The Bowland Fells SPA sits between Lancaster and Clitheroe, and High Bentham and Longridge, east of the M6 in Lancashire. It was classified in 1993 and one of the qualifying criteria was the number of nesting pairs of Hen Harriers (13) at that time. For a long time Bowland was the English stronghold of this…
Tag: Natural England
Bowland Gull Cull 23
Received from Natural England this afternoon. So this confirms that someone called ‘Trustee of 4th Duke of Westminster 1964 Settlement’, which I take to mean the Abbeystead Estate in this instance, committed offences in late June and early July 2017 in the Bowland Fells SSSI, to wit the bumping off of juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls…
Government promoting William Powell Sporting Agency
The government website is promoting William Powell Sporting Agency through a link on their website to Snilesworth Moor. If you click on Snilesworth Moor in the above link you are taken to the William Powell website… Days of up to 250 brace can be shot here which, at £150/brace comes to a cool £37,500 for…
Just a small plea (and a big table)
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This table was produced by Raptor Persecution UK and it is a valuable resource because it’s quite difficult to find these figures all in one place anywhere else. I assume it is correct – RPUK usually are – and it looks right to me, but I haven’t checked it (because it is a surprising amount…
Labour: It’s time to end grouse moor practices that harm the environment
Sue Hayman, the Shadow Environment Secretary has called for an end to rotational heather burning and an independent review into the economic, environmental and wildlife impacts of driven grouse shooting. ‘Driven grouse shooting uses intensive land and wildlife management to create a false environment in which grouse flourish. Natural habitats and ecosystems are managed in…
Wuthering Moors 70 – EU infraction proceedings
The Guardian has an excellent story on burning of blanket bogs on grouse moors today. Well done to Guy Shrubsole who has done a better job than I managed in getting these details out of Defra. Read the Guardian story here. The papers released by Defra confirm what you will have heard in this blog:…
Bowland Gull Cull 22
Dear Mr Mark Avery, Thank you for your complaint of Sunday the 5th of August 2018, regarding RFI 3929. We are committed to fully investigating all complaints from our customers and you will receive a response at stage 1 of the complaints process no later than Tuesday the 28th of August 2018. Our complaints procedure…
Bowland Gull Cull 20
From the parliament website: Anna Turley MP: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to Answer of 15 June 2018 to Question 152799 and Answer of 02 July 2018 to Question 157791 on Special Protection Areas: Birds, on what date her Department received the results of the public…
Guest blog – rewilding a step too far? by Ian Carter
There is much discussion about the potential for restoring species lost as a result of human persecution. Some have already made their return and our landscapes are all the better for it. After only a few decades since their reintroduction, a trip to the Chilterns without seeing Red Kites or to north-west Scotland without seeing…
Bowland Gull Cull 15 – NE’s much-delayed response to FoI/EIR request
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After more than a year, Natural England are beginning to come clean about their role in the Bowland Gull Cull (see here for series of earlier blogs). This is the letter I received from NE last Monday afternoon. At face value, this might give the impression that there was no consent for a gull cull. …