Dales gamekeepers who are taking a stand against killing birds of prey
GAMEKEEPERS IN the heart of the Yorkshire Dales are taking a stand against wildlife crime by demonstrating how their profession can help rather than hinder conservation efforts.
The Nidderdale Moorland Group, a network of gamekeepers in and around the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, say the killing of protected birds of prey has no place in land management.
One of its members is Roy Burrows, gamekeeper at the privately owned Summerstone Estate, where five kestrel chicks hatched in a disused barn this month thanks to their conservation efforts. The British Trust for Ornithology has now visited the chicks to fit markers around their legs so they can be tracked throughout their lives.
“I think now there are a lot of gamekeepers who have started to condemn wildlife crime. We don’t accept it,” Mr Burrows said.
“Sometimes there have been bad apples, as there can be in any profession, but as a group, we are trying to focus on the good things and promote good practices and show people what we are doing.”
Mr Burrows said money generated by grouse and pheasant shooting was reinvested in wildlife conservation on the estate, with kestrels, buzzards and owls among the birds seen there.
He said: “The wildlife and the game work hand in hand so what benefits one hopefully benefits the other.”
The Nidderdale Moorland Group has been described as “a credit to their profession” by specialist wildlife officer Sergeant Kev Kelly, of North Yorkshire Police’s Rural Taskforce.
He said: “We don’t skirt around the fact the convictions do point towards land managers and gamekeepers.”
But he said Roy was “the perfect example of a gamekeeper” and the Summerstone Estate was a fantastic example of such work in action.
He said: “It’s almost like going around an animal park.”