The e-petition of Ed Hutchings, which calls for licensing of grouse shooting, has received a government response.I know that Ed is travelling at the moment but before he headed off he said he would write a guest blog here on his return in which he was expecting to comment on the government response which he…
Tag: grouse shooting
Peregrines
The results of the 2014 Peregrine survey are now published (not very quickly). It’s good to see the detail although the overview results have been available for quite a while. Peregrines have done well in the lowlands and badly in the uplands. We already know (since 2011) at an even finer grain, for northern England,…
Press release from Leigh Day on legal challenge to brood meddling
5 March 2018 Campaigners are challenging the legality of Natural England‘s controversial decision to grant a licence for the ‘brood management’ of a protected bird of prey, the Hen Harrier. Brood management involves removing young harriers from nests, rearing them in captivity and then releasing them back into the wild. Natural England, the government’s adviser…
Thank you again – you eco-zealots!
Over the last few years we have been on a journey together. Those of us who are affronted by the scale and impacts of wildlife crime, and/or those who object to driven grouse shooting as an unsustainable leisure activity which is underpinned by wildlife crime, have used a range of techniques that are available to…
Wemmergill Moorland Plan
Wemmergill Moor is where a young Hen Harrier ‘disappeared’ in February – the latest of so many. It is also the first site where NE agreed a Moorland Management Plan with the estate. These MMPs are the response of Defra and NE to the fact that they have been told by the European Commission that…
Marc’d down on Wemmergill
The news (RSPB blog, RPUK blog) of yet another disappeared Hen Harrier from the cohort of 2017 youngsters is not a great surprise. There aren’t that many left! But the location is interesting – Wemmergill Moor. Wemmergill Moor is a big-name grouse moor. Until 2006, this moor, of 17,000 acres had been in the same…
#justice4henharriers
Last week I met two barristers and a couple of solicitors and was advised that there is a good legal case on which we can challenge the ridiculous plan by Michael Gove’s Department of the Environment (Defra) to remove eggs or chicks of Hen Harriers from grouse moors – a scheme they call brood management…
Wuthering moors (62) – this deep!
Here are some images of the proposed path of the track across Walshaw Moor: all taken at the weekend by the wonderful Bob Berzins. Bob tells me ‘It is all deep peat up there and has a great wilderness feel. There is very little sign of vehicles being used so far. It would be…
Guest blog – An end to Peak pessimism by Alex Lees
Alex Lees is a lecturer in biodiversity at Manchester Metropolitan University and lives in the Peak District. Twitter: @Alexander_Lees Towards a wilder future – an end to Peak pessimism? Story 1. Nearly three decades ago I visited mid Wales on a family holiday. It was a successful quest for…
Tracking the Midhope moor case – Peak District
Long-term readers of this blog may remember this case in the Peak District National Park from May 2016. This track was constructed in 2015 without planning permission but funded by Natural England despite it being in an SPA, SAC and SSSI. In 2016 the estate applied for retrospective planning permission and over 180 of…