Introduction: This blog was prompted by reading the Draft Management Plan for the Forest of Bowland National Landscape (the new name for the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). I have written several earlier versions of this blog and electronically ripped them up and put them in the bin. This is where I…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
RSPB – Gamekeeper pleads guilty in Hen Harrier persecution case
Gamekeeper pleads guilty in England’s first-ever Hen Harrier persecution case On 29 January at York Magistrates Court Racster Dingwall – a head gamekeeper on the Conistone and Grassington Estate in the Yorkshire Dales National Park – pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill Hen Harrier. Footage and sound recordings obtained lawfully by the RSPB’s Investigations team were…
RSPB Hen Harrier press release
Six more rare Hen Harriers vanish on or near grouse moors with another confirmed poisoned Seven RSPB satellite tagged Hen Harriers are suspected or confirmed to have been illegally killed in England on or near land managed for grouse shooting in 2025 – with three in just thirteen days. Hen Harriers are a protected, Red-listed…
On (but not on) Walshaw Moor
If there were a fan club for Walshaw Moor then I’d be a member, despite never having set foot on it. I have passed it on the roads, stopped and looked at it, been glared at by its gamekeepers and spoken about it in meetings in both Hebden Bridge and Haworth and even won a…
Hen Harrier English reintroduction project closes after eight years of failure
Natural England has admitted (click here) that its badly-judged (click here) Hen Harrier reintroduction project isn’t going anywhere and has pulled the plug. In a blog that tries to make the best of publicly-funded activity through 2018-25, cuts to NE’s budget were given more of the blame than the difficulties that NE had to persuade…
Defra press release – a move forward on burning on deep peat soils
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Burning banned on England’s deep peat to protect wildlife Ban on burning heather and grass on deep peat extended to improve air quality for local communities, reduce flood risk and protect wildlife. Local communities are set to benefit from improved air quality, following an announcement that the government will extend the ban on burning vegetation on deep…
More Hen Harrier killing
RSPB press release: Chicks fledge with RSPB support after suspicious loss of parent Hen Harriers. In May 2025, over a period of eight days, four breeding male Hen Harriers suspiciously disappeared from their nests in northern England – two from RSPB Geltsdale Nature Reserve in Cumbria, and a further two from the Forest of Bowland…
RSPB report: Hen Harriers in the firing line.
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RSPB Report: Hen Harriers in the firing line.
RSPB press release – Number of Hen Harriers killed or missing reaches new high
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Over the past five years, record numbers of Hen Harriers have been killed or have gone missing according to a new report from the RSPB. Most of these incidents have occurred on or near grouse moors in northern England. The RSPB is calling on the Westminster Government to introduce licensing of grouse shooting in…
My response to the consultation on heather and grass burning in England
This is how I responded to the consultation on heather and grass burning in England. If you’d like to respond too then you have until 25 May, five days, to do so. It’s pretty quick and it is a way to support the campaign to ban driven grouse shooting, or at the very least to…