RSPB makes big move at Geltsdale

The RSPB is extending its ownership of land at Geltsdale in Cumbria and appealing for donations to secure the deal – click here. This is very good news.

The emphasis of the RSPB text is on habitat restoration and the graphic produced is excellent – although the day I ever see all those species at any upland site will be a red-letter day for me. If you can, expand the graphic and it is very detailed, and pretty accurate as far as species are concerned – how many can you see and identify? The restoration work depicted is already underway.

Grazing has been much reduced and long ago switched significantly away from sheep towards cattle, this has allowed woodland regeneration (aided by planting of native species) to occur and natural wetlands have been allowed to return.

The RSPB doesn’t seem to have gone very big on getting this news out in the public domain as I first read about it on Ruth Tingay’s blog rather than in any of the RSPB newsletters that arrive in my inbox, and I’ve known this announcement was coming since last November so I’ve been eagerly awaiting it.  Have you received an appeal for money for this acquisition which is, the RSPB says, ‘one of the most significant land purchases in our history’ to ‘restore a Pennines Paradise’?

It’s often said that buying (or selling) a property is one of the most stressful things we ever do in our normal lives but an organisation like the RSPB has dozens of reserve extensions, renegotiations and new purchases on the go at any one time. Many of them are pretty stressful and Geltsdale has been unfinished business for many decades. In my 13 years as Conservation Director we moved things on significantly but not to a complete conclusion. I remember having meetings with two of the three elderly siblings with equal say in the future of parts of Geltsdale and I’m very glad that this chapter appears to have been closed successfully.

The RSPB is rather coy about how much money this has cost, how much land is involved and exactly where it is at Geltsdale. It won’t have been cheap, it won’t have been small and it probably covers quite a lot of moorland.

The elephant in the room, not depicted on the Pennines Paradise image, is that of intensive grouse shooting. Geltsdale is not just a valley it is a series of hills and they border intensively managed grouse moors. In Inglorious I give Guy Shorrock’s account of a Hen Harrier being shot on the borders of the RSPB Geltsdale reserve and the body stuffed down a hole and recovered by RSPB staff (pp38-40). On a Geltsdale boundary fence, dead Starlings, laced with poison, were hung one year (long ago) as a message to birds of prey and the RSPB. I had conversations with a land manager with interests near Geltsdale and he left me in no doubt of what he thought about birds of prey and the RSPB.

Be in no doubt, Geltsdale is on the front line when it comes to the conflict between intensive grouse shooting and nature conservation. The RSPB strengthening their land ownership and management options here is a very good thing. But nobody would expect that all grouse moors can be bought out (but that day might come when grouse bags fall low enough) and persuading decision-makers to ban driven grouse shooting would be a decisive victory so, if you haven’t already, and if you can, please sign the Wild Justice parliamentary petition to ban driven grouse shooting – click here.

Geltsdale – the locals look thrilled at the news. Photo: RSPB

 

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