The campaign to protect Coul Links is important to me. I know the site and the thought of it becoming yet another golf course when it is so important for wildlife is abhorrent and, in many ways, sums up the ways in which wildlife is so often pushed aside in the modern age. And I…
Tag: Walshaw Moor
The Wadsworth Trog on Walshaw Moor (Wuthering Moors 82)
Tomorrow, Saturday, there is a fell run over parts of Walshaw Moor organised by the Calder Valley Fell Runners and called the Wadsworth Trog. We’ve missed the chance of entering (damn!) this race of 19 miles and a height range of over 3600′. Few of the entrants will probably realise that Walshaw Moor is one…
Wuthering moors 81 – some more detail
This blog looks in a bit more detail at the volte face that Natural England has been forced to make as a result of my (our) legal challenge. A bit later today I will take a broader view of what Natural England needs to do to regain some credibility and public confidence. Although the letters…
Wuthering moors 80 – another, even greater, victory!
Back in May we won a significant victory against Natural England’s decision to sign an agreement with the Walshaw Moor Estate which included a new track across the protected landscape of the moor. You may think that was the end of it but no, we’ve been nagging away at NE for the last few months…
Wuthering Moors 79 – are these some new grouse butts?
Photo: taken on 31 December 2018 I hear that there is a lot of activity on Walshaw Moor these days – and also these nights. Locals have heard that there are some more grouse butts going in to the moor. No doubt Natural England would be aware and would have consented this activity if it…
Wuthering Moors 78 – NE and Defra must act
This post is about damaging tracks, past and present, on protected moorland. I’d like to take you back in time on Walshaw Moor. This photograph was posted on this blog in Wuthering Moors 39, 13 September 2013. I pointed out that this place was marked on the OS map as a stream but now (in…
Wuthering Moors 77 – a track going nowhere
Introduction: This post is about a track that a grouse shooting estate wants to build across their grouse moor. The land is designated because of its nature conservation importance. I, with the help of some very clever lawyers and the financial support of many of you, have stopped this track being built once on the…
Wuthering Moors 76 – more moor burning
Michael Gove has asked moorland owners to be good boys (and girls – although all the landowners in the room at the time were actually men) and to stop damaging blanket bogs through burning them. Burning is carried out so that men (and a few women) can shoot lots of Red Grouse for fun as…
Wuthering Moors 75 – six long years of complaining
Six years ago today the RSPB made its complaint to the European Commission about burning practices at Walshaw Moor and many other driven grouse moors in the UK (See Wuthering Moors 28, 15 October 2012). The RSPB deserves great respect for this important move (even though it is very quiet about it itself these days)….