It’s difficult to tell whether the Moorland Association is still alive, it had shown few signs of life during the last years of Amanda Anderson’s reign and the patient still seems to be in intensive care under Andrew Gilruth’s tenure.
It appears that the brains of the Moorland Association have decided that a ‘let’s kill everything’ message is going to go down best in the next few years and I understand they will be highlighting every predator under the sun in their ground-breaking initiative.
One small piece of evidence for this comes from their highlighting a letter in the Farmers Guardian (can’t find it on their site and I’m certainly not paying for the privilege) from a Stephen Ramsden. Mr Ramsden thinks that we aren’t going to see nature recovery unless government provides/encourage/ensures (it’s not clear) serious (not jokey) management of all species that predate on wildlife (that’s a very long list including dragonflies, Blue Tits and sundews).
We read that all, not some, all, ground-nesting birds are declining due to predation, not poor habitat. Aside from the fact that the Grey Partridge doesn’t fit that generalisation it will come as a surprise to the Skylark that intensive arable and silage production are blameless in its decline. Also the Curlew will be somewhat flummoxed by that statement.
And some unnamed traditional and historic management has become increasingly restricted in recent years which has exacerbated the problem, Mr Ramsden writes. Since his letter is a model of generalisation it is difficult to know what he’s on about, but maybe it’s the lack of poisoning, pole-traps and the removal of Rook from the general licence GL40 for the protection of wildlife that he is on about. Who knows? Does Mr Ramsden know?
Mr Ramsden is a landowner and farmer in Middlesmoor in Nidderdale where owns, or part owns, a grouse moor and is a director of MGS Sporting LLP ( Company number OC303074 – formerly Middlesmoor Grouse Shoot LLP) and MGS Sporting LLP ( Company number OC303075 – formerly Middlesmoor Pheasant Shoot LLP). The only other director of MGS Sporting LLP is Ben Ramsden.
Ben Ramsden was a former director of the Moorland Association who resigned last October after pleading guilty to illegal habitat management, heather burning on deep peat, on the Middlesmoor grouse moor in Nidderdale (see RPUK blogs here and here).
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Now it so happens that I know the author of this letter having been a beater on his moor during the late 1980s to the mid 1990s. I even helped with burning one season when the head keeper Stuart Cannon died. I also had a more recent conversation with him in of all places a Harrogate supermarket about open access, predictably he was totally opposed of course.
I think it fair to say that he has the classic grouse moor owners attitudes to predators and predation, all are referred to as “vermin” be that a protected raptor, a corvid, fox or stoat. I very much doubt that he has a grasp of ecology or the finer points about what these predators actually eat and certainly not anything about prey /predator relationships. You might say a classic blinkered shooting man. I can recall vividly despite the passage of time arriving when I and the underkeeper were burning and telling the underkeeper to get up to the top of the moor where he had just seen a ringtail Hen Harrier and to get it shot. Needless to say the keeper pointed out that I was there a known contract employee of RSPB and no he wouldn’t. I’m not sure of the circumstances BUT when a new head keeper was appointed that underkeeper was promptly sacked. On another occasion he waxed lyrical about a few trees a farmer had planted in a field corner referring to them a vermin perches and nest sites
The estate does have a traditional Peregrine site but this was last used (successfully) in 1994 and birds are rarely seen there now, the same is true of Short eared Owls. When Common Buzzards recolonised Nidderdale in the late eighties the first proven nest was on Middlesmoor Estate and for several years they were successful but that site, although unchanged, has long been “vacant.”
So although his letter will have been read by many and no doubt agreed with, it is really to be taken with a huge dose of salt and then disregarded.
Wonder if that Underkeepers cards got marked that very day? For letting someone with a known RSPB connection into the estate inner circle.
He didn’t let me in, I had beaten for Stuart the now deceased head keeper who knew who I was and what I did during the breeding season, Had I believe talked to some of the keepers I dealt with there too. His boss also knew about it in broad terms. I think his card was marked for saying no, nothing more nothing less. He went dry stone walling I think after that, as in fact the next head keeper did when he was eventually sacked. All the keepers I beat for and there were quite a few “knew”, there were also some that wouldn’t have me at any price because of it. I saw many of them too on shoots I did go on. Interestingly lots of them said things they really shouldn’t have in the lunch hut too very educational.
“…all species that predate on wildlife (that’s a very long list including dragonflies, Blue Tits and sundews).”
And, indeed, curlews!