our war on nature

[emordnilap]

This is a good piece from Lesley Docksey; very readably written.

The Tories do not like wildlife. The Chancellor, George Osborne, accused the habitats directive, aimed at safeguarding wildlife and biodiversity, of “placing ridiculous costs on British businesses”. After this country finally banned the hunting of animals (mainly foxes, deer and hares) by dogs in 2004, Tory MPs mutter about repealing the law so they can get back to killing for fun. And the Heythrop Hunt, which Cameron himself follows, was convicted last December of illegally hunting foxes. All birds of prey, protected by law, are seen as enemies of the rich who own large estates and love shooting pheasant and grouse. Such a man is Owen Paterson, appointed by Cameron to be the Environment Secretary, an appointment that provoked outrage among environmentalists. His department, Defra, came up with a scheme to deal with the awful threat to young pheasants.

As the RSPB’s conservation director Martin Harper said, “We are shocked by Defra’s plans to destroy buzzard nests and to take buzzards into captivity to protect a non-native game bird released in its millions”. Pheasants are bred almost entirely for the idle rich to shoot. And Defra admitted no studies had been done to find out whether buzzards really are a threat. Another public outcry and a retreat into ‘consultations and studies’.

[woodburner]

Osbourne is an a*****le, but it's a pity Lesley Docksey lets emotive statements colour the article. Many of the people who go shooting pheasants may be rich, but they're not necessarily any more idle than the rest of us.

Many people wrote to their MPs about the buzzard scheme, and I understood it was supposedly dropped.

[JavaScriptDonkey]

It is often shooting groups who save and maintain ground in which wildlife thrives. Many little woods and ground cover crops exist only because they are left for pheasants to use. The knock on effect for other species is immense.

I don't mind hunting ...it's people you think they can influence my life based on their sensitivities that gets on my nerves.

[biffvernon]

It is often shooting groups who save and maintain ground in which wildlife thrives.

As in the heather moors of much of upland Britain maintained for rich men to pay even richer men to shoot grouse. The heather moors, from a biodiversity standpoint, are a desert compared with the natural woodlands and grasslands that would return if the heather management were ceased.

[UndercoverElephant]

Osborne understands nothing at all about anything that matters.

[kenneal - lagger]

'fraid I must agree with you there!!

[emordnilap]

Only wildlife can maintain wildlife.

[JavaScriptDonkey]

It is often shooting groups who save and maintain ground in which wildlife thrives.

As in the heather moors of much of upland Britain maintained for rich men to pay even richer men to shoot grouse. The heather moors, from a biodiversity standpoint, are a desert compared with the natural woodlands and grasslands that would return if the heather management were ceased.

Most heather management involves clearing the heather to allow the grass room to grow. Dunno about trees on the upland moors I've seen but free range grouse is a nice enough meal.

As an aside I'm not entirely sure of the numbers but a large number of pheasant shoots are run by small groups who tend their own land and then shoot on it. There are big estates but apparently the market is too small to support many.

[biffvernon]

Most heather management involves clearing the heather to allow the grass room to grow. Dunno about trees on the upland moors I've seen but free range grouse is a nice enough meal.

No, the heather is burnt and that stimulates it to grow new shoots, which is what grouse eat. They don't want the grass for grouse.

Naturally, only the very highest mountain tops in Britain would not support trees.

[UndercoverElephant]

Most heather management involves clearing the heather to allow the grass room to grow. Dunno about trees on the upland moors I've seen but free range grouse is a nice enough meal.

No, the heather is burnt and that stimulates it to grow new shoots, which is what grouse eat. They don't want the grass for grouse.

Naturally, only the very highest mountain tops in Britain would not support trees.

[quibble]
plus most of East Anglia, which is naturally wetland, until it was drained by Dutch engineers, because the English still hadn't figured out how to do it properly.
[/quibble]

It's the same down here in the deep south. Many people think downland is naturally grassland, and it is protected as grassland, because it supports rare grassland plants...but it would "naturally" be woodland. Not that I need to tell you this.

[JavaScriptDonkey]

That's me revealed as non-grouse shooting low lander then - mistaking young heather for grass.

[kenneal - lagger]

Grass on my grouse moor? Sacrilege!! Sack the gillie!