Bird-brained opposition
Pinehurst II, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7BF Telephone 01252 555072 www.countrylife.co.uk
Many of us are frustrated by the state of nature, but when a Government-led initiative that could unlock a 25-year-old wildlife war is challenged by the body campaigning to protect that wildlife, it makes you wonder if politics, rather than common sense, is preventing the recovery of cherished species and endangering others.
The politics of conservation continue to rage as two threatened birds—the hen harrier and the curlew—return to the uplands to breed. Their fates are intrinsically linked: hen-harrier numbers have dropped due to illegal killing in the same uplands the curlew thrives in, but in which that bird is reliant on human management to curb natural predation and provide habitat.
Grouse shooting’s achilles heel is, without doubt, the persecution of hen harriers, a running sore since the Joint Raptor Study at Langholm in the 1990s. This proved that increased numbers of hen harriers and other birds of prey can curtail driven grouse shooting, but when shooting ceases, numbers of curlew, lapwing, golden plover, black grouse—and hen harrier—plummet.
numerous initiatives, such as the Environment Council and the multi-million pound Operation artemis (a police campaign to tackle illegal raptor killing), failed to solve the problem. next came Langholm 2, when, among other things, diversionary feeding of hen harriers was deemed the answer.
all the while, pressure has been mounting on grouse shooting, not least with former RSPB conservation director Mark avery’s petition to ban driven grouse shooting and end hen-harrier persecution, which secured a parliamentary debate with 100,000-plus signatures in 2016.
The industry has also become a victim of its own success: medicated grit has halted grouse population crashes due to strongyle worm, but means the gamebird has boomed to the extent that it’s vulnerable to new diseases and the shot-grouse market has flatlined.
all this led to Defra’s seven-point Hen Harrier Recovery Plan, designed to increase harrier numbers and range through science, dialogue, legislation and pragmatism. Sadly, the RSPB quickly jumped ship, but what’s hardest to comprehend is why brood management— with chicks raised in captivity—is the most contentious element when it’s the key to unlocking the conflict: reassuring grouse managers that there won’t be a moor-threatening build up of harriers, but putting the onus on them to deliver more of them.
Why is the RSPB joining Dr avery in questioning the legality of brood management via a judicial review? Surely, the carrot should be offered before the stick? If they get their way, the consequences for the hen harrier and the curlew will be dire.
Surely, the carrot should be offered before the stick?’