Author: RaptorPersecutionUK

SNH grants licence to Leadhills Estate for out-of-season muirburn

Leadhills Estate, which has been at the centre of over 50 police wildlife crime investigations in the last two decades, has had two gamekeepers convicted for committing wildlife crime offences during that time, and is currently the subject of a three-year General Licence restriction, imposed after Police Scotland found ‘clear evidence’ of wildlife crimes having being committed by persons unknown in recent years, and is under further police investigation since more allegations have been made this year, was granted a licence by SNH to undertake out-of-season muirburn on estate grouse moors in September.

There have been some jaw-dropping revelations on this blog over the years but this one is right up there.

[Muirburn on Leadhills Estate, South Lanarkshire. Photo by Ruth Tingay]

A quick recap of the situation (for those who want more detail please see the links to previous blog posts below).

In April 2020 the Scottish Government temporarily banned all muirburn in Scotland under emergency Coronavirus legislation (see here).

Despite being in the middle of a pandemic, in July 2020 Mark Osborne, acting on behalf of Leadhills Estate, applied to Scottish Natural Heritage for an out-of-season licence to conduct muirburn on the estate in September after spraying some areas with glyphosate (see here).

Scottish Natural Heritage (now rebranded as NatureScot but that’s irrelevant) refused the licence application in August (here) and Osborne immediately appealed the decision (see here).

That’s where we left the saga last time. Here’s what happened next…..

SNH was obliged to consider Osborne’s appeal, although it wasn’t obliged to overturn it’s previous decision to refuse permission.

Here’s how SNH’s reconsideration went:

According to the Freedom of Information documents that have been released, that’s it. That’s the extent of the discussion at SNH about whether Leadhills Estate should be given permission to set fire to its grouse moors out of season and in the middle of a global pandemic.

A couple of days later SNH wrote to advise Osborne of its U-turn decision and sent him the licence, as follows:

There has been some discussion amongst RPUK colleagues and associates about whether SNH’s decision to issue this licence was a breach of the Government’s emergency Coronavirus legislation which had temporarily banned muirburn until the official season opened on 1 October 2020. I might return to that topic.

However, of greater interest, to me, is how SNH’s decision-making on whether to issue an out-of-season muirburn licence apparently failed to consider the wider picture of what’s been going on at Leadhills, and especially the current three-year General Licence restriction placed on the estate, by, er, SNH. Didn’t anybody think about that?

Ah, well somebody did, but unfortunately it seems this person’s expert input wasn’t invited as part of the decision-making process:

There’s quite a lot to take in about this case, and the details and circumstances of this particular licence. An FoI has been submitted to SNH to see the licence return which, as detailed in condition #9, should have now been submitted to SNH by Osborne.

And it turns out that this isn’t the first year that SNH has granted an out-of-season muirburn licence to Leadhills Estate. More on that shortly.

For some reason, the phrases ‘taking the piss’ and ‘impotent licensing authority’ are uppermost in my mind.

Grouse-shooting debate featured in UK’s best-selling hillwalking magazine

There’s a very good feature article on grouse shooting in the December 2020 edition of Trail magazine, apparently ‘The UK’s best-selling hillwalking magazine’.

Written by Sarah Ryan, it’s an excellent introduction to this controversial activity and is ideal for readers who may not already be familiar with the subject (with only a few minor inaccuracies – e.g. badger killing is an offence and shouldn’t be listed as legal predator control).

Sarah sets the scene with an overview, including an explanation of the difference between driven and walked-up shooting and the environmental costs and damage of associated practices such as muirburn, legal predator control, medicated grit, the use of lead ammunition, the construction of shooting butts and hill tracks, the use of all-terrain vehicles on sensitive habitats and of course the illegal killing of birds of prey, with a special focus on golden eagles and hen harriers.

There then follows a series of contributions from conservationists (Chris Packham), Peak District gamekeeper Richard Bailey (who has previously been identified by the shady grouse shooting astroturf group C4PMC as being [one of] ‘Our People‘ – see here), Duncan Orr-Ewing (Head of Species & Land Management at RSPB Scotland) and Professor Alan Werritty, author of the now infamous government-commissioned Werritty Review (for which we’re still waiting for a response from the Scottish Government as we approach the year anniversary of the report’s submission on 18th November 2019).

The whole article can’t be reproduced here – if you want to read it you’ll have to buy the magazine – but to be honest, most of this blog’s audience will already be well versed with the arguments put forward and won’t be surprised by any of the views.

The value of this article is the potential it has to reach a new audience of people who are clearly interested in the outdoors but who may not previously have appreciated the environmental devastation taking place up on those moors.

Natural England ‘unable to protect wildlife’ say beleaguered staff

Press release from Prospect, Natural England’s staff trade union (10th November 2020):

Prospect launches second State of Natural England Report

A decade of austerity with pay cuts, budget cuts, cuts to grants and a decline in staff numbers is putting England’s natural heritage at risk.

