Month: August 2020

Regular blog readers will already know about the Langholm Initiative’s crowdfunding campaign to try and raise the money to buy an old grouse moor from Buccleuch’s massive estate and transform it into a species-rich nature reserve to benefit local people, nature conservation and tourism (e.g. see here, here, here, here, here here and here).

This week the project has received a donation of £0.5 million.

Press release from the Langholm Initiative (21 August 2020)

£500,000 donation keeps race-against-time community buyout bid alive

One of Scotland’s largest community buyouts that has appeared at risk in recent weeks has received a major boost thanks to a £0.5 million pledge from the Dunblane-based Carman Family Foundation.

The community of the small town of Langholm in Dumfries and Galloway aims to buy 10,500 acres of Langholm Moor – jointly valued at £6 million – from Buccleuch’s Borders Estate.

The project – led by the Langholm Initiative charity, and likely to be Scotland’s biggest community buyout in land value to date – would see a vast nature reserve created on the culturally important land, to tackle climate breakdown, boost nature restoration and support community regeneration.

But the community has been facing a race against time after the Scottish Land Fund recently awarded the Langholm Initiative £1 million, a third of the amount applied for, on condition the purchase is completed by October 31 – leaving the community just weeks to raise the remaining £5 million.

“The Carman Family Foundation’s tremendous £500,000 support for the Langholm Moor Community Buyout is a major boost, and couldn’t have come at a better time. It really keeps the project on track. This kind of support makes all the difference, and we’re hugely grateful,” said Margaret Pool, chair of the Langholm Initiative. 

Bill Carman, Trustee of the Carman Family Foundation, said: “We’re delighted to be helping bring this special area into the ownership of people who take biodiversity – both flora and fauna – seriously. Langholm Moor deserves to be protected and enhanced, because it is crucial that we all help the natural environment stabilise and re-establish, but also because it will act as an excellent example of how humans can work together in selfless communities. We think it is really important that the buyout succeeds, and would urge all who read this to contribute as much as they can.”

Creation of the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve would see globally important peatlands and ancient woods restored, native woodlands planted and regenerated along river valleys, and open moorland protected for ground-nesting birds. The land is a haven for wildlife including merlins, black grouse and short-eared owls, and a stronghold for hen harriers – the UK’s most persecuted bird of prey.

Public donations for the buyout have now reached £200,000, including through a crowdfunding appeal at gofundme.com/langholm-moor-buyout. This year’s Hen Harrier Day – held online on 8 August, and hosted by television presenters Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin – raised around £10,000 towards the purchase. The John Muir Trust has donated £100,000.

The Langholm Initiative is also working with the new South of Scotland Enterprise Agency. The charity is seeking other major funders, and is urging people who can help to get in touch.

“We’ve been overwhelmed by the support we’ve received, including the kind donations to our crowdfunder from some 2,000 people so far. We’re going to exhaust every opportunity to seize this once-in-a-lifetime chance for the people of Langholm and for tackling the climate and nature crises,” said Kevin Cumming, the Langholm Initiative’s Project Leader.

The Langholm Initiative is asking the Scottish Land Fund to extend its October deadline. Benny Higgins, Executive Chairman of Buccleuch, has also written to the Scottish Land Fund to express Buccleuch’s support for an extension, which would increase the prospects of a successful and workable outcome in the community buyout discussions.

The buyout project is supported by leading charities including Borders Forest Trust, John Muir Trust, Rewilding Britain, RSPB Scotland, Trees for Life, and The Woodland Trust.

Langholm, nestled in the beautiful and dramatic Southern Uplands, has a rich history and culture. It is the birthplace of legendary poet Hugh McDiarmid and is famous for its annual Common Riding festival. The once thriving textile centre has seen this industry decline in recent years. The people of the town have a deep connection to the land, which has never been sold before.

The Langholm Initiative was formed in 1994, as one of south Scotland’s earliest development trusts. It facilitates projects that make a lasting difference to the local area and local people.

The Carman Family Foundation was set up to assist with projects that both enhance biodiversity and encourage people to gain knowledge and enjoyment from the newly enhanced land.

To find out more and to support the crowdfunding appeal, visit langholminitiative.org.uk.

ENDS

This is deeply unpleasant stuff from BASC.

Posted on the BASC website last week:

Targeted and abusive, aimed at a young woman at the start of her conservation career, who would never in a million years consider herself a ‘celebrity’.

Megan’s ‘crime’? First, writing an accurate post on social media about the environmental damage caused by driven grouse shooting. And second, being Chris Packham’s step-daughter.

BASC’s Garry Doolan, ex-tabloid hack (and boy, can’t you tell) accuses Megan of writing ‘woke guff‘ (which, as Mark Avery points out here, is a term which ‘tends to be used pejoratively only by the far right of politics, and racists’) and says her words were ‘admirably tackled in the comments thread‘.

By ‘admirably tackled‘ is he referring to the personal abuse Megan has received, which, unsurprisingly, has since increased considerably since BASC published this personal attack?

Nasty stuff, BASC, very nasty indeed.

YOU CAN TAKE ACTION

If, like Megan, you’re sick to the back teeth of illegal raptor persecution on driven grouse moors, please consider participating in this quick and easy e-action to send a letter to your local Parliamentary representative (MSP/MP/MS) urging action. Launched 11 days ago by Wild Justice, RSPB and Hen Harrier Action, over 56,000 people have signed up so far.

This means that over 56,000 pre-written letters complaining about illegal raptor persecution and the environmental damage caused by intensive grouse moor management, are winging their way to politicians of all parties across the UK. If you want your local politician to receive one, Please join in HERE

Thank you

To coincide with the opening of the grouse-shooting season this year, BASC, the British Association for Shooting (and conservation, ahem) paid for front page adverts in some prominent newspapers, promoting the so-called ‘benefits’ of driven grouse shooting. BASC staff members were quite pleased with themselves, self-congratulating on social media.

Duncan Thomas, BASC’s in-resident raptor persecution denier, proclaimed, ‘Absolutely superb coverage in Yorkshire Post this morning…..well chuffed’. Somebody needs to explain to Duncan the difference between paid advertising and media coverage. Sounds a bit like astroturfing, doesn’t it? It’s got a familiar stench to it.

Meanwhile, back in the world where actual real people have been able to view the evidence and draw their own conclusions, we had this response (here) from Graeme Bandeira, cartoonist at the Yorkshire Post and now a further damning opinion piece in the Yorkshire Times from features writer David Goff.

You can read the article in full, here.

YOU CAN TAKE ACTION

If you’re sick to the back teeth of illegal raptor persecution on driven grouse moors, please consider participating in this quick and easy e-action to send a letter to your local Parliamentary representative (MSP/MP/MS) urging action. Launched 11 days ago by Wild Justice, RSPB and Hen Harrier Action, over 56,000 people have signed up so far.

This means that over 56,000 pre-written letters complaining about illegal raptor persecution and the environmental damage caused by intensive grouse moor management, are winging their way to politicians of all parties across the UK. If you want your local politician to receive one, Please join in HERE

Thank you

A couple of weeks ago the three members of Wild Justice (Chris Packham, Mark Avery, Ruth Tingay) were interviewed by Jimmi Hill, the founder of the charity Raptor Aid.

It was a wide-ranging interview including questions about the origins of Wild Justice, ‘hidden agendas’, BBC impartiality, the different roles of the Wild Justice directors, hen harrier brood meddling, satellite tagging, licensing or banning driven grouse shooting, Natural England, future plans, and the big one – what music would be played if all three were in a car together, who would be navigating and what snacks would be eaten?

The 36 minute video is available to watch here: