Ben Macdonald is a conservation writer, field director in wildlife television, and a lifelong naturalist; passionate about restoring Britain’s wildlife, pelicans included, in his lifetime. He has been the conservation columnist for Birdwatching magazine, as well as a contributor to the RSPB Nature’s Home and BBC Wildlife. He has worked on a range of TV series, including for the…
Tag: grouse moor
Wuthering Moors 83
The Walshaw Moor Estate has withdrawn its clearly flawed planning proposal for a new track across Walshaw Moor. This brings to an end the latest chapter of this long-running story in which this blog has played its part. And this article in the local Burnley Express shows moorland monitors visiting Walshaw Moor.
First witness statement
This was my first witness statement in the brood meddling judicial review. For the Claimant Dr Mark Avery 16 April 2018 IN THE HIGH COURT (ADMINISTRATIVE COURT) CO/ /2018 IN AN APPLICATION FOR PERMISSION TO APPLY FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW BETWEEN DR MARK AVERY Claimant -and- NATURAL ENGLAND Defendant -and- JEMIMA PARRY-JONES First Interested Party -and-…
Michael Gove for the few not the many…
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NSoames/status/1111214357386575872 Michael Gove is currently the favourite in the Betfair odds to be next Tory Leader (ahead of BoJo in 2nd place). This is generally regarded as the worst place to be in the betting for Tory Leader this early in the running – front-runners rarely last the course. But he’d better look more…
A good weekend
We gathered at Parkgate on The Wirral for the high tide at midday on Friday. As the tide comes in, particularly the highest tides (and this was an equinoctial high tide with a super moon!) the voles and mice on the saltmarsh swim for their lives and the predators gather for the feast (as do…
We couldn’t have done it without you – says Natural England to the criminal elements in grouse shooting
Yesterday’s devastating scientific description of the impact of grouse shooting on the threatened Hen Harrier (the original paper, my blog on its findings) was greeted by Natural England Director, Rob Cooke with the following: This research identifies the scale of the problem hen harriers have faced on grouse moors. It makes for sobering reading and…
Long-awaited scientific paper nails grouse moor crimes
It’s been a long time coming but the paper published today in Nature Communications is crushing proof that grouse moor management is overwhelmingly the source of wildlife crime against Hen Harriers. The open-access paper by Megan Murgatroyd, Stephen Redpath, Stephen Murphy, David Douglas, Richard Saunders and Arjun Amar is entitled: Patterns of satellite tagged hen…
We lost – but we’ve already made a difference
A little while ago Mrs Justice Lang handed down her judgment on the legal challenges by myself and the RSPB. We lost. In fact we both lost on all counts so it sounds like a bit of a massacre – but it wasn’t. Our challenge was of the decision by Natural England to issue licences…
Sunday book review – Green and Prosperous Land by Dieter Helm
This book, out of 25+ I reviewed in 2019, was the title I chose as my wildlife book of the year – I recommend it highly. You can buy this book from Bookshop.org and I have set up a booklist to make that easy through this link https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/MarkAvery Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org…
Countryside Alliance clash with Defra policy on grouse hand-outs
The Countryside Alliance is giving Chris Packham a little rest and is turning its nastiness towards Tony Juniper, Michael Gove’s proposed new Chair of the hapless Natural England (who will appear before the Efra committee on Tuesday). According to the Sunday Telegraph, campaigners representing ‘farming, countryside communities and businesses‘, (though only the Countryside Alliance is…