Miles King has written regularly on this site. His previous blogs and more information about him can be found here. Twitter: @MilesKing10 . Berrier Farm under Trees: 100 acres of Bog, Heath and Grassland destroyed by tree-planting. England desperately needs more trees, we are constantly told. And it’s certainly true that tree cover here is…
Tag: Natural England
Gamebirds victory (16) – the 500m myth
DEFRA Secretary of State, George Eustice, says; The negative effects of gamebird releases on protected sites tend to be localised with minimal or no effects beyond 500m from the point of release. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/defra-concludes-its-review-into-releasing-gamebirds-on-and-around-protected-sites I wonder why Mr Eustice thinks that. Might it be because that’s what was in a DEFRA Witness statement made by an…
Gamebirds victory (15) – the 500m buffer zone.
There is a narrative developed by DEFRA and Natural England that the Madden and Sage review, and the bits that they didn’t look at, all combine to mean that any impacts of gamebird releases are limited to, and are known to be limited to, 500m from release sites. This is not true. It’s not true…
Gamebirds victory (14) – NE’s got some work to do
If you read the DEFRA witness statement (paras 11-21) you’ll find that Natural England has a lot of work to do checking sites before DEFRA can be sure that gamebird releases are not wrecking our best wildlife sites. If only there were a regular and frequent programme of assessing important wildlife sites which was properly…
Gamebirds victory (9) – lead, another ignored factor.
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Lead ammunition was part of the Wild Justice legal challenge to DEFRA but DEFRA (and Natural England) tended to ignore it. I can see why, it’s a very difficult issue for them politically though very clear biologically. Just as readers of this blog think that Waitrose should deal with the issue of lead in the…
Gamebirds victory (8) – an unproven but potentially important impact
Here’s a dead Pheasant. Something will come along and eat it (although since it is surrounded (for a distance of far more than 500m in all directions) by grouse moor the density of scavenging birds and mammals might be quite low. A good bet for the destination of quite a lot of roadkill gamebirds is…
Gamebirds victory (6) – there is no evidence?
Tim Bonner made an extraordinarily brash claim on Today on Saturday; There is no evidence whatsoever that Pheasant or Red-legged Partridge are doing any significant damage to these special sites. There is simply no evidence. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000p0fj It is unlikely that DEFRA would have been forced to bring in regulation of gamebird releases (by Wild Justice’s…
Gamebirds victory (4) – what Tim Bonner said, and what he might have meant.
Tim Bonner is the gift that keeps on giving. In our little chat on Today (at 1hr 50mins into programme) on Saturday morning he said a couple of things that are worth examining in more detail. Here they are: There is no evidence whatsoever that Pheasant or Red-legged Partridge are doing any significant damage to…
The Well-read Naturalist
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I’ve been catching up with John Riutta’s recent book reviews on The Well-read Naturalist. I read all of his book reviews even those that are rather local to his part of the world, of northern Oregon. I read them because they are so thoughtful and so well written. I sometimes feel I’d rather read John’s…
Hen Harrier brood meddling returns to court in 2021
In January 2018 Natural England issued a licence for brood meddling (some called it brood management) of Hen Harriers. I challenged the legality of this straight away (and RSPB did soon after) and was given permission to seek judicial review of the decision (as were the RSPB). We went to court in December 2018 and…