Jonny Hughes is CEO of the Scottish Wildlife Trust and a global councillor for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Twitter: @jonnyecology What now for Beavers in the UK? It’s been an up and down kind of year for nature in the UK. The State of Nature report…
Tag: golden eagle
British Beavers Back to stay
Eurasian Beavers living in northern Britain, Scotland actually, are to be given legal protection so that they can spread their range naturally. This is a big step forward for rewilding proponents and anti-de-wilding proponents but I forecast trouble ahead. Already the NFUS is up in arms about this and has said that proper management of…
Golden Eagles on a weak thermal
There ought to be a lot more Golden Eagles in the UK and the results of the most recent survey (2015) show that there are more than in 2003 so that’s good news. There are 508 pairs of Golden Eagles in Scotland which represents an increase of 15% which isn’t bad at all and is…
Dear minister 1 – the status quo just won’t do
Dear Therese Coffey Today I assume that you will close the Westminster Hall debate on driven grouse shooting. I’m just guessing here, but I’d be surprised if you will be signalling that Defra is asking for parliamentary time for a ban on driven grouse shooting. OK, that time will come eventually. But what you really…
Gems from the written evidence 22 – Hugh Webster
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This was a very well-written and well expressed piece of evidence. Here are some extracts: I firmly believe that the law should be changed to specifically ban driven red grouse shooting. I am aware that some conservationists would settle for a licensing system as a compromise, but this tempting option fails to address the underlying…
Gems from the written evidence 21 – more from upland areas
Naturalists and conservationists who know the uplands are unconvinced by the claims made by the shooting industry that driven Red Grouse moors are rich in wildlife. Here are some more excerpts: Caz Walker: I live in rural Cumbria at 900 feet, not far from the Lakeland Fells, where you’d imagine there would be a lot…
Gems from the written evidence 19 – Nature Scotland
Disclaimer (March 2020) – This was not written by anyone connected to the tourism company ‘Nature Scotland’ and was done by an external person who decided to title it ‘Nature Scotland’. A view from someone in an industry that suffers because of driven grouse shooting; I work in the Wildlife Tourism industry and I can…
Gems from the written evidence 17 – retired policeman Neil MacDonald
This is the evidence from someone with plentiful experience of investigating wildlife crime. Here are some excerpts from his expert testimony; I was a senior crime investigator with the police but found investigating wildlife crime a very frustrating part of my work as a police officer. Of the many wildlife crimes I was tasked to…
Gems from the written evidence 13 – name withheld
Here is the summary of another very powerful piece of written evidence: The shooting industry and its representatives should be removed from all positions of power where wildlife crime law enforcement policy are discussed or decided upon. Driven grouse moors should be rewilded. This at a stroke, would remove the many very serious problems of…
Gems from the written evidence 1 – Alan Stewart
The written evidence to the inquiry into driven grouse shooting has started to be published – but there are, I am told, hundreds more examples to come. I’ll be quoting from and commenting on some of them here over the next week or so – although my ability to get connected to the internet may…