Yes, it’s that time of year again. The opening of the grouse-shooting season is upon us (although this year it’ll start on August 13th as the traditional opening day of the 12th falls on a Sunday) and the usual suspects are out in force to tell us all how great grouse moors are and how we should all be grateful for the conservation and economic benefits they provide. Not forgetting the predictable swipe at the RSPB along the way.
Shooting Times has an article suggesting that it’s time to sever ties with the RSPB due to their ‘bullying’ ways (see here). The best line has to be this: “For too long we have acted as gentlemen, only for our big-heartedness to be thrown back in our faces“. That’s priceless! Have a look here at an earlier blog we wrote about how the RSPB has been treated by these ‘gentlemen’!
An STV news article (here) has SGA Chairman Alex Hogg telling us how grouse shooting can save the world…or at least the rural economy, calling it a “modern industry” (ahem) and laughably explaining how “People admire Scotland’s diversity of landscape, its well-managed moorlands teeming with wildlife being a huge part of that attraction“!!!
An alternative view of grouse moor management can be found in The Guardian blog (here), where a national campaign against moorland bog-burning is due to be launched with a protest walk over the now infamous Walshaw Grouse Moor this Sunday.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Alex Hogg talks, as always, a load of rubbish. Teeming with wildlife? most of it has been killed by him and his fellow countryside ‘professionals’. As for moorland bog-burning – I for one will sign the petition against this.
The majority of Muirburn does not take place on blanket bog but on heather dominant faces and has been shown to be good for regenerating other plant species as well as heather.
If the heather is growing on peat and the peat is more than half a metre deep…..then it should not be burnt. Its set out in the muirburn code. If you dont comply with the code then you dont meet GEAC and the agricultural grants should be cut.
Burning is bad for other plant species which should be present on moorland particulary mosses, other bryophytes and vulnerable species such as juniper and petty whin. Burning changes the natural habitat and allows non-typical species to colonise the moor creating a false “biodiversity”. But why let the facts get in the way of spin?
Agricultural grants and payments are already cut and fines imposed on people burning outwith the muirburn code particularly in SSSI areas. Burning doesn’t destroy junipur and whins in many cases I have seen fires accidentally run into areas of these species and they have come back thicker and more prevalent than before. Indeed junipur is present in large areas of scottish grouse moors particularly in Inverness-shire and Aberdeen-shire.
No…Juniper is highly vulnerable to fire….here is a random link for google http://www.fao.org/ag/AGP/AGPC/doc/Gbase/data/pf000461.htm
read the bit that says:- ” Generally common juniper is killed or seriously damaged by fire; the relatively long germination period and poor germination rates contribute to slow postfire reestablishment.” This backs up the scarcity of the shrub across most grouse moors (and sheep walks). Please supply a reliable reference that suggests that our native juniper copes well with burning. I did not say “whins” I said “petty whin”, which is of course completely different. Its the sensitive species which always suffer.
I’m not that aware of any reclaim of agricultural grants for poor burning, I dare say that it is likely that the information is not released publically…..although if grant was reclaimed as a result of an SSSI being burnt the information should be in the public domain. I do know that the dept of agriculture seems to allow wide areas of blanket bog to be regularly burnt without challenge. Perhaps their inspectors don’t know how to recognise the habitat, but all you have to do is stick a cane down into the peat, and if its over .5m it is probably bog.
What is needed is a petition calling for a ban on driven grouse shooting..full stop. Enough is enough.
Is a ban on driven grouse shooting just the same as the class war seen during the fox hunting debate loosely disguised as being good for conservation!?
So is shooting not “for everyone” as we are so often told? Its good to hear somone from the sporting side come out and admit there is a class thing going on.
Ecologically, driven grouse shooting requires the active farming of grouse at the expense of everything else. If shooting was good for conservatiuon then we would not be having any discussion.
There is no doubt that driven grouse shooting is ‘not for everyone’ but many shooting sports such as pigeon shooting and wildfowling are. Just because a sport is seen as elitist is that a reason to attack it!? In the same vane most people can afford to try skiing by hiring kit and hiking up a hill but not everyone can afford a fortnight in the Rockies! Does this mean it should be banned too!? (interestingly its another form of recreation that can have major environental implications but that’s for another time and place!)
You made a trite comment and i responded with a trite comment…toe tweaking!
I dont have a gripe with shooting in general, but I do find driven grouse and pheasant offensive.
If grouse moors weren’t good for wildlife and conservation how do you explain the results of the Otterburn study and the abundance of virtually all species on Knarsdale Moor compared to the RSPB’s own Geltsdale reserve next door?
Where is the real biodiversity? Where are the harriers, the merlins, the eagles, ravens kites, twites, hares stoats, weasels etc etc etc? Where is the diversity in the vegetation structure- the juniper, the willow, the birch? Managed grousemoors are only good for a very narrow clad. The range of species that should be present are not allowed to establish and prosper. Food chains are permanently broken, soils are damaged and the water table is knackered. When will shooting fraternity actually read some books and learn that good biodiversity does not equate to a lot of individuals of the same species.
