The Hunt Saboteurs were out for a third day yesterday and stopped a grouse shoot on Barden Moor on the Bolton Abbey Estate.
This follows their work stopping grouse shoots on Saturday 12th Aug (here) and Monday 13th (here), all in Yorkshire.
Hunt saboteurs out for a third day on Yorkshire grouse moors
Raptor Persecution UK 
Wonderful wish the same disruption would happen in Angus Glens. Rich people getting a high from killing birds thinking they are the elite. Grouse need protection to increase their numbers. Need to re wild moors to enable regeneration of habitat the more jobs money from tourism instead of the few employed by estates.
Gamekeepers should not do anything illegal, but, if they do, their employer- the landowner – should be held responsible. Against the whole lot anyway it should all be stopped. What’s wrong with clay pigeons?
Couldn’t agree more , I’ve been clay shooting 50+ years, I couldn’t bring myself to shoot living creatures,(well maybe some!).
Well put, a rather sad state of affairs when traps are set for egg eaters, which in turn are part of the prey in general, all natural of course…..
They’re not bad but not as tasty 🤣 nah with you on that, I was brought up hunting (pretty poor when I was little at some points we didn’t eat unless we shot it ourselves) these days it’s just a moneymaking racket and a silly fashion show as well!
Just shows how little you understand the countryside re wild and you loose alot of red listed birds and raptors then end up with massive wild fires as seen now.
So are we not losing a lot of red listed raptors as things stand at the moment ?. Or did you conveniently overlook that issue ?.
The illegal killing of anything should be punished, I have no problems with shoot’s but killing raptors that are obviously going to hunt the grouse etc is discusting, these people need finding and making an example of
Most raptors are increasing in numbers. The misinformation on here is understandably incredible but there’s no point arguing on here because if you said it was Saturday today on here you would still get abuse.
What is pointless, is your parroting of the deliberate distortions of the MA and its ilk, in a pathetic attempt to gloss over the criminal activity which underpins their sordid hobby.
As all intelligent people here know, a species’ population trend does not justify it’s illegal persecution. Or maybe you’d like to go out popping off at Blue Tits, simply because there are a “lot” of them?
Where did you get that info. Maybe kestrels,sparrowhawks. Strange that number of raptors that frequent shooting estates are decreasing according to RSPB
In fact, populations of both show show significant declines…
https://data.bto.org/trends_explorer/?species=Kestrel
https://data.bto.org/trends_explorer/?species=Kestrel
You say numbers of raptors are increasing, please enlighten us all to where this marvelous data is. Because strange things are happening to satellite tracked Hen Harriers.
Raptor numbers have been massively hit by poisoning in Dorset, when these scumbags are caught the penalties are pathetic, hitting the landowners in the pocket by targeting shoots is absolutely the logical way forward.
Funny (not really) how 3 tagged hen harriers all stopped transmitting in first week
What happened Peter for the millions of years before driven grouse shooting was invented
Re wilding means massive uncontroled wildfires in adverse weather conditions instead of small areas burnt off under the right control. Both give rise to regeneration of flora but fauna have less chance of escaping a rapidly advancing wild fire. With regard to raptors a duty of care should be put on the Landowners ie they should be held responsible for any loss with massive fines applied.
I don’t agree with massive fines. Anyone who kills birds of prey should be imprisoned for many years.
The country wasn’t overrun by humans completely altering the ecosystem which now requires active management to preserve a diverse ecosystem as we have lost principle predators to keep things in order.
How did all of these species manage to co-exist before people started “managing” the land?
It’s the mismanagement of land that has caused a lot of the problems.
No it’s 71 Millon people that gives us an unnatural ecosystem that needs management help to exist at all
No, the population has very little to do with it, because the vast majority of those 71 million people don’t go near grouse moors, or largely bother about the countryside in general. Driven grouse moors are mismanaged to create a monoculture in order that a few people get to kill birds a few times each year. The same can be said for pheasant/partridge shoots, releasing tens of millions of non-native species to satisfy the bloodlust of a tiny minority of people, and to the detriment of native wildlife. Then you have farming, which for the most part, is not managed well for wildlife.
