Standing up for Nature
In the same response to DEFRA in which the Moorland Association set out their shopping list for stopping damaging upland areas, they asked DEFRA a number, in fact 14 is the number, of questions about what they call the policy context. The actual policy context for stopping burning peatlands is the damage to blanket bogs…
I indicated yesterday that I’d be asking DEFRA for information about the science that the Moorland Association instructed them to take into account. This is what I asked: This is an information request under the EIR and/or FOI regulations. Please reply well within the maximum 20 working days that is allowed – this is a…
The following is an extract from the Moorland Association response to a DEFRA consultation on burning of blanket bogs, peatlands and heather moors. Payments, payments, grants, payments, payments… What does the Moorland Association want? It’s pretty clear – they want either to be left alone to damage priority habitats as they have done for decades…
This distressing image, taken yesterday, is of a Red Squirrel caught in a spring trap near an area of game shooting in Scotland. Unfortunately, although the SSPCA attended, the animal died. The police are informed. I won’t say more at this stage.
This how DEFRA explains its position on legislation to end burning on deep peat – it should be on all peat, just as the Committee on Climate Change recommended. 54% of pre-existing consents to burn remain – that means that only about a half of landowners have agreed voluntarily to any change. You may remember…
I’ve praised Guy Shrubsole’s adroitness with the information request before – here are some more products of the information requester’s art. As a start, there is more to come, I’ll post here three letters between the Moorland Association and DEFRA from last late summer. They all relate to burning of heather as part of the…
This statement from a bunch of land owning, land managing and shooting organisations is to be welcomed but not praised. After years of hindering progress these ultra-conservative bodies have bowed to the inevitable and said they want (not that they will ensure) an end to lead ammunition use on live quarry within five years. It’s…
Can you recognise the bird above – it’s already on my list although the examples I have seen were all in fresher plumage because this is a 46,000 year old bird found preserved in Siberian permafrost. It’s actually a Horned Lark (or a Shore Lark, or maybe something a bit different and earlier than either…
I caught Tweet of the Day this morning just before making the tea and listening, briefly, for bird song (a lovely Song Thrush). Today’s presenter was Michael Morpurgo and his bird was the Magpie – listen here on BBC iPlayer. It was a refreshingly different take on things, unless it was meant seriously. While looking…
I’ll blog more about this but it’s difficult not to giggle all the time as I write about it. To see, as I have, the feeble letter from the Marquess of Downshire to DEFRA, dated 18 September 2019, is rather amusing. I’m surprised the letter didn’t include the phrase ‘Don’t you know who I am?’….