To Rory Stewart, Defra Dear Minister The government response to the e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting is simply awful. It is partial and inaccurate. I have previously asked Defra whether responses of this sort are seen and signed off by ministers and have never received a response. Did you sign off this response?…
Tag: habitats directive
Puffins, red-faced with embarrassment
It’s been a bad few weeks for the Puffin – only tenth in the vote for our national bird and listed in the European Red List of birds. It’s not having a good 2015. The first was just a bit of fun, the latter is a matter of life and extinction. The Puffin is one…
Open letter to Marc Bolland of M&S
Dear Marc Congratulations on your increased profits and increased share price! It can’t all be due to customers flocking back to you after your decision not to sell grouse meat last year, but I have certainly been doing my bit to increase your profits. Your wise decision not to sell grouse meat in your stores,…
Inglorious
Inglorious: conflict in the uplands will be available for Hen Harrier Day (9 August), the Inglorious 12th and thereafter. Published by Bloomsbury in late July – but you can order it now on World Book Day.
Wuthering Moors 47
Walshaw Moor Estate has had its planning application refused. The reasons are quite interesting given the history of the site. I see that the Bronte Society and the RSPB objected – clearly successfully – good for them in my opinion! in fact there were 41 objections and one letter of support. Where were Natural England…
Wuthering Moors 43
This is the fourth blog today on the subject of burning of blanket bog (see here, here, and here). These were sparked (!) by the RSPB releasing data on the scale of the issue and calling for an end to the burning of blanket bog. There has been a little media coverage of this –…
Wuthering Moors 42
The scale of burning of English blanket bogs revealed by the latest RSPB work is scary. There are 127 separate consents (mostly through HLS agreements – ie we taxpayers are paying for it too) for burning on blanket bogs. These affect these seven Special Areas of Conservation (SACs)(Border Mires, Kielder-Butterburn; Ingleborough Complex; Moor House –…
Water flows downhill
The ‘Ban the Burn’ group is having a demonstration outside the head offices of Natural England tomorrow morning as NE staff arrive at work. It’s not only lowland flat places that suffer flooding – Hebden Bridge has had more than its fair share over recent years. Many residents there feel that poor management on the…
Wuthering Moors 38 – some more photos
Rumour has it that NE and Defra are both in a tizzy over a few photographs of moorlands on this blog. So, let’s have some more of them. These are all, I’m told (as I have never been there myself) from Walshaw Moor. To check the grid references use this link. …
Wuthering Moors 37 – if you go up on the moors today, you’re in for a big surprise