It’s the burning season in our National Parks. This scene is from the Peak District National Park, on an SSSI and in a Special Protection Area for Birds and is upstream of the Rivelin Reservoir where Yorkshire Water is spending £24m to improve Sheffield’s water quality (see here and here). Much of the catchment draining…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
NO COMMENT from Defra
I emailed Defra a month ago to ask them some questions ahead of the grouse shooting inquiry. There were quite a lot of questions and Defra were clearly rattled by them as they waited until the very last minute before replying yesterday (see below) with the biggest ‘no comment’ I’ve ever seen. As I have…
Evidence session
A week today, between 215pm and 245pm, I’ll be giving evidence to a joint inquiry into grouse shooting by the Petitions Committee and the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee. It’s not a long time, but we’ll see how it goes. You can see how it goes by attending in person or by watching on…
GrouseMoorExit here we come?
A You Gov opinion poll (2033 respondents questioned on 19 & 20 Sept) commissioned by Animal Aid shows that 48% of people would ban driven grouse shooting – only 28% oppose a ban. So when you take out the undecideds that’s 63% in favour of a ban and 37% against it. Since 52% is enough…
Defra firmly in the shooting camp.
There is a pro-grouse-shooting e-petition which is stumbling forward – it has almost reached 19,000 signatures after 7 weeks (in comparison, our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting got there in under half the time – who said driven grouse shooting is popular?). Defra has just published its response to this e-petition which is as…
Questions for Defra
I submitted this request for information to Defra on 12 September. I am looking forward to receiving their full response on or before 12 October so that I can refer to it in my oral evidence to the inquiry into grouse shooting. This email is a request for information ahead of an evidence…
Absolutely last chance
I’m not sure when the cut-off is but you are running out of time to submit evidence to the House of Commons inquiry on grouse shooting. Here is the link. I’ve been sent some of your submissions and several people have quoted our new Prime Minister whose speech to the Conservative Party Conference today included…
Heather burning, water quality and greenhouse gas emissions
The Committee on Climate Change made a written submission to the Environmental Audit Committee inquiry into soil health in January this year. In it they wrote: ‘The English uplands are dominated by blanket bog and heathland habitats, which tend to have highly organic and peaty soils. When in good condition, peat bogs actively soak up…
I worry about them…
This is Brian – Brian is another Hen Harrier who has gone missing in his first few months of life when travelling around the driven grouse moors of one of our National Parks. You can read about it here and here. I’m a bit worried about some other Hen Harriers. First we have Finn… …no,…
Driven grouse shooting – what a laugh!
Even the Daily Telegraph (from yesterday) finds something funny about driven grouse shooting. At least, the incomparable Alex does. Please sign the e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting – last chance is today!