Hen harrier wars

SIR – The “Glorious Twelfth” will again be used by opponents of grouse shooting to focus on the plight of birds of prey, in particular the hen harrier.

As the country’s largest shooting organisation, we condemn raptor persecution and work with others to combat such crimes. However, we worry that, by making this a “one-cause” issue, the anti-shooting lobby creates a rift between people who could otherwise work together to support the recovery of one of England’s rarest breeding birds.

Natural England’s report, A Future for the Hen Harrier in England, gave six reasons for hen harrier nest failure: lack of food, poor weather, infertility, wildfire, predation and illegal killing.

We support the Hen Harrier Action Plan, produced by organisations working with Defra and Natural England, as the way to secure the long-term future of hen harriers.

Grouse moor management conserves such species on some of the 75 per cent of the world’s rare heather moorland that is found in Britain. Peter Glenser

Chairman, The British Association for Shooting and Conservation Wrexham