The RSPB has sparked a row with countryside groups over grouse shooting by calling for moors to be licenced amid claims the charity is becoming increasingly politicised. The charity is writing to all major political parties urging them to introduce a robust licensing system “to prevent the wanton destruction of wild birds”. It claims birds of prey such as the Hen harrier are being illegally killed on driven grouse moors – 50 per cent of which are designated as Special Protection Areas for the rare birds they support.
RSPB claims birds of prey such as the Hen harrier are being illegally killed on driven grouse moors – 50 per cent of which are designated as Special Protection Areas (SPA’S) for the rare birds they support
However, the Countryside Alliance described the RSPB’s calls as “irresponsible”, arguing that grouse moor owners collectively spent more than £52 million each year on the upkeep and conservation of moorland.
Adrian Blackmore, shooting director for the CA, said: “Moor owners put in an enormous amount of their own money each year to manage and conserve those moors.
“If that money was to cease then the implications to conservation and rural economies would be enormous.”
The Moorland Association said the RSPB’s seemed intent on making a stir in public, rather than discussing the issue directly.
The RSPB is taking its usual highly selective slant on these matters. Grouse moors are not natural environments, but instead man-made, man-managed environments designed to have a great variety of heathers (kept at different growth stages by burning different patches in different years) and an artificially low level of predators.
ReplyDeleteIf the management of a grouse moor ceases, then several things happen. Firstly, the heather all over-grows. This decreases the available food for sheep and grouse, and the grouse population then crashes. Secondly the mesopredator clade increases in numbers, so that carrion crows, stoats, weasels and foxes become much more common. An increase in the rabbit population also occurs.
As these things happen, the numbers of rare birds nesting on the moor drops dramatically. Grouse moors are usually closed off to the general public, or public access is policed to keep it on the paths. Once no gamekeeper is patrolling, anyone may roam anywhere they please, and some twerp roaming willy-nilly with his dog is a huge deterrent to nesting birds. If the dog is an active hunter like a lurcher or terrier, this effect is magnified.
Thus if you stop grouse shooting, the biodiversity crashes and hen harriers simply do not breed.