If you had a rainforest, and slashed and burned it, you’d be putting a lot of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, just as surely as if your nation ran a lot of gas-guzzling cars. Natural ecosystems often act as carbon stores which sequester greenhouse gases – forests are the obvious ones but peatlands are also…
Tag: grouse shooting
Henry, true grit and SuNH
Henry looks puzzled. And well might he be puzzled. Red Grouse shooting is often described as the shooting of ‘wild’ game – and it is certainly true that grouse, unlike pheasants, are not reared and released to bump up the numbers for shooting. However, a grouse moor is about as natural as a wheat field…
Henry occupies the butts
Looking very snug there Henry! Occupy the butts! Go to a grouse moor, find a grouse butt, take a photograph of yourself occupying the butt, send in the photograph to this website. Finding one of these butts is easy – you don’t have to walk for miles across the moors – a lot of them…
Bowland – signs of the times
Let’s not forget that four male Hen Harriers have ‘disappeared’ this breeding season from active nests in the AONB of the Forest of Bowland whose logo is a Hen Harrier. The Duke of Westminster owns the grouse moor of Abbeystead in the Trough of Bowland but there are a couple of other sporting estates there…
That pigeon plague
I hadn’t realised there are so many pigeons pecking away at the heather in our National Parks. Above is a Fairbang gas gun set up in the Peak District – is it really fair to have gas guns banging away in our National Parks? Is this what National Parks are for? I gather you can…
Oddest sighting of Hen Harrier?
A reader of this blog was pleased to see a male Hen Harrier pictured on this Environment Agency sign on the Jubilee river (which is the flood prevention scheme near Slough – of all places). It would be possible to see a Hen Harrier near there in winter but it would be a good…
Access clarified?
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Further to my enquiries (see here and here) about how I, as a member of the public, find out about access to ‘open access’ land in the uplands I have received this email from the Peak District National Park: Thank you for your email and for providing a link to your blog. The restriction…
Pigeon plague on moorlands over Britain
There has clearly been a plague of pigeons attacking this valuable heather crop on an SSSI in the Peak District – that’s the only reason for employing bird-scaring devices such as this gas gun (and what are those white flags for?) in an SSSI during the breeding season. Obviously. Since a gas gun doesn’t fall…
Glen Tanar – Henry is impressed
Glen Tanar – great place. And a man cycles past without giving Henry a second glance. I don’t think there have been any Hen Harriers at Glen Tanar for a while but when I visited in 2011, I was impressed by what was happening there. I talked to Colin McLean who was then the estate…
M&S
Dear Marc Bolland Just a recap really in case you are thinking of selling red grouse meat in your shops this year. Some things that have happened since your excellent decision not to see red grouse meat in your shops last year: I started shopping at M&S again governments, including the EU (and including the…