When driven grouse shooting first began, the UK population was well below half of today’s figure, but it still saw the zero tolerance approach to all predatory creatures, which has continued to this day. Indeed even before that, the UK had lost its top mammal predators, due to hunting and persecution, so it has nothing whatsoever to do with the population densities.
It is simply mismanagement, to benefit a very small number of people
In fact, it “just shows how little you understand the countryside” or how dishonest you are. We’ll let the reader decide, shall we?…
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
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320723001738#f0010
Click to access grouse_moor_evidence_review_final.pdf
Click to access newton-2020-killing-of-raptors-on-grouse-moors_evidence-and-effects.pdf
Nidderdale: https://raptorpersecutionscotland.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/bop-in-niddaonb-evidence-report-final-sept-2019.pdf
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09044-w
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2405296?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1365-2664.1999.00419.x
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000632070300363X
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.12356/full
https://www.nature.scot/snh-commissioned-report-982-analyses-fates-satellite-tracked-golden-eagles-scotland
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320711003831
Didn’t know that Muir burn was a fire prevention measure. Amazing what you can come up with in a desperate attempt to justify blood lust isn’t it. Next will be a claim that raising grouse is part of a plan to conserve harriers.
How right you are.
Do your mean like before there were humans at all? Nature didn’t manage on is own?
Most raptors are killed by game keepers .
If you re-wild the moors the grouse won’t exist in the numbers they currently do.You’ll effectively be reducing their numbers.
Hi Mark. Exactly! That’s what is needed!
You may well be correct in saying the grouse won’t exist in the numbers they currently do if re- wilding takes place. But the current artificially high numbers are caused by the artificial maintenance of the moors. So in that context your argument is null and void.
And the numbers of ground nesting birds will be reduced because of the increase in predators. I’m afraid your arguement will only do your cause more damage.
Mark. What the uplands need, what biodiversity needs, what raptors need, what downstream (human) communities need and what England & Scotland need is the cessation of driven grouse shooting.
I’ll ask you the same question – How did all of these species manage to co-exist before people started “managing” the land?
Marco that’s about 10,000 years ago for affecting, if not managing. We live in a crowded island, there is no balance of nature unaffected by man here. It’s a bit like ‘badgers and hedgehogs have co-existed successfully for thousands of years’, may not be technically wrong, but go ask a farmer or a landowner and they’ll likely laugh.
What? There’s been grouse shooting for 10,000 years? You do realise that we are talking about grouse moor “management” in this thread?
So, I’ll reword the question – How did all of these species manage to co-exist before grouse shooting was a thing?
Part and parcel of nature. Isn’t that exactly what so called Gamekeepers do. Taking the place of Raptors by setting traps for small animals that dare to naturally exist. Maybe if you can curb their instinct, then please inform us all….
Time and time again this argument is put forward by supporters of the shooting industry.
An area of land which is rewilded will still need environmental management. The difference is that this management will not be to produce an unnatural and artificially high density of game birds, at the expense of so many other species, but to create a much more natural balance of flora and fauna.
The issue is how to fund such land use, and that is where environmental land management schemes, stewardship grants etc will play a crucial part.
The National and State parks in the USA or other parts of the world are all managed and funded without the necessity of commercial game bird shooting. There is no reason why this can’t happen in Britain.
So let’s stop the nonsense that ceasing or reducing the amount of grouse or other game bird shooting will cause a massive decline of our natural wildlife and many endangered species. It won’t.
A far greater threat comes from the illegal persecution of raptors and other wildlife.
The reality is that it is doubtful any government will ban game bird shooting.
So effective measures have to be introduced to end the constant cycle of illegal raptor persecution, and that could mean the shooting industry and its clientele may need to accept less game birds, smaller bag sizes, and a reduction in the number of shoot days an estate can offer.
This shouldn’t make game shooting unviable, as the basic rules of economics will come into force, which should mean that a scarcity of game bird numbers and shoot days makes shooting more exclusive and raises the cost. This is what happens in every other industry when supply is reduced.
It might also mean that those who shoot actually have some real interest in conservation, rather than what appears to be happening at the moment, with commercial shooting appealing to those who simply want to kill as many birds as possible without thought as to the effects that producing game birds on the such a scale has on other natural flora and fauna.
