I’ve read this document – click here – several times, and I’ll need to read it several times more to get the most out of it. But my initial rating of it is 6.5/10 which is quite a bit higher than I expected. I’d be very interested in others’ views on this document and I’d…
Tag: grouse shooting
Why Hen Harriers don’t prosper in the Forest of Bowland and what could be done about it
Introduction: This blog was prompted by reading the Draft Management Plan for the Forest of Bowland National Landscape (the new name for the Forest of Bowland Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). I have written several earlier versions of this blog and electronically ripped them up and put them in the bin. This is where I…
Ben Goldsmith to write Reform nature policies.
Well, this will be interesting – Ben Goldsmith will be advising Reform on its nature policies according to the Guardian – click here. Ben is a true, but quirky, friend of nature and Reform’s environmental policies were laughable at the last general election – click here. Clearly, if Reform were to challenge for power at…
RSPB – Gamekeeper pleads guilty in Hen Harrier persecution case
Gamekeeper pleads guilty in England’s first-ever Hen Harrier persecution case On 29 January at York Magistrates Court Racster Dingwall – a head gamekeeper on the Conistone and Grassington Estate in the Yorkshire Dales National Park – pleaded guilty to conspiring to kill Hen Harrier. Footage and sound recordings obtained lawfully by the RSPB’s Investigations team were…
RSPB Hen Harrier press release
Six more rare Hen Harriers vanish on or near grouse moors with another confirmed poisoned Seven RSPB satellite tagged Hen Harriers are suspected or confirmed to have been illegally killed in England on or near land managed for grouse shooting in 2025 – with three in just thirteen days. Hen Harriers are a protected, Red-listed…
Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 16 by Nick MacKinnon
Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…
Guest blog – Walshaw Turbine 13 by Nick MacKinnon
Nick MacKinnon is a freelance teacher of Maths, English and Medieval History, and lives above Haworth, in the last inhabited house before Top Withens = Wuthering Heights. In 1992 he founded the successful Campaign to Save Radio 4 Long Wave while in plaster following a rock-climbing accident on Skye. His poem ‘The metric system’ won…
On (but not on) Walshaw Moor
If there were a fan club for Walshaw Moor then I’d be a member, despite never having set foot on it. I have passed it on the roads, stopped and looked at it, been glared at by its gamekeepers and spoken about it in meetings in both Hebden Bridge and Haworth and even won a…
The badly valued uplands
It wouldn’t be true to say that the following was the talk I delivered at a conference in Sheffield on 1 October, but this is a close approximation to what I wanted to get across. Some of it is also in my book Reflections, some was in the Manifesto for Wildlife of 2018 and some…
Hen Harrier English reintroduction project closes after eight years of failure
Natural England has admitted (click here) that its badly-judged (click here) Hen Harrier reintroduction project isn’t going anywhere and has pulled the plug. In a blog that tries to make the best of publicly-funded activity through 2018-25, cuts to NE’s budget were given more of the blame than the difficulties that NE had to persuade…