Time to change Scotland’s land-use policy

- You published a rather alarmist letter from Mr George Sangster of Craigo, Montrose, about the potentially devastating consequences for both our wildlife and rural communities if grouse shooting were to be banned.

Given that neither rural jobs and communities or our wildlife are doing particularly well (State of Nature RSPB, 2013) it might actually indicate that driven grouse shooting, particularly because it allows little else in the way of other land uses, is a cause rather than a solution to the problems they face.

Of course, the loss of driven grouse shooting would be a disaster to those who like driven grouse shooting, but the fact that it only occurs in the UK and no other country in the world has adopted it in the 150 years it has existed, might tell you something about its supposed value to the countryside. There isn’t any.

Norway has a considerably healthier rural economy, including proper hunting, than we do, along with more forest and wildlife.

The native predators of red grouse are not vermin, they are as much a part of the ecosystem as the grouse itself. They have co-evolved and coexisted for millennia.

I would also add that a proper habitat mosaic that includes areas of scrub and woodland as well as proper (non incinerated) moorland will do a lot better job of holding back rainwater and alleviating flooding than the rotationally burnt heather that gets palmed off as a natural habitat.

Nothing will stop flooding entirely, but there’s tremendous scope in reducing it as has been shown at Belford, at tributaries of the Tweed, Holnicote and Pickering.

Would our grouse moors voluntarily take up the required eco-restoration on their land? It is time for change based on common sense and a countryside better for people who live there, want to visit and for our wildlife too. Les Wallace. 86 Alyth Drive, Polmont.