Indeed John
There is not a single species, including Red Grouse, which is dependent on DGS “management” for its existence.
They exists in artificially high numbers because those areas are intensively managed and then they are shot,, largely for fun. You’re presenting a circular argument, which completely ignores the fact that they were here thousands of years before grouse shooting ever existed as a concept!
And your point is
Just up the road is a former grouse Moor,unshot since 1948. Heather is a yard high,too deep for sheep to graze. There have been so few grouse they have been a rarity for 60 years. Even rabbits are only seen along the river and bigger open patches on the fell tops.
Trees planted In 1970’s were smothered by heather. 3 out of several thousand survived.
Birds of prey were often seen til about 1960,
Even rewilding needs managing.
Which nobody denies. Despite the crass distortions from the DGS lobby.
[Ed: comment deleted as abusive]
It’s not just the Grouse , but all the raptors that seem to be mysteriously killed on or near grouse Moors.
The sentence above shows me you nothing about about grouse and general moorland management, and I have nothing to do with these sports, the moorlands are currently being regenerated and dammed up to prevent peat bogs drying out for the future , but the Heather has to be burnt every year to keep the new growth regeneration for the grouse and other nesting ground birds , you may not be aware that the long Heather and bracken carry Ticks which affects the grouse these are introduced by sheep farming on the moorlands and various other sources, the burning and management kills off the ticks ,All of these need management you can’t just leave it as you say if you have been watching the news lately the wild fires abroad are prevented here by this management carried out by the game keepers creating fire breaks , referring to grouse stocks they are territorial birds so you can’t just breed in excesses in large areas as you state , Referring to your tourism well how does that pay for anything , in our area they are called boots on and bugger off , leaving their cars all over , leaving gates open and leaving there rubbish everywhere, also having a good old disposable barbecue and general shit , It’s not just as straightforward as you make out and your lack of knowledge shows this , I have just touched on a few points but there are many more you just don’t understand,
Muirburn is undertaken for one purpose only, which is to provide young heather shoots for grouse to eat. It was not developed as a tick control measure, or for the benefit of any other “ground-nesting” species. Its use as a wildfire prevention method is also a fiction. Unburned moors, with a diverse moisture dependent plant community are much less susceptible to accidental fires.
Well said the urban population should not be allowed to dictate to the country folk They have no idea what the countryside is They see it as a giant theme park
Peter (Large), driven grouse moors are just a Victorian era theme park, and need to be consigned to history. The tiny number of supporters of driven grouse shooting should not dictate to the vast majority of citizens who are decent forward thinking humans. And please explain what “country folk” are ….
The country pubs. Hotels. Shops, country folk all rely on the shoots in the winter without them most of these areas would just be open to second homes for people in the city. Please be aware in the winter this is an essential income
Catherine, the red grouse shooting season ends on 10 December. Are you suggesting that they rely on illegal out-of-season shooting? And will you please explain what “country folk “ are, Mr Peter Large couldn’t.
Many potential visitors stay away from these areas because of the wildlife abuse and landscape/ecosystem degradation. A highly valuable income stream is lost, due to the influence of the shooting sector.
If you care about local business, as you claim, then spare a thought for those whose livelihoods have been severely damaged, if not wiped out, by flooding exacerbated by the activities of those who “manage” the uplands for grouse shooting.
By attaching themselves to an unsustainable, environmentally-damaging, crime-dependent pseudo industry, the minority of rural residents who support DGS have built their ivory towers on quicksand, and this doomed hobby will ultimately sink into the cesspit of its own making. Local communities, however, have the choice whether they wish to slavishly follow it.
Startling hypocrisy from the countrysnide lobby.
P.S. Under further consideration…
Perhaps the “urban population” (including all the grouse shooting hooray henrys from Kensington and Chelsea, and the London-based tory MPs who defend the recreational abuse of wild animals) should also keep their noses out of “rural affairs”?
Perhaps every last penny of urban taxpayers money handed to country landowners in the form of subsidies each year should be withdrawn, and put to good use elswhere?
