The RSPB believes that;
… new laws backed up by tougher enforcement will be needed to end … vegetation burning on peatlands. These practices are entirely incompatible with the imperative to address the climate and ecological emergency and there are perfectly practical alternatives.
https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/b/martinharper/posts/outcome-of-the-rspb-s-review-of-gamebird-shooting-and-associated-land-management
DEFRA is dragging its feet on this matter and the long-awaited England Peat Strategy is still awaited and time is running out for it to be published this year. What price an announcement of very little just before the Christmas break?
Here is the RSPB statement released at the weekend which updates their position quite helpfully – click here.
A failure of DEFRA to meet the RSPB’s wishes and/or a failure of the Scottish government to include meaningful measures in any licensing of grouse shooting in Scotland should see the RSPB edge ever closer, ever quicker, to adopting a position for banning driven grouse shooting since that is now the RSPB’s future default position, only avoidable by government action and industry compliance.
[registration_form]
We have said it so very many times before, but Defra and Natural England are an utter disgrace. They are just a fairy god mother to the shooting industry.
Always hard to believe that anyone still believes this sort of stuff is
acceptable. However two years ago I complained to the RSPB about the burning that was taking place at their Titchwell Reserve. They replied that they were burning “unwanted vegetation” to improve habitats and that it was an acceptable conservation management tool. I suggested they buy compost bin but received no response. Lets hope they stop using this disgusting “management tool”.
Anthony,
I think your confusing the issue here and being somewhat hyperbolic. There is not an issue with burning per se, indeed sometimes the only practical way of removing excess vegetation is to burn it. It would be impossible to compost the amount that has to be removed on a large reserve like Minsmere, not to mention the cost in labour etc. Burning trash is a perfectly acceptable management tool where correctly used in the right place, which may include woods etc.
Whereas burning many acres of moorland and impacting on the peat underneath is not good practice, especially as in many cases there are practical alternatives where it is needed, which on the whole is rare.
Do the creatures who cannot run or fly away not matter then?
Marian,
I regret that I haven’t the faintest idea what point your trying to make?
Mm disliking a reasonable question, how does that work?