibilities of NE, and has no responsibility for addressing wildlife crime. In fact most AONB’s key role is as an Honest Broker, which is precisely why they can’t do much about wildlife crime until the Politicians, Police and NE start taking it seriously and the more law abiding landowners (there must be one or two at least) break ranks and start to look for a way out.
But I do like the Dodo logo though – a bit a humour is much more likely to make people pay attention, and not just p them off. 🙂
jbc – I don’t accept that and we have seen National Parks (which are similarly constrained) taking a more prominent role in voicing public outrage over wildlife crime in the last year. This wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t been encouraged to do so by a turning up of the volume of criticism on this subject. Honest brokers would be very useful in the dishonest world of driven grouse shooting. And if a public body whose logo has been brought to pitifully low numbers can’t even mention the fact of wildlife crime in their area of operation, then who can?
Sure, they should do more than mention it. The dodo logo idea is an excellent prod to push them in that direction not least because its hard to take offence at. But they are not in a position do to much more than that – unlike NE. Incidentally neither is the N Yorks NP in a position to do more than highlight the issue.
In reality a lot depends on who’s on the Joint Advisory Committee of the NP/AONB in question – they tend to be fairly conservative (small c, but in practice usually large C too). Will they respond to organised outside pressure positively or harden their opposition to what they may see as an attempt to hijack a local process? Depends on the individuals, largely, but I’d love to know how the head of the NYNP got their agreement to be more outspoken – I doubt (?s)he did it by backing them into a corner and forcing them to loose face.
As with many organisations, you have to weigh up whether the good work outweighs the omissions or outright bad work. For example HOT (and NE) to me, sadly, clearly fall in the category of not fit for purpose. RSPB is very poor on DGS but I think good in lots of other ways. For all of these examples conservation of BoP is (should be) a core part of their mission so its reasonable to judge them on that basis.
It’s not a core mission of AONBs (or NPs), rather they are affected by NE’s and police failures. That’s why I don’t think it is fair to judge them in the same way.
Different organisations have different parts to play, and just as it was unhelpful and unproductive for the more extreme animal rights campaigners to try to bring down Wildlife Trusts for staying out of the hunting with hounds issue I don’t think its helpful to attack protected landscape organisations for not dying in a ditch for a wildlife crime issue.
At a time when many Local Authorities, and Defra, would love to save the money currently wasted on the natural environment and get on with their core mission of promoting economic growth, be careful what you wish for.
Guess we just have to agree to differ about this.
Filled in and also asked what they were doing about reintroducing species like beaver, boar, and lynx too.