Naturalists and conservationists who know the uplands are unconvinced by the claims made by the shooting industry that driven Red Grouse moors are rich in wildlife. Here are some more excerpts: Caz Walker: I live in rural Cumbria at 900 feet, not far from the Lakeland Fells, where you’d imagine there would be a lot…
Tag: Natural England
Any takers?
I’ll bet you a pound to a penny that the Hen Harrier, named Rowan, found dead in Cumbria, did not die of natural causes. Any takers? Amanda? Liam? Andrew? Well done to the Hawk and Owl Trust for funding this satellite tag in a joint project with Natural England. No doubt Natural England will have…
Gems from the written evidence 11 – Bob Berzins
More extracts of evidence pertaining to the Peak District – this from the evidence of Bob Berzins: I have enjoyed the outdoors all my life but over the last 10 or 15 years, especially since reports like Peak Malpractice, I have seen signs of wildlife persecution and understood the significance of damage to protected habitats….
Gems from the written evidence 6 – the raptor workers (1)
Raptor workers give up their time voluntarily to monitor the numbers of these fabulous birds. Their evidence on raptor numbers and raptor persecution should carry considerable weight. Here are some extracts from the evidence that has appeared so far (more is to come I am sure) and from a professional academic too: North of England…
SNH show that licensing is flawed
North of the border, SNH has taken away licenses from grouse shooting estates to control predators of grouse and then given them back again. SNH describe this as ‘robust licensing’. The ‘general licence’ was withdrawn from several estates but then specific licences, covering the same activities, were given back. SNH would presumably regard taxing me…
What next?
Yesterday – evidence session Today – written evidence from the four witnesses who were called to give evidence in person published In the next few days hundreds of written submissions received by the inquiry will be published I will submit supplementary evidence to the Committee I believe that option is open to the public too…
NE use at all?
Just as Defra did not submit written evidence to the inquiry into driven grouse shooting – nor did Natural England. The fact that NE have been spending our taxpayers’ money on a detailed study of ranging behaviour and mortality of Hen Harriers since 2002 has not led them to think that they might have anything…
What Defra would have had to admit
After cogitating (aka as delaying) for a month, Defra finally told me it wouldn’t answer questions about its response to our successful e-petition on banning driven grouse shooting (123,076 signatures). The House of Commons Petitions Committee will hold an evidence session, jointly with the EFRA Committee, on this subject next Tuesday (see here and here)…
Defra firmly in the shooting camp.
There is a pro-grouse-shooting e-petition which is stumbling forward – it has almost reached 19,000 signatures after 7 weeks (in comparison, our e-petition to ban driven grouse shooting got there in under half the time – who said driven grouse shooting is popular?). Defra has just published its response to this e-petition which is as…
West Pennine Moors
Natural England moves with the pace of a snail when it comes to protecting wildlife sites but with that of a cheetah when it comes to issuing licenses to bump off wildlife. Because of NE foot-dragging in the area of Gate Zero there now appears to be a race against time to get the West…