BREAKING NEWS: Scientists have been astounded by the discovery of a new species on Britain’s uplands. Given the scientific name Apodemus loricatorum aprilis asinus, it is found only on driven grouse moors. Research has shown that it can survive only in that specialised environment and scientists are excited by its extraordinarily rapid evolutionary development. Professor…
Tag: Natural England
Wales: supporting a ban on driven grouse shooting
Voters in Wales are supporting a ban on driven grouse shooting according to the support for two e-petitions on the Westminster parliament website: one which calls for a ban on this fieldsport and the other which seeks to maintain the status quo. 39 out of 40 Welsh constituencies are showing more signatures for the ‘ban’…
Limp response from Natural England
I’ve been at Cheltenham racecourse this week, and it was just before the last race on Wednesday that our lawyer, Tessa Gregory, phoned me to say that we had had a response from Natural England to our pre-action protocol letter. It wasn’t a very interesting response as NE said that because they were dealing with…
Guest blog – Bookends by Tim Bidie
I am a 63 year old retired British and Sultan of Oman’s Army Officer living overseas, in Oman, running a small business advisory consultancy in Muscat, helping small to medium sized British and European Companies achieve business there. I am a salt water (mainly) catch and release fly fisherman who occasionally shoots for the pot (with…
Guest blog – Whitebeam Spring by Ian Parsons
Ian Parsons spent twenty years working as a Ranger with the Forestry Commission, where he not only worked with birds of prey and dormice, but where he developed his passion for trees. Now a freelance writer, Ian runs his own specialist bird tour company leading tours to Extremadura. For more details see www.griffonholidays.com This is…
Defra’s third draft on grouse shooting: wholly inadequate
The e-petition of Ed Hutchings, which calls for licensing of grouse shooting, has received a government response.I know that Ed is travelling at the moment but before he headed off he said he would write a guest blog here on his return in which he was expecting to comment on the government response which he…
RSPB joins the party on Judicial Reviews
The RSPB has just announced on Martin Harper’s blog that it, too, is making a legal challenge to Natural England’s licensing of brood meddling. The RSPB tipped me off on Tuesday that they had made this decision but they were waiting until they had sent off their letter before action before going public. It’s good…
Press release from Leigh Day on legal challenge to brood meddling
5 March 2018 Campaigners are challenging the legality of Natural England‘s controversial decision to grant a licence for the ‘brood management’ of a protected bird of prey, the Hen Harrier. Brood management involves removing young harriers from nests, rearing them in captivity and then releasing them back into the wild. Natural England, the government’s adviser…
Peak Park Mismanagement – who introduced the Ostriches?
In a consultation document similar to the one above, the Peak District National Park introduces the Ostrich into the uplands of England. Rarely has a public body been seen to stick its head into the peat, but that’s what the Peak District NP is doing. Last year the PDNPA consulted on its draft plans for…
Thank you!
That was quick! Less than four and a half days. And 919 people donated (actually 920 now) – that’s amazing. And it shows the passion for Hen Harriers and the strength of feeling against this daft brood management plan but also, I suspect, against all the other nonsense going on thanks to Defra and…