Hot on the heels of her last article on how burning Britain’s moorland is ‘an environmental disaster’ (here), the Daily Mirror’s Environment Editor, Nada Farhoud has a follow up article out today.
This time she interviews Emmerdale actor Nick Miles, who lives in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and has been a long-time supporter of conservation campaigns such as Hen Harrier Day.
Nick talks about his village ‘disappearing under a blanket of smoke’ when the gamekeepers have set the moors alight and how letters to his MP, Rishi Sunak, have fallen on deaf ears.
He also talks about how few red kites he sees in Upper Wharfdale (hardly surprising given its proximity to Nidderdale, where killing red kites on grouse moors is de rigueur) in comparison to Harewood, where Emmerdale is filmed and from where red kites were reintroduced and are doing well.
Read today’s article in the Mirror here (and watch out for the comedy input from Moorland Association Director Amanda Anderson).
Meanwhile in Scotland the fires also continue. I’ve been sent some horrific photographs that were taken in the Angus Glens two days ago – I’ll be publishing those later this weekend.
And here’s a photo sent in by another blog reader (thank you) taken yesterday in Manor Valley in the Borders:
It’s astonishing that not only is this burning still legal (although for how much longer remains to be seen) even though we’re in a climate and nature emergency, but that gamekeepers in Scotland can lawfully continue to set the moors alight until 15th April, and then with landowner’s permission can continue to light fires until 30th April.
Still, it’s a cracking wheeze for torching out hen harrier nests, peregrine breeding ledges and golden eagle eyries, which can then be explained away as ‘accidents’ (see here).
Pass the matches.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Good stuff from the Daily Mirror!
If Amanda Anderson was Pinocchio you would be able to hang all of the washing in the Yorkshire Dales on her nose – xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
She .. Amanda Andersen stated in a previous response to Nada that the “Fire and Rescue Services value controlled burning” .. when in reality our brave lads and lasses of the Fire Services would rather be helping the public who are in real danger .. rather than respond to and extinguish an out of control ..”controlled fire” ..
She really needs to think a little more before [Ed: rest of comment deleted as libellous]
Its high time Amanda Anderson packed her bag and wandered off to some other company and left this sinking ship to fully submerge ….
I remember when it used to be called Emmerdale farm and the only shotgun was a legally held one now it’s quite the reverse it’s all about everything illegal now drug taking guns (illegal)murdering and so on that it’s become the norm and so it is in society but it’s frowned upon to kill birds to eat in their own natural environment some people just don’t know the countryside and never will go on a grouse moor and the biodiversity is fantastic yes there is raptor persecution we want to stop it as much as everyone else .what I find funny is the evidence the antis give out is always no use whatsoever and it seems to me that their is a bit Of skullduggery about always a person shown but not a face makes you think
What a load of illiterate rubbish. No bird shot with lead is fit to eat. Biodiversity on grouse moors is very poor – where are the natural predators? And no, no one in the shooting business is the least bit interested in stopping raptor persecution, otherwise it would not continue.
Whatever Keith you just can’t handle the truth nobody said anything about lead shot you just an anti who can’t realize that animals need to die for food and the ones we shoot are wild and free more than your supermarket food and if we really want to get into it never seen you protesting about halal or having a go at the local KFC for mass produced slaughter or come to think of it never seen you tackling the wildfires caused by the public but oh look gamekeepers helping out on unkeepered Moors
And the whataboutery king strikes again!
Who are you can’t even put your real name on your writing
Someone who recognises bullshit when he sees it. And, one with at least a rudimentary grasp of punctuation.
If you want me to use punctuation I will if makes you happy but it’s sad when you have to attack me and call me when you don’t even know me just we have different views most of this is done on my phone which has the smallest keyboard makes it very hard. there is usually 2 sides to a fence and sometimes people can’t see over the other side
” you have to attack me and call me”…
???
All we see on your side of the fence is burned ground, illegal traps, stink pits, poison baits and piles of dead raptors.
By the way…Sentences begin with a capital letter.
“but it’s frowned upon to kill birds to eat …” followed by “nobody said anything about lead shot”
Yet the whole shooting industry use lead shot.
“animals need to die for food”
But being shot with lead makes the food poisonous, according to the Food Standards Agency.
“never seen you tackling the wildfires caused by…” muirburn getting out of control, not to mention damaging the underlying peat, causing excessive erosion to be followed by inevitable flooding.
And this year’s award for whataboutery goes to Paul Hargreaves, for his hilarious attempt to use the totally irrelevant content of a TV soap to justify the abuse of our countryside.
And regarding the TV coop what was getting at in the early 80s it was quite allright to go shooting grouse we even highlighted the twelfth it was on news flying grouse on a helicopter to restaurant’s and hardly any violence on TV and I was just emphasizing the point
And what the hell has that got to do with Emmerdale Farm, Supermarkets, KFC and Halal Slaughter?
Your hobby was just as damaging and riddled with criminality then as it is now. The difference is, that in recent years, public awareness of this disgraceful state of affairs has increased significantly. And no amount of bellyaching and lies from you and your pals will change that.
And sentences also end with a full stop.
