Is that a fire beater or a white flag? Grouse moor management under fire in this long article in today’s Guardian.
Simon the gamekeeper says;
Without burning you wouldn’t have the grouse estates: you would have bogs, you’d have rushes and nothing else
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/may/01/its-become-them-and-us-battle-to-burn-englands-moorlands
…in a way that almost makes it sound as though he isn’t keen on bogs – aka our biggest carbon stores.
I’m sure Pat Thompson didn’t say what he is quoted as saying about Red Kites.
And, as usual, the moorland managers claim that any wildlife is down to their efforts but that they have nothing to do with the black holes for raptors. Funny that – that wildlife that existed for thousands of years before even a gun was used to shoot Red Grouse is apparentlyignored but the scores of cases of wildlife crime are… well, I’m not sure what they are supposed to be.
It’s a balanced read, because it gives everyone a say, even though the moorland managers dig themselves a deeper hole with their own words.
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Without burning you wouldn’t have the grouse estates: you would have bogs, you’d have rushes and nothing else
How dare they threaten me with a nice thing.
What next, bus stop benches being replaced with a comfy chair too?
Sometimes you wonder if the pro grouse moor folk ever stop to think what their burnt and almost manicured moors looked like before they torched them. I rather doubt it and of course they have changed markedly over time, some of it used to be forested, perhaps open forest but forest nonetheless and some of it was some sort of pasture in the middle ages probably up to nearly the Tudors, with thousands and thousands of sheep ( for wool) on them belonging to the huge Cistercian Abbeys such as Fountains or Jervaulx ( hence Fountains Fell and Fountains Earth Moor.) We may never have the original vegetation and wildlife back but a more natural landscape would be a far better option than currently.
They don’t stop to think because they simply just don’t care.
They seem to think they have the right to destroy the environment and remove any species which they don’t like as if it is some weird God given right.
Very strange and blinkered thinking.
Most likely down to all the lead they ingest!
The dreadful situation with the Osprey nest in Wales makes headlines on BBCR4 news today. The 53 hen harriers disappeared, presumed dead, since 2018 never hit the mainstream. So it’s good to read this article in the Guardian but it needs far wider publication.
Apparently one moorland/estate manager is thinking of installing an osprey tower. But he hasn’t made his mind up. Just looking at.
Given the article was specifically about moorland I think the osprey tower may not have been a good thing to include.
If an estate is doing something positive for Raptors, whether or not they eat Grouse, why not mention it in the article ?, anyone taking any initiative in this district is to be welcomed.
What is so galling and disgraceful is that just because one owns land it does not give the owner the right to kill and maim the wildlife on it and to damage and destroy the environment. It is OUR environment and OUR wildlife and nature, NOT theirs. Imagine if ones neighbour was constantly shooting all the birds in his/her garden and burning his/her rubbish in your direction.
No, the behaviour of most grouse moor owners and their associated gamekeepers, with a few exceptions, is totally, totally unacceptable. They won’t recognise this because of the money they receive for all this abuse they perpetrate. So they only answer is to ban driven grouse shooting for good and it WILL happen.