But why stop there?…
Let’s ban everyone who wears a flat hat and Tattersall shirt from using any facilities (shops, hospitals etc) which happen to be in towns!
It might also be a spiffing idea as well to withdraw the vote from “country folk”, because the vast majority of people who are affected by government policies happen to live in towns and cities.
And finally let’s undertake the forced relocation (the huge majority) of all “country folk” who oppose killing for amusement, into urban areas.
To facilitate this “rural autonomy”, would Mr Large be kind enough to draw us a map, showing exactly where his imaginary “countryside” begins and ends, with his distinct criteria of where one should live to be one of his exclusive little club? For instance how should we treat those in “the suburbs”, especially those who live in the last house on the street, for example? Should they be permitted to have a say on what happens on the other side of their garden hedge?
You see, when Mr Large and his pals refer to “country folk”, what they really mean is…
PEOPLE LIKE THEM!
You think because people live in a town they are uneducated?
I’ve read post like this before trying to justify fox hunting.
How do you think grouse survived before you country folk bred them to slaughter them?
People should be able to spend their money in any which way they Choose.
It’s this finger wagging holier than thou loathing of a differing opinion/life style which is against the grain of a free liberal society.
Scientific,peer reviewed papers indicate the success of breeding birds on grouse moors.
Take the emotion away and do the research, believe the science.
Each unto their own.
And bomb sites were brilliant for Black Redstarts. Let’s have another war!
You want us to “believe the science”? Then take a look at some…
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
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320723001738#f0010
Click to access grouse_moor_evidence_review_final.pdf
Click to access bop-in-niddaonb-evidence-report-final-sept-2019.pdf
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09044-w
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2405296?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1365-2664.1999.00419.x
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000632070300363X
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.12356/full
https://www.nature.scot/snh-commissioned-report-982-analyses-fates-satellite-tracked-golden-eagles-scotland
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320711003831
Schnabel, you claim “Scientific,peer reviewed papers indicate the success of breeding birds on grouse moors.” Please provide links to these scientific, peer reviewed papers.
Opponents of the illegal killing and persecution of raptors, and opponents of driven grouse moor shooting, have provided plenty of evidence to support their position.
It’s funny, isn’t it Keith? Notwithstanding his her ecological ignorance/dishonesty, This “Schnabel” seems not only unable to recognise irony (playing the old class/wealth envy card), but then expresses the view that enough cash entitles people to do exactly as they please, regardless of the law, the environmental damage, the suffering caused, and the effect on local residents’ health, homes and businesses. What a wonderful display of hypocrisy!
You are right I choose to spend my money on helping saboteurs.
Do you not approve of “rich people”,
perhaps they’re self made hard working individuals who have every right to choose how they spend their money.
Rewinding would see the heather moor lost to bracken and scrubland which as an ecosystem would not sustain such a rich and varied fauna.
Another outright lie. Keep digging.
Keep up the good work!
Terrorist organisations should be banned.
Thats a perfect way to describe the countryside alliance, I agree.
Let’s just nip this hyperbole in the bud before it goes any further.
Neither the Hunt Saboteurs or the Countryside Alliance are ‘terrorist organisations’. They are diametrically opposed to one another’s activities, but that doesn’t make them ‘terrorists’.
[Ed: comment deleted as libellous]
[Ed: provide evidence & I’ll publish your comment]
I agree get rid of the landowners and their serfs (gamekeepers).
Banned in the same way that raptor persecution is banned?
Excellent work. There is no other way.
You’re all a bunch of idiots.
Driven grouse shooting will end sooner than later and you’re little tantrums won’t change that.
You always know when you have a good cause when someone you an idiot.
Pardon? Idiot? Your comment is a nonsense
Is Skylark referring to the Saboteurs or the shooters? The H.S. terrorise no one, the shooters terrorise grouse. I was in the H.S., when much younger, disrupting otter hunts. Now otters are recovering and incredibly anglers still have fish to catch. We’d all be better off without grouse shooting – good on the Yorkshire H.S.!
Well done folks. The idiots are those who like killing for sport.
Thankyou for saving countless precious lives, there should be laws preventing sadist scumbags from harming wildlife !
