Steve Downing, Chairman of Calderdale Raptor Study Group said, “At the beginning of August 2010 I visited Walshaw Estate with a friend looking for merlin, short-eared owls and hobby. Whilst we were there we noticed that a stream appeared to have been diverted and converted into a vehicle track, a separate track on another part…
Tag: Walshaw Moor
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Walshaw Moor is owned by Richard Bannister who almost always seems to be described as ‘wealthy’ so I guess he must be. He lives near the estate and is a director of Walshaw Moor Estate alongside being an apparently successful businessman. As far as I can recall, he and I have never met but he…
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If you aren’t interested in what I am beginning to think of as the ‘Walshaw Moor affair’ then come back to this blog tomorrow – but if you are, then come back to this blog during the day to see a range of blogs on the subject. The story so far: the peculiarly British sport…
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I am very grateful to Natural England (that’s @NaturalEngland for those of you on Twitter, where you can find me as @MarkAvery) for sending me details of the Walshaw Moor management agreement. They were clearly eager that I read it, so I have, and so can you here. What do you think of it? I’d…
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Further reading: Media House International acts for Walshaw Moor Estate Gordons solicitors act for Walshaw Moor Estate Company information on Walshaw Moor Estate Ancient history – in the old days, can you remember them?, one of NE’s predecessor organisations, English Nature, was active in protecting blanket bogs from destruction. Andy Clements, EN’s Director of Protected…
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The importance of UK blanket bog peat soils: Richard Benyon, 22 July 2010: Peat soils provide a wide range of ‘ecosystem services’ or functions for society, including carbon storage. UK peat soils are estimated to store around 5.5 billion tonnes of carbon, equivalent to 31 times the UK’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions if it…
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The Heather and Grass Burning Code of 2007 may have escaped your attention although it is a quite remarkable document carrying, as it does, the logos of Defra, Natural England, the Moorland Association, the CLA, the NFU, the Heather Trust and the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation. In paragraph 10 that document clearly states that: There should…
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Last Wednesday all Natural England staff received an email entitled Natural England’s work in the uplands. It tried to explain why NE’s Chair, Poul Christensen, had been reported as saying that NE’s Vital Uplands document had ‘let his organisation down badly’. Because not everyone agreed with the NE vision, which you may have noticed was…
Wuthering moors
Last week Natural England ‘reached an agreement’ with the Walshaw Moor estate which is feared by some to be a euphemism for caving in to intense pressure from grouse shooting interests. The joint statement, which reads to me as though it were made through clenched teeth, from NE and the estate, reads as follows: “Walshaw…