I reviewed Tony Juniper’s book on ecosystem services quite a while back, but after a tweet from him yesterday supporting the questions I posed to Countryfile, I went back and checked what Tony had written about grouse moors. Page 102: ‘We’ll always be able to treat the water, it’s just that it’s very expensive’ [A…
Category: BAN DRIVEN GROUSE SHOOTING
Please could Northumberland National Park…
Please could Northumberland National Park name, or at least give a reference, for the 20% of Britain’s spiders that will disappear if upland heather burning were to cease. I’m pretty sure that the one above isn’t one of them. But I was wondering, surely the lowlands are the place for spiders anyway – like they…
Countryfile 2
Yesterday’s blog on the item on heather burning on Sunday’s Countryfile clearly chimed with a lot of people. It was read by over 5000 folk yesterday evening and attracted a lot of comments both here and on social media. Controlled burning to stop wildfires has been likened to throwing away all your money to prevent…
Dear Countryfile
Dear Countryfile I’m pretty sure I am the type of person you think you are appealing to – interested in nature and the countryside – but I rarely watch you because you have such a blatant agenda of trying to paint a small subset of those of us who live in the countryside as…
Flood re
I’m not entirely sure I understand how this flood re thing works – it’s either because I’m a bit thick or because these explanations don’t quite do it for me (Association British Insurers, Defra, Aviva). You’ll notice that everyone is stressing the benefits to those living in flood-prone areas – which is nice, but I…
Thank you Scotland!
It’s very obvious that there are a lot of signatures coming our way from Scottish constituencies. This is wonderful! And, entirely appropriate. Although our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting will eventually receive a response from Defra and not from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, its aims are not country-specific. If we were to reach…
At last!
Very early this morning, in a surprise announcement, the Countryside Alliance said it would stop defending the indefensible, lay down its arms, and advise its members to switch to walked up shooting. ‘We recognise that driven grouse shooting is damaging the environment in so many ways that defending it is taking up too much of…
This sounds very bad
Hen Harrier “Lad” found dead on Speyside – read the full RSPB account Slight doubt about whether it was shot or not? Estate not named – quite rightly. see also blog by Raptorpersecutionscotland
Ban driven grouse shooting Facebook page
Our Facebook page is still here. Henry likes it.
Humberstone Bank Farm – beyond nature
Yorkshire Water is making an interesting offer – help them improve water quality, water retention and carbon storage on their land while ‘working with the sporting interest’ on an upland farm north of Blubberhouses. Blubberhouses Moor in Yorkshire is mentioned in Inglorious (page 59) as the site where a stroppy rich man, Lord Walsingham, shot…