I bent over backwards, in my usual fair way, to see the good in Natural England’s press release about Hen Harrier breeding numbers in England this morning. And it does seem to be a good year for the birds, and that is the most important thing, and it does look like vole-fuelled and weather-assisted progress in the right direction, which is also good.
And, as I wrote, if you just look at the words from Natural England, including those from Tony Juniper, and ignore the accompanying guff from GWCT and the Moorland Association, then it’s a pretty good press release, although it loses points for vagueness (and perhaps for accuracy – let’s see how that unfolds) so I’d still be prepared to give it 7.5 out of 10.
But that score would only be merited for the Natural England words – the press release also carries some Moorland Association and GWCT words but none from RSPB, Northern England Raptor Forum, Forestry England, United Utilities or a host of others. Why might that be? Did Natural England not ask anyone else – some of whom are intimately and strongly involved in raptor monitoring and conservation, and have been for longer than Natural England has existed, or were they asked and yet turned down the offer (or a bit of both)? I know some of the answers to those questions but not all of them. But either way – it reflects very badly on Natural England. They have either alienated many of the organisations and individuals they call partners or they have decided to ignore them. Natural NoMates England!
Instead, Natural England provides a vehicle for GWCT and Moorland Association to pontificate on broodmeddling, which given the fact that Natural England say that the good breeding season was helped by a good vole year and good weather seems a little odd – in fact, more than a little odd.
The GWCT quote is from Adam Smith, perhaps a name you don’t recognise and that would be because he is the Policy Director of GWCT in Scotland – and yet he is chuntering on about Hen Harriers in England. Let me tell you that if SNH had a quote from the RSPB’s England Director on a purely Scottish matter all hell would break loose. But Natural NoMates England seem to have had to conscript a foreign spokesperson to comment on English matters. It’s a bit odd. It looks a bit desperate, even in holiday times.
And, read it again, it’s a crap quote which starts by praising something which is never named, pats his own organisation on the back and bigs up grouse moor management which is never mentioned in the rest of the press release (but ought to be because it is the source of illegal persecution). It’s like including a random advert in a press release – it’s very strange. But then, if you are Natural NoMates England you have to grab pretend friends wherever you can get them.
Moving on, it’s lovely to see that Amanda Anderson is still alive although this quote could have been written months ago with no regard to the facts of the matter. Amanda too seems to think that broodmeddling is what it’s all about despite Natural England not mentioning it at all in their words, and the press release not saying whether the broodmeddled nests were included in the totals or not, or what the nesting success on grouse moors and non-grouse moors was. So Amanda’s quote, as so often, is an assertion not backed up by facts so we can only speculate on its truth.
I still find Amanda’s quote from a previous year ‘If we let the hen harrier in, we will soon have nothing else‘ in stark contrast with today’s ‘it has been a fantastic year for hen harriers‘. It’s kind of Natural NoMates England to lure Amanda out of her recent reclusive existence to make this uplifting comment.
Natural England didn’t say any of what GWCT and the Moorland Association said, but it’s in their press release so they must, mustn’t they, be satisfied with its factual accuracy? So it might have been good for Natural England to tabulate the number of nests which failed and were successful not only by county, but also by whether they were or weren’t on grouse moors. Amanda says that 12 of the bnests (is that 12 out of 19 or 12 out of 24, or 12 out of some other number?) were on grouse moors but she has the habit of appropriating all the Bowland nests on United Utilities land as grouse moors which nobody else ever does. Surely Natural England wouldn’t let that go on in their press release? But maybe they have to otherwise they would be left completely alone in the playground – Natural Nomates England.
So, overall I’d give the NE/DEFRA press release 4 out of 10 overall, because it omits quite a lot of information that should be included, it excludes all the people who care about Hen Harriers and it includes the spin-merchants of the grouse shooting industry rather shamelessly. Sad isn’t it, you have to feel sorry for how low Natural England has sunk?
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I was wondering if a NE press statement gets passed through DEFRA before release. In other words did Juniper sign off on NE’s bit then DEFRA added the rest or did something get added by DEFRA and Juniper signed it all off or was it all NE’s work. Just wondering because of the disconnect between what Juniper said about the “success” being down to environmental factors wheras the added killer quotes are a bit vague and unrelated to that. Or I could just be a washed up old conspiracy theorist(HT Babylon 5).
I see the RSPB have made their own comment. I wonder if it was offered to NE to include in the press release?
Given that Conservative MPs are all using the same email template to respond to the Wild Justice campaign which also quotes some GWCT propaganda about wading birds one assumes this has been passed through DEFRA for ‘augmentation’.