The nature conservation case for driven grouse shooting is pretty much bankrupt and today’s significant report on the ecosystem disservices of rotational burning bangs home a wider point. If you live in a city or the country, shoot or don’t shoot, vote UKIP or Green, are vegan or live on raw meat, whoever you are…
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Important new study on impacts of moorland burning on river catchments
The EMBER study by the University of Leeds (funded by NERC and Yorkshire Water) has been a five-year study of 10 river catchments – five that have lots of heather burning for driven grouse shooting and five that do not. The study area was the North Pennines. The British uplands collect and distribute rainwater, sequester…
That pile of postcards
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There’s a big pile of postcards waiting to be delivered to HM The Queen – 20,000 of them, signed by LUSH customers. By the way, this morning I used one of the bath bombs I bought in the LUSH shop in Northampton in the days just before Hen Harrier Day (seems like a long time…
FoI request to Defra
Dear Defra Please supply me with copies of any communications (emails or letters dated April-September 2014) between Defra and the participants in the Defra Hen Harrier Sub-Group of the Uplands Stakeholder Forum concerning Hen Harriers and/or grouse shooting and/or the progress on the drafting of a joint report. Thank you, Dr Mark Avery (mark@markavery.info) …
It’s not very complicated…
…they kill our Stoats our Mountain Hares our Hen Harriers our Peregrines our Badgers our Goshawks our Ravens and much more… …so that they can kill our Red Grouse. And this is a ‘sport’ and a ‘business’? Show your abhorrence at the slaughter in our…
Selfridges – please withdraw Red Grouse from your Food Hall
Dear Selfridges I am glad to hear from some of your customers that you are reviewing the sale of Red Grouse in your Food Hall – this is an excellent move on your part. Well done! You are probably aware of the report from the Ethical Consumer magazine which highlights the environmental problems with intensive…
Natural England – are you still there?
Natural England – for people, for places, for nature. NE, you have been studying Hen Harriers through satellite-tagging for 12 years and yet despite a hard-hitting report A Future for the Hen Harrier in England (2008) you have remained strangely silent about the worsening status of the Hen Harrier in England for six years. In…
Sky and Hope
The information that two young Hen Harriers (named Sky and Hope) have gone missing has been a talking point between Guildford and Sheffield – and beyond! I know that because I was giving a talk near Guildford on Wednesday evening and another in Sheffield on Thursday evening. At each, people were very concerned and surprised…
Sunday book review – National Birds of the World by Ron Toft
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What is your national bird? Come to that – which is your nation? David Lindo is exhorting us all to vote for a National Bird to see whether the Robin remains our top choice so maybe it is worth having a look at what other nations have chosen. Which country has chosen these species as…
Saturday cartoon by Ralph Underhill
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I was pleased to see that FoE are sticking up for beavers. What a shame that Defra are not. Bees, buzzards, badgers, beavers… ‘It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.’ Ansel Adams