Well .tomorrow. I am. going .to kill some. animals. and. think of you .while .I .do it.hows that for full stops .and then .tomorrow .night .I will .eat them . I love punctuation.it s great I also show my .name. unlike you. Goodday saddo .
Paul ..why do idiots like you get so upset when someone of far superior intelligence than you .. asks you a few questions and corrects you on your grammar and punctuation??
Instead of spending the day tomorrow trying to murder animals ..i suggest you spend the day trying to grow up ..little man!!
Do u eat meat
You do know that ingesting lead which has leached into meat over a prolonged period damages the brain, leading to irreversible failures of comprehension and increasingly wild swings of mood – according to the Food Standards Agency.
Make sure that you calm down from your hissy fit first, or your mam won’t let you out to play!
P.S. How’s (as a contraction of how is) contains an apostrophe, and good day is two words.
Ha ha ha I am never gonna use a full stop ever again but there is one thing I do not hide behind a pseudonym
‘yes there is raptor persecution we want to stop it as much as everyone else’
You most definitely don’t want it to stop as much as me or i would imagine anyone of the regular readers of this site.
The rest of your comment. gives the game away. Concern trolling.
Natural predators Natural predators, how many foxes and buzzards do you want, theres a very large population of Buzzards, Ravens, Sea Eagles, get out of bed at first light and you will see and hear what is on the moor,
that Tate fellow is a prat on stage, dont know what in real life, dont watch it, it used to be ok, but no time now for such clap.
So, 123 pairs of White-tailed Eagles constitutes “a very large population”!
“get out of bed at first light and you will see and hear what is on the moor”…
The sight and sound of gamekeepers committing criminal acts against our natural heritage.
King, I meant Jimmy King, ye Ken
No they taste delicious
“Amanda Anderson, director of the Moorland Association, said: “The controlled burning of heather is a skilled practice. It only takes place in the right place at the right time for the right reasons. The latest science shows it can have a positive impact on carbon capture.”
That’s nice, Amanda. Where can we see the ‘latest science’, please?
The moorland grass was traditionally sweeled off to encourage new growth for the upland live stock, heather is never burned of, it’s encouraged by land owners and gamekeepers
In recent years people are getting into these heathland areas, bbq or deliberately setting fire to the moor do please get it right
“heather is never burned of (sic)”…
Do you really believe that?
Or are you just a piss-poor liar?
Well .tomorrow. I am. going .to kill some. animals. and. think of you .while .I .do it.hows that for full stops .and then .tomorrow .night .I will .eat them . I love punctuation.it s great I also show my .name. unlike you. Goodday saddo .
Silly me. I should have remembered that it’s the school holidays!
Oh, and “it’s” is another contraction. On the board, one hundred times…
“I must learn to write in my own language”.
These people are just scum
Ha ha ha I am never gonna use a full stop ever again but there is one thing I do not hide behind a pseudonym
Personally, I couldn’t give a toss who you are, or whether you claim to use your real name. You’re just another bullshit merchant to me, who’s deluded enough to think that he can goad people into publishing personal information.
Repeatedly copy/pasting the same, barely literate drivel multiple times reveals a distinct lack of imagination; proving that (like all who attempt to justify their worthless, cowardly, crime-dependent hobby) you’re incapable of constructing a single, coherent argument.
Well done for (like several before you) showing us the juvenile mindset of self-styled, plastic “countrymen”.
And, well done for managing to spellcheck the word pseudonym correctly. It’s a big step up from Janet and John books!
Do you honestly think I care about what you have called me Right from the off you have attacked me personally .I did not attack you and it shows what people like you are .You are strongly driven by your beliefs but they are wrong .I never put my argument over again to your sort because I might as well bang my head against the wall .Also when it comes to grammar and punctuation and the like you are just pettyfoggin .I will not be reading Janet and John it will be shooting times
“I will not be reading Janet and John it will be shooting times”.
Good idea, J&J is obviously too steep a learning curve for you. Start with Shooting Times, and work your way up.
P.S. I’m “strongly driven” by the plain and simple truth (your regard for which is similar to that for your own language).
Click to access grouse_moor_evidence_review_final.pdf
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09044-w
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2405296?seq=1
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1365-2664.1999.00419.x
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000632070300363X
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ibi.12356
https://www.nature.scot/naturescot-commissioned-report-982-analyses-fates-satellite-tracked-golden-eagles-scotland
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hen-harrier-satellite-tracking-programme-results-published
https://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/3597/grouse_moor_burning_causes_widespread_environmental_changes
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.13708
If you bother to read the above (which I’m sure you won’t), you’ll realise just how stupid and dishonest you’re making yourself look, and why you thoroughly deserve to have the piss taken out of you!
Furthermore: “pettifogging” is spelt thusly.
Coop .. the reading of Janet & John books would prove too difficult a task for the likes of Paul Hargreaves .. he prefers the shooting times because he has some pictures to look at ..
Indeed, Steven.
Perhaps it contains a puzzle page, maybe one of those little mazes, where the more…shall we say…”gifted” readers draw the route for a Fox to reach all those lovely goodies in a stink pit? Or, to help a friendly little gamekeeper remember on which post he set the pole trap?
Alternatively, if he finds that too much of a challenge, a bit of “colouring in”, if he hasn’t eaten all his crayons?
He’s probably ate all his crayons lolol ..