You are totally correct lots of induliduvidials of one species doesn’t amount to biodiversity but neither does a long list and over abundance of predators! Spend a few days on virtually any Scottish grouse moors and you can see lapwings, golden plover, curlews, ring ouzels and yes, buzzards, ravens, eagles, merlins and kestrels among other raptors. I am not debating the lack of breeding success of some speices on driven grouse moors but this doesn’t mean they are not present on almost a daily basis. Unquestionably the land is managed to produce a surplus of red grouse but like any predator/pray relationship this also coralates to an abundance of raptors.
I dont understand what you are saying in your first sentence, what is an over abundance of predators? I have spent many many days, on many grouse moors….over many years…and I know what I see. I know what I see because I have a deep ingrained interest in natural history and I have both studied it academically and in practice.
I have actually never seen a lapwing on the heather moor, perhaps occassionally in peripheral white ground near some short grass, not out on the hill. Ring ouzel…sadly a very scarce sight these days…..how does frequent heather burning help the invertibrates that this bird feeds on? Etc etc etc…
I have to disagree with your choice of best line from the fictional magazine “shooting times“, Editor. I thought it was the line “ constantly harried the real conservationists of the UK — its shooting and fishing communities.” he seems to have completely forgotten the shooting community were responsible for eradicating the Osprey, White Tailed Eagle and Goshawk from the UK and almost eradicating the Red Kite, Pine Martin, Pole Cat and Scottish Wildcat amongst others, he seems to have completely forgot about the current situation regarding the Hen Harrier in England. He shamelessly drags the Cormorant fishing debate up in a blatant effort to draw extra support from the fishermen to his own cause. Unbelievable!
He needs to look up the word conservation in the dictionary and then book an operation to have his head removed from his backside.
Good luck to all involved with the march on Walshaw Moor.
Great points Paul, I endorse all you say. Grouseman – you are on the opposite side of the argument – but I give you credit for defending your side and for putting yours points on here, just a pity you don’t give your real name.
Hope this is appropriate but, if its a good laugh you’re after Mr Hoggs latest blog is here http://www.scottishgamekeepers.co.uk/content/august-6th
Not sure where Alex Hogg lives, but I’m just a few miles south of Moy. I don’t know what has happened to the Buzzards, I used to see them on a daily bases but now seldom see any. As for other birds of prey, I haven’t lost a pigeon since last February, I can only assume that they are all on Mr. Hoggs estate!
Surely the buzzards follow their food supply? About five years ago we had many buzzards in our home area and at the same time we had a large population of rabbits. The rabbit population collapsed and the buzzards disappeared. They are now back and so are the rabbits.
Not so sure that a conclusion is all that easy to reach. For years there were 4 or 5 pairs of buzzards in my neck of the woods. Rabbit population fell to almost nothing a decade ago. Buzzard population was unaffected and were commonly seen taking small rodents including stoats and weasels.
There is a pheasant shoot with 2000 poults being brought in every July. That number has gone up to almost 4000 poults in the last two years. Stoats and weasels are vigourously trapped. The rabbit population has increased.
However, there is only one pair of buzzards this year (2 pairs last year producing 2 young) and they have not produced young.
Not enough evidence there to support a conclusion, but one cannot avoid being suspicious.
Moorland managed for grouse shooting is, in general, beneficial for wildlife. Most grouse estates are in fact teeming with wildlife, including the rarer species such as lapwings and golden plover. Most of the remaining black grouse populations are on shooting estates. Except for the small minority of estates where raptor persecution takes place, even raptors benefit from game management, because of the abundance of prey and habitat. A lot gets said about hen harriers but it was only a few years ago that hen harriers were thriving on grouse moor in the forest of Bowland.
Don’t belittle gamekeepers for stating that game management is beneficial to wildlife. Based on research and the experiences of many people, game management is good for wildlife. This is not “predictable shite”. Game management is conservation, it pays for itself, and it covers much bigger ares. Shooting estates manage more land for conservation than all the conservation bodies put together.
Most moorland burning does not take place on blanket bog, and it is beneficial. It does not change the “natural” habitat, because moorland is entirely man made, once covered with forest. If it was not managed with burning, it would disappear.
I feel that my post is just going to be dismissed and ridiculed. But I stand by what I say. Gamekeepers are the best at conservation.
I was not going to belittle youe post, I was going to argue this point for point……but its all been said earlier.
Learn about the habitats and all of the species and get a real understanding of what has happened.
Keepers are the best at single species grouse mananagement…….nature is best at conservation.
“Shooting Estates Manage more land for conservation than all the conservation societies put together” is rubbish put about by a PR company paid by gamekeepers to write something positive about them. Shooting estates manage land for shooting full stop. any species that benefits from this benefits by coincidence, much of the land refered to in this statement is in national parks and is worked on by conservation charities such as the BTCV , dont you think this kind of rubbish belittles their work? The welsh Black grouse project is work shared between several conservation groups working alongside estates, please dont belittle their efforts. Thousands of people provide food in public parks up and down the country, has their contributions to conservation been accounted for. I think not. total PR rubbish