Standing up for Nature
Information Commission Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF I was recently considering making a donation to the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, using their website. https://www.gwct.org.uk/donate/general-donation/ I was very concerned that although I was asked to disclose my contact details as part of the process of making a donation, it was not at…
Fundraising Standards Board 65 Brushfield Street London E1 6AA I was recently considering making a donation to the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, using their website, and I was concerned when I was unable to discover what percentage of my donation would be spent on the cause. https://www.gwct.org.uk/donate/general-donation/ When I managed to track down a…
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…
Complaint to Charity Commission I am writing to you in connection with the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT – charity number 1112023). There are several significant issues about the charity that concern me, and given their volume, I thought it best to make a complaint. I was recently considering making a donation to the…
There has clearly been a plague of pigeons attacking this valuable heather crop on an SSSI in the Peak District – that’s the only reason for employing bird-scaring devices such as this gas gun (and what are those white flags for?) in an SSSI during the breeding season. Obviously. Since a gas gun doesn’t fall…
An advantage of being in Scotland is that the Torygraph up here didn’t have this non-story in it. The disadvantage was that it had some quotes by the Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association instead. I didn’t seem to have missed much. Apparently being an ex England captain is now an ecological qualification. At least Botham is described…
The Countryside Alliance is carrying out a survey of crime in the countryside. As you work through the survey you will eventually come to a section where they are particularly interested in wildlife crime, which I took to include illegal use of lead shot in killing wildfowl in England and Wales and loss of Hen…
Last week the You Forgot the Birds campaign disclosed that their ‘campaign’ was funded by the British grouse industry. Today, in the Mail on Sunday (prop P Dacre, grouse moor owner) YFtB is described as a grassroots campaign of farmers and conservationists. 59-year old Ian Botham has been brought back into the bowling attack. He attempts…
Henry is, by chance, very topical this week, seeing as how he is in the Forest of Bowland. Yesterday, Henry reminded us of how many Hen Harriers used to nest in that area in the recent past. The number of nests has often been in double figures – several times higher than the current whole…
You might see some coverage in the papers today that has been generated by a press release from You Forgot the Birds – but probably not much coverage. You’ll remember that these are the people, ‘led’ by Sir Ian Botham, who tried to give the RSPB a hard time last autumn and succeeded in stiffening…