Earlier this year I spent a few hours in the sun watching intently as a male hen harrier brought food back to his mate at their nest.
The guys around me were enjoying the weather but were preparing for a long shift into the cold of the night and having to cope with what ever came their way. Twenty four hour nest protection means exactly that, day and night, round the clock.
Young harriers photographed on a licensed nest visit over 32 years ago - photo by me.
It was hard to get my head around the fact that it was 32 years since starting in my first RSPB job, protecting nesting hen harriers – where have those three decades gone? There is a small chance that the birds I was watching were the distant descendants of the ones in the picture below taken in 1982. Small, because last year no hen harriers nested successfully in England and in the intervening years it’s been tough for a bird that has the unenviable record as the most persecuted bird in Britain.
The lack of hen harriers in England – or indeed on any of the UK’s uplands where intensive management to produce large numbers of wild red grouse is the predominant landuse – is but one symptom of a problem that defines the relationship between conservation and the grouse industry.
And it is an industry – the transformation of our hills is rapid and profound; laying tracks intensifying drainage, burning the vegetation to produce exactly the right conditions to produce the maximum number of red grouse for sport shooting.
Grouse shooting is but one aspect of the wider shooting industry that has been presented in terms of economic performance in a report featured on Countryfile. Published by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation and the Country Land and Business Association – the figures are considerable, and while I’m sure economists could pick over the details, the scale of the shooting industry is not really in any doubt.
I was asked to comment on the report for BBC 1’s Countryfile Programme, which was broadcast on Sunday 6 July (or this evening if you are reading this blog soon after it was posted).
Tom Heap and the Countryfile crew visited the RSPB headquarters seeking reaction to the BASC/CLA report
Here’s what I said specifically in relation to the uplands:
‘Shooting is generally forcing the population [bird] to go down. There are some exceptions but whilst illegal persecution of birds of prey, the draining of uplands and burning of peat continues the net impact of shooting is negative’.
This was, of course, only part of what I said in a wider interview – and I’ll come back to that. But first here’s the evidence of the impact of an industry which, we believe, should be considered alongside the economic scale and claimed benefits brought to our hills and moorlands by sport shooting.
On hen harriers - here and here
On waders
On upland habitats here and here
In highlighting the impacts it doesn’t mean that we ignore the scope for shooting to support wider conservation and environmental benefits – and we constantly seek to work with progressive voices within shooting – and we’ll continue to do so. Our Skydancer project is just one example of this.
But the pace of change in the hills is surprising and worrying – and needs to be addressed with urgency.
That is why we are calling for effective regulation including the licensing of driven grouse shooting in England.
We’re forging alliances with progressive landowners and managers to do more to restore our hills.
And, yes, we will acknowledge that shooting management and conservation can work together.
... some bits that ended up on the cutting room floor
In the lowlands farmers with shoots helping to give turtle doves a future
Several farmers that won our Nature of Farming award ran shoots on their farm.
And in a couple of weeks time we will run our annual stand at the CLA Gamefair with the theme of working with shoot managers in the lowlands to give nature a home. Could we do that with shoot managers in the uplands? When the answer is an unequivocal yes, we’ll know we’re making progress.
Skydancer has been nominated for Best Education Project in the National Lottery Awards 2014! Vote for us online by 23rd July
The RSPB is supporting Hen Harrier Day on 10 August
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And if there was no hunting of Grouse there would be practically no Grouse Moors in the UK as only a small proportion are owned by conservation organisations and the majority are owned by Grouse Shooters and then all the other valuable wildlife would be gone as there would be no moors left at all except the few owned by conservation organisation.
Regards Ian.
Regards,
Ian.
On this subject of hen harriers it was interesting to read a report in this months Ethical Consumer magazine on their call to action to stop the intensive farming of grouse. This report shows a direct link to the demise of this beautiful bird and finishes with a number of ways we can all get involved by proposing three calls to action. 1. Don't shoot grouse 2. Don't buy from businesses connected to grouse shooting and 3. Help campaign for a suspension of all subsidies for grouse shooting estates.