A club official’s lot

Simon Trinder talks about the uncertain future for wildfowling (Letters, 27 January). I took over as honorary secretary of the Fenland Wildfowlers Association, a relatively large club on the Wash, last November. Writing my secretary’s report recently was a real eye-opener as to what we as club officials have to deal with to try to preserve our way of life.

First up was a Natural England (NE) consultation on the coastal path running through our stretch of foreshore, with 200 pages of accompanying reading matter. Thankfully, the proposals consisted of upgrading gates and signage and restricting public access to the saltings. A definite result.

Next, we received the Home Office firearms consultation, the sections most relevant to us being air rifle regulation — which threaten to limit one of the main entry pathways into shooting — and the possession of ammunition components (for home-loading).

Hot on the heels of this was a NE consultation on assessing the condition of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). All our shooting falls within an SSSI, so this is important to the club. On the face of it, NE’S proposals sounded sensible. However, as always, the devil is in the detail.

The problem arises with NE’S proposed method of transitioning to the new approach. Rather than categorising the start point of the condition for a feature based upon its condition across the majority of its range, or where the majority of its population live, NE is planning to adopt the ‘least favourable’ approach. For example, if mallard was scored as ‘favourable’ in nine out of 10 units within an SSSI and ‘unfavourable declining’ in one unit, mallard would be assessed as ‘unfavourable declining’ across the SSSI.

The Wash SSSI is made up of more than 60 units so the potential for error is huge. NE itself admits that levels of positive categorisation will reduce from more than 90% to less than 55%.

As clubs on the Upper Humber found in 2020, in the absence of real data NE will not hesitate to use the ‘precautionary principle’, and with the stroke of a pen halt wildfowling altogether.

Wildfowlers on the Humber echo vice-president of BASC Sir Geoffrey Cliftonbrown’s recent assessment of NE as “not fit for purpose” (News, 23 December 2020). Following advice from BASC and our own consultants, the consultation was duly completed. We just hope that NE takes some notice of our comments.

As I write, we are wrestling with Defra’s 150-page interim gamebird release licence. The club has a small game shoot adjacent to the Wash

SSSI. Completion will be manageable using yet more guidance from BASC.

Chris Barker, by email