Take up clay shooting it’s more varied and more skillful
Terry, who are you referring to ?
BLOODY DRUG ADDLED HIPPIES WONT BE HAPPY UNTIL THE COUNTRYSIDES CONCRETED OVER WITH A CRACKHOUSE ON EVERY CORNER DONT THEY KNOW THAT IF WE WERENT THERE TO SHOOT THEM THE GROUSE WOULD BE EVERYWHERE THEY WOULD BLOODY BE THE FIRST TO COMPLAIN IF A GROUSE STOLE THEIR POT NOODLE OR WHATEVER IT IS THESE PEOPLE EAT PROBABLY BLOODY FOREIGN FOOD SIMON HEFFER SAID IN THE DAILY MAIL THAT ITS ALL THESE LEFTY LAWYERS WHO ARE TO BLAME AND MY BUTLER WHO ONCE SPOKE TO MY GAMEKEEPER WONDERFUL CHAP TOLD ME WORKING CLASS PEOPLE LIKE HIM ALL THINK THE SAME BLOODY STUDENTS ON THEIR SUMMER HOLIDAYS BLOODY COMPLAIN WHEN FOXES ARE SNARED OR SHOT HOW ELSE ARE WE MEANT TO KILL EM NOW THAT GRETA BLOODY THUNDERBIRD HAS STOPPED US FROM USIN HOUNDS PROBABLY ALL UNEMPLOYED WITH TEN BLOODY CHILDREN AND ANOTHER ON THE WAY STILL GOT PLENTY OF BLOODY MONEY FOR SCRATCHCARDS AND HEROIN IF ANY OF EM ARE THINKIN OF SCABBIN ON MY LAND THEY WILL SOON FIND OUT THAT IVE ALWAYS GOT MY PURDEY COCKED AND READY DONCHERKNOW MY GARDENER TOLD ME THEY EVEN HAVE A WEBSITE RAPTOR PROSECUTION OR SOMETHING RAN BY A BLOODY WOMAN OF ALL THINGS!
THE CONTRYS GOIN TO THE DOGS ETC ETC ETC
And …………. breathe
Load of bloody weirdos .this country is going to the dogs ..too many anti this anti that around now .
The bloody ones are those who kill.
Coop – a class comment !
Having read your previous contributions this was a clever piece of satire
Made me smile!
I’m pleased you enjoyed it sir.
It appears that Gordon philips (with a small p) also enjoyed it. So much, in fact, that he was unable to resist expanding on the theme!
You’ve outdone yourself this time.
Amazing read.
I do worry about you though.
Steve. Right wing fanatic etc.etc.
I wonder why these people hide their faces and dress like [Ed: rest of comment deleted. We’ve been through all this in previous posts]
Why do some gamekeepers and hunt followers hide their faces?
Please could anyone tell me if the Hunt Saboteurs use intelligence such as the RSPB raptor persecution map, or reports of raptor persecution or other wildlife crime data to target the estates on which they protest? Or are estates simply targeted on the logistics of getting the Sabs to the moors, and targeting those moors which are more readily accessible?
This question isn’t in any way to detract from the importance of what the Sabs do, and what they achieve.
But I am wondering if it would make it far more difficult for the shooting industry to play the “victim card” and try and portray the Hunt Saboteurs in a negative way, if the protests and disruption to shooting was happening on those shooting estates which had a history of raptor persecution?
I can think of some shooting estates which really wouldn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of protests, when a neighbouring estate was managed in a much more dubious way.
I don’t think they are sabbing over the issue of raptor persecution, but over the wider issue of the organised shooting of lots of birds as a casual leisure pursuit. I honestly don’t know whether Bolton Abbey is squeaky clean on raptor persecution or not, but I suspect whether the answer to this was thought to be yea or nay it wouldn’t be the clincher on whether they choose to sab it or not. I sort of see it the same as you, but differ in that it would give me personally a bit of satisfaction to see one or two of the Estates and Agents that I know 100% are knee deep in raptor corpses get hit by the sabs. I might even offer a list of suggestions to them!
