Today British Birds publishes a paper on raptor persecution in the Peak District National Park by Tim Melling, Mark Thomas, Mike Price and Staffan Roos. Here is the abstract: Abstract: The Peak District National Park is the southernmost area managed for driven Red Grouse Lagopus lagopus shooting in England. Grouse-moor management includes intensive moorland burning…
Tag: Natural England
Bowland gull cull 10 – update
Last week the RSPB published an interesting blog about the Forest of Bowland which included these passages: ‘The situation is complicated. Natural England have been attempting to tackle the historical culling consent granted to the Abbeystead Estate. As part of a 2016 Memorandum of Understanding, the estate voluntarily agreed not to cull gulls using these…
Forest of Bowland wants your views
The Forest of Bowland AONB is consulting on its management plan – you have until 25 May to respond. Please respond to this consultation – I shall. Off the top of my head I might respond by saying; the logo of the AONB is inappropriate since the key species has been wiped out over the…
Application for judicial review submitted
As predicted, there was a certain amount of to-ing and fro-ing over the final details of our application for judicial review of Natural England’s daft decision to license brood meddling (occasionally known as brood management) of Hen Harriers but the dream-team of lawyers submitted our application with no problem at all. Which is just as…
Natural England continues not to come clean – Bowland Gull Cull 9
The story so far: Smidgeons of information on gull culls from NE – 14 February 2018 Bowland gull cull licensing facts still kept secret by NE – 6 February 2018 FOI Bowland gull cull – November 2017 Quick response from NE on Bowland gull cull – 7 September 2017 Any NE news on Bowland gull…
Book review – Framing Nature Toolkit by Ralph Underhill
Reviewed by Ian Carter My wife picked up a copy of this short book at a recent Natural England event where Ralph was giving a talk. To be honest I was rather surprised they let him inside the building given how rude he has been about them – including that logo with the roof. The…
Press release: RSPB and Kent Wildlife Trust
Press release from RSPB and Kent Wildlife Trust: A Local council ignores national outcry by ploughing ahead with plans that threaten one of the last bastions for nightingales in England Last year over 12,000 people wrote to Medway Council to object to proposals that could see thousands of houses built at Lodge Hill, the most…
Guest blog – Peak District Moorland Monitors
Thanks Mark, for allowing us the opportunity to introduce ourselves! We are the Moorland Monitors – a group of local people from raptor, mammal and ecological backgrounds who want to combine forces to protect the wild species and wild spaces of the Peak District grouse moors. We believe that local people and visitors can play…
Gender pay gap data
The gender pay gap is a very blunt measure of anything – because it does not measure whether both (or more) genders get paid the same amount for the same job. But the data are out there. This is what I’ve discovered so far (data rounded to nearest whole number): If you’d like me…
Guest blog – ELS/HLS madness by Andrew Carter
Andrew Carter is a farmer in South Wilts with a pedigree Aberdeen-Angus herd which is making use of both chalk downland and meadows in the Hampshire Avon valley – much within the current Higher Level Stewardship scheme. He practices conventional arable farming, but with a high quantity of environmental balancing. A lifelong interest in natural…