Nature conservation needs systems and processes and, yes, bureaucracy, and forms and meetings and all the paraphernalia of decision making and due diligence. But, as we all know, sometimes the means can take over from the ends, and sometimes people can lose sight of what the processes are there to deliver. I recently visited Catfield…
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Buzzards
Please sign this petitionto persuade Defra to think again if you are already convinced that 375k of your taxes could be better spent than a poorly thought-through study of buzzards and pheasants. How might £375k be better spent?: employ a teaching assistant for 25 years study the impacts of non-native pheasants on native flora and…
Wuthering Moors 17
I still await Defra’s response to my FOI/EIR request (too busy buzzard bothering?). There are various interesting parts of NE’s response to my request. As I read the NE response there is no hint that they ceased legal action because they found they were mistaken or their evidence was weak – they certainly don’t say…
A name
There is lots of cow parsley in flower by the roadsides at the moment. As a hopeless botanist – or plant-identifier – I like cow parsley because I usually recognise it and know what it is. Cow Parsley has a variety of other names – like most of our plants, it seems. The nicest, which…
The final curtsey and a dead eagle
If Glenmazeran is indeed Richard Benyon’s place in the Highlands then I’ve just come across an interesting story from there in last year’s book, The Final Curtsey, written by Margaret Rhodes, the Queen’s cousin. Margaret, used to pop up to Glenmazeran for a spot of fishing and shooting as any gel would. On the way…
Pheasants, buzzards and Defra
Yesterday, I was supposed to be thinking about pheasants as I am writing a fantastically interesting article about them for a well-known and excellent wildlife magazine. And following the disclosure of Defra’s wrong-headed plans to pour £375k of taxpayers’ money into a study of how to allow more pheasants to be shot and fewer to…
Buzzards
The news that Defra is going to spend £375,000 on looking at how to reduce buzzard impacts on pheasants shows how deeply this department has now fallen into the hands of the shooting brigade. I have no doubt that buzzards take a few pheasants but why a government department is spending my taxes (and yours,…
Wuthering Moors 16
Here is the full response which I have received from Natural England in response to my request for information about the ‘Walshaw Moor Affair’ (see 15 previous blogs, all tagged with ‘wuthering’, the first of which is listed here). I will comment on this later in the week. But there are some very interesting passages…
A condor lead moment
American nature conservationists are campaigning to remove lead ammunition from the environment because it poisons species such as swans, eagles and California condors. They argue that non-toxic shot alternatives should be used. They also say that use of lead ammunition risks the health of people, particularly children, if they ingest tiny fragments of lead from…
Harriers
Following my blog on Thursday I did phone the NE helpline to ask where I could find the information promised by their Minister, Richard Benyon, in his Parliamentary reply (see Thursday’s blog to catch up on this subject – and read the comments there too). The people I spoke to were very helpful and mentioned…