Having read several of the comments regarding hunt saboteurs I find it difficult to reconcile their views against grouse shooting which is a viable economic tool to aid the upkeep of the moorlands. Keeping the Heather and associated flora in good condition is key to helping so many diverse species. Should you remove the gamekeepers and their employers from the moors and estates of this “green and pleasant land” it will no longer remain a green and pleasant land. The ground nesting birds will be decimated through lack of predator control. Therefore the grouse would disappear along with so many other red listed species. Grouse shooting from which ever stand point keeps and funds the work required to maintain our countryside. The people who shoot grouse are in a minority and for as long as they can afford and it is legal to do so should be allowed to participate in a legitimate enterprise.
If the hunt saboteurs want to make a difference in the world why don’t they channel their energies toward a situation that is far more concerning. CHILD POVERTY IN THIS COUNTRY OF OURS!!
A pack of lies, topped off with whataboutery.
The land will be a lot greener and pleasant without your type of interference to it.
Would you care to explain away just how all of these species manage to co-exist before grouse shooting and its associated “land management” was a thing?
As for tackling child poverty, that would be up to the current government to implement much-needed that would help out those in poverty. Poverty and homelessness are political decisions, and the vast majority of it could easily be tackled and eradicated in a few short years.
Sadly, we have a Tory government and its membership (and many of its supporters) that thrives on people being in such predicaments, and quite deliberately sets out its policies to continue or increase levels of poverty and homelessness.
Hi Charlie,
Why don’t those who can afford to seek pleasure from blasting little lives out of the sky, channel THEIR energies towards reducing child poverty?
You are the ones with the time and the money to waste!
I think it is more to do with the unlawful shooting of magnificent birds of prey, rather than banning grouse shooting. xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx
[Ed: comment deleted as abusive]
The right wing press are at full throttle pathetically trying to justify the vile activity of grouse moor shooting.
We must call them out on the alleged money made and jobs.
First it can cost £22000 a day to go shooting, so multiply that from August to December and there are your millions little or nothing for local businesses and people the majority if not all to landowners. Something the RSPB doesn’t seem to have realised
Permanent jobs, how does that work for a 4 month season the grouse moors jobs are beaters and lakeys running around after these overpaid morons. They are permanent jobs even if there wasn’t any grouse moor shooting.
We need to call these papers out, all right wing and let’s face it grouse shooting only survives through money and influence, and the only way to ban it is direct action.
Well done the sabs who are disrupting them pity the RSPB has to be so nice and understanding when grouse moor shooters and the papers that back them are full of insults.
What you must realise is that sabs are only doing what they do, is because they do not have a lot going in their lives and have a need to rail against anyone they can for no othet reason that they are putting themselves forward as heros in society, unfortunately these are the same people who always protest when we have to uphold our rights.
What we all realise is that you’re just making things up. You have no idea about the lives of these people.
They are heroes. ACW.
As many people have said clay pigeons ard totally fine. I find it just odd that people gain enjoyment from just killing an animal. Just weird.
[Ed: comment deleted as abusive]
It is striking how little the “anti-anti’s” :) seem to know about the situation as a whole. They appear to be running on a full tank of negative emotions but have little of worth to say, if the cross section of their numbers commenting here are anything to judge them by. For those so afflicted it is easy to conclude that ther criminal activities that take place on and around grouse moors in regards to birds of prey must be organised and executed by minds more devious in the ways of the world than those they possess.
Comments on here are very diverse, and not showing a way forward. Re-wilding is not the answer, as it has been shown that it will take 200 years to re-establish trees etc. All countryside ‘sports’ that involve shooting wildlife, should be banned, in say 20 years, or 2050 to make it easier to remember. That gives plenty of time for existing workers to find other jobs. Plenty of farmers have diversified recently, so no problem there. But the land needs to be managed. Indiginous species of trees and plants need to be established, not moneymaking, fast growing investments for the rich. The countryside belongs to all of us, not a few idle rich that have inherited it from past oppressive industries.
Brilliant work by the Sabs, whatever side of this particular thread your on visit their website (link at the top of this page) and view the video of the Avon Vale hunt, In what World can anyone call that sporting, even a child would know that’s so wrong. These are the people they are up against, hope the case goes to court.