The shooting industry (BASC this time): Heather burning good for biodiversity says study. A consortium of 50+ environmental and wildlife NGOs in the State of Nature report (p26): ‘In large areas, uplands are also subject to burning rotations as part of grouse moor management. This can result in heather dominating blanket bogs and has greatly…
Tag: grouse shooting
Goyt Valley peregrine – an update
The shooting of a young Peregrine Falcon in the Goyt Valley on the Derbyshire/Staffordshire border has been well-covered by our big brother blog, Raptor Persecution UK (see here). Again – they broke the news of a raptor killing – they do that a lot. But there has been follow-up information on the BBC and in…
And, David, if you have a spare £10.5m…
And so we say farewell to David Cameron the former Prime Minister and now former MP for Witney – I wonder whether the constituents who wrote to him about grouse shooting will ever get a reply? Mr Cameron will be remembered for accidentally getting us out of the EU when he himself wanted to stay…
Quick thoughts from the Sheffield conference
I spent Thursday evening, Friday and Saturday morning with a disparate bunch of supporters and opponents to banning driven grouse shooting at the Sheffield conference on raptors, peatlands and the uplands. It was valuable in all sorts of ways, not least in meeting some blog readers and supporters whom I rarely see (for some of…
Defra did something good
It was an easy win – a future partial ban on microbeads – but nonetheless it is very welcome. And understandably Defra has made quite a lot of it – wouldn’t anyone? Have you noticed that the @DefraGovUK Twitter stream has had a definite upgrade – at least in terms of presentation. Defra’s Twitter stream…
The grouse moor conception of national leadership
I can remember when Harold Wilson was Prime Minister – I remember my father couldn’t stand him because of something called Selective Employment Tax (funny what you remember isn’t it?) – but I certainly didn’t remember him referring to grouse moors. So I am grateful to a former RSPB colleague and reader of this blog…
Grouse moors and flooding by Chris Packham
How does shooting grouse for fun connect with the misery of having your home or business flooded? It’s no coincidence that the constituency that has provided the most signatures for our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting is the Calder Valley (Craig Whittaker MP, 762 signatures). Calder Valley has been flooded several times in recent…
Sunday book review – Badgered to Death by Dominic Dyer
I enjoyed reading this book and I strongly recommend it to you. This is a powerful and stimulating read and it’s bang up to date with the important issue it discusses. It is written by a passionate insider with years of experience. The narrative is pacey and exciting. This book arrived with me on Thursday…
The latest Chris Packham video – Grouse medication and hare loss
Here is the latest Chris Packham video on driven grouse shooting. Oh yes – there are more to come. Please sign the e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting which passed 119,000 signatures today. Next week we will hear when the expected parliamentary debate on this subject will take place. Here are some other…
Caption competition
Amanda Anderson seen talking to the boys in blue at Edale Hen Harrier Day. A couple of Amanda’s most famous quotes; ‘If we let the hen harrier in, we will soon have nothing else.‘ ‘From the clip, it is very difficult to make out any detail at all, either of a person or a decoy….