Dear Yorkshire Water I’m not a customer of yours but I am interested in your position on management of the uplands for grouse shooting. You will be aware, because you supported the study, that last October an important study was published by Leeds University on the impacts of intensive moorland management for grouse shooting on…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
Burning for grouse shooting, a threat to habitat, in the Observer today
Today the Observer has a piece on the Climate Change Committee’s report to parliament (mentioned on this blog on Wednesday) which raised the issue of intensive grouse moor management ‘The damaging practice of burning peat to increase grouse yields continues, including on internationally protected sites.’. The article was interesting for a number of reasons. The…
Five weeks today we’ll be at the Palace Hotel
Comments Off on Five weeks today we’ll be at the Palace Hotel
Five weeks today, at the Palace Hotel Buxton, there will be an evening to celebrate the Hen Harrier. Henry is celebrating already! Tickets will go on sale in a week’s time, at £10 per head. The event will feature: Chris Packham, Mark Cocker (Buxton-born author), local performers, Jeremy Deller (Turner Prize winning artist see here…
Not very new, and not very statesmanlike
In the New Statesman this week, there is an excellent and long article by Mark Cocker on shooting (Unfair game: why Britain’s birds of prey are being killed). I recommend it as an interesting read and because it will bring the plight of the Hen Harrier to a new readership. The most interesting quote in…
Lions’ den? Four weeks today 2.
I’ve been asked to take part in a Game Fair ‘debate’ a month today – and I’ve said yes. I am clearly the token leftie on the panel whose other members are Owen Paterson MP (the former Secretary of State at Defra), Philip Merricks (Chair of the Hawk and Owl Trust) and Ian Coghill (Chair…
Does everyone think they are losing?
I’m developing a new theory of advocacy – it’s not a very useful theory but it is keeping me amused, thinking about it. My theory is that everyone, on all sides, thinks that they are losing the advocacy war on most issues. What do you think of my theory? It’s just a theory but it’s…
The desperation of Doug McAdam
It may be that Scottish Land and Estates has been slumbering for quite a while but their Chief Exec, Doug McAdam, seems to have been roused from his snooze. It may well have been the sight of a six foot Hen Harrier looking in through his office window that did it… Mr McAdam (@DougMcAdam) occasionally…
Four weeks today
Four weeks today, Inglorious – conflict in the uplands will be published by Bloomsbury. Inglorious has a Foreword by Chris Packham that is hard-hitting and passionate and makes the rest of the book look rather meek and mild. Inglorious starts with the Hen Harrier and its persecution by game interests, partly because many of us…
Henry, true grit and SuNH
Henry looks puzzled. And well might he be puzzled. Red Grouse shooting is often described as the shooting of ‘wild’ game – and it is certainly true that grouse, unlike pheasants, are not reared and released to bump up the numbers for shooting. However, a grouse moor is about as natural as a wheat field…
Interesting news on e-petition
This has recently appeared on the government website. Watch this space.