That is the finding of the second report by Prospect into the State of Natural England which shows that the agency does not have the resources it needs to continue to adequately fulfil its responsibilities. The first report was published in 2019.

Over the past two years Prospect, the main union for workers in Natural England, has spoken to its members about their experiences at work, analysed budgets and grants, and assessed programmes. What we have found is an agency getting beyond crisis point.

Natural England is the body responsible for maintaining and protecting England’s natural environment. It is responsible for: protected sites such as national parks and Sites of Special Scientific Interest; countryside stewardship, helping farmers and landowners enhance the biodiversity of their lands; planning and development policy; the marine environment; ramblers’  favourites like the England Coast Path, and many more things which make our natural heritage what it is.

Natural England is at risk because its funding has been slashed and its workforce reduced. Natural England’s government-funded Grant in Aid budget has declined by 49% in six years and almost two-thirds over a decade. Over that time the agency has gone from more than 2,500 staff in 2010 to, we estimate, around 1,900 staff now.

Workers in Natural England were subject to a 1% pay cap for eight years. This has improved this year but the increase comes nowhere close making up for the real-terms losses of the past decade. There is also an 8.4% gender pay gap which shows little sign of being reduced.

This is the reality of government austerity and its effect on agency staff – highly qualified workers facing financial hardship, increased workloads, loss of pension accrual, terrible morale and looking to move elsewhere for a better deal. Successive ministers have made things worse by undermining and attacking the independence of the work of agency experts.

Prospect is calling for:

  • Natural England’s wide and important remit for people, nature and the green recovery, to be properly recognised and funded.
  • It’s autonomy as a non-departmental public body to be meaningfully restored.
  • The damage caused by the pay cap to be reversed and pay progression and pay equality, to be restored.
  • To achieve pay parity with the rest of Defra, particularly for pay scale minima and maxima.
  • To no longer be covered by the civil service pay guidance and be subject to an independent pay review body.

Download the full report.

Mike Clancy, Prospect general secretary, said:

“There is a yawning gap between the government’s rhetoric on climate change, the environment and biodiversity and the reality of years of underfunding our environmental agencies.

“Protecting nature means investing in the people who do that work. Natural England is at the heart of this agenda but it can only be effective if it is properly funded and the importance of its staff properly recognised.

“The disproportionate cuts, out-dated and unfit pay framework, and significant pay inequality all need to be addressed. The UK has a world-class natural environment which is treasured by the public, but this natural heritage will suffer if the expert custodians of our natural heritage continue to be treated as second class public servants.”

ENDS

There’s also an article on this in today’s Guardian (here).

It might help a little bit if Natural England bosses stopped defending the pouring of money in to the insane Hen Harrier brood meddling trial, a conservation sham sanctioned by DEFRA and carried out by Natural England, in cahoots with the very industry responsible for the species’ catastrophic decline in England.

Although the actual ‘meddling’ bit is apparently being funded in a secret financial arrangement between the Moorland Association (grouse moor owners’ lobby group) and the National Birds of Prey Centre in Newent – the cost of this has not been made public, which you’d think would be quite crucial when it comes to assessing the viability of this ‘trial’ – there is still considerable cost in terms of NE project staff time.

And then there’s the equally ridiculous NE project to ‘reintroduce’ hen harriers to southern England, another conservation sham aimed at drawing attention away from the criminal onslaught in the uplands, and for which NE is forking out thousands of pounds to send staff over to Europe, along with satellite tags bought by British tax payers, to fit to harriers in Europe in what looks like a way of ‘persuading’ the European authorities to send young harriers to the UK for the ‘reintroduction’. More details on this shortly.

The question of Natural England’s ability to conduct effective monitoring and enforcement of the new General Licences was raised in a Zoom call between Wild Justice and DEFRA officials yesterday. Judging by today’s report from Prospect, there’s very little indication that NE will be up to the task.

Laugh out loud hypocrisy from BASC

BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today did a short piece on DEFRA’s new General Licences this morning (available here for 29 days, starts at 8.55 min) and this included an amusing interview with Glynn Evans, Head of Gundogs and Game at BASC, the British Association for Shooting (and, ahem, conservation).

Glynn seemed a bit confused. BASC are said to have ‘welcomed’ the new licences but Glynn then said, “I don’t think it was right for them [Wild Justice] to bring their case [legal challenge]. I think where there’s an issue dialogue is the way forward“.

It’s worth reading Mark Avery’s take on this hypocrisy from BASC (here), where he points out that dialogue was the last thing on BASC’s mind last year when he and Chris Packham were banned from attending an interview at The Game Fair!

It’s also worth looking back at this RPUK blog from last year (here) where it was pointed out that BASC had itself attempted to launch a judicial review (that subsequently failed) following Natural Resources Wales’s ban on pheasant shooting on public land. Was ‘dialogue the way forward’ then, Glynn?

And, er, how about BASC’s big song & dance announcement this summer that it had launched a ‘seven-figure legal fighting fund’ to ‘push forward with proactive legal initiatives’?

There’s no issue with BASC, or anybody else for that matter, applying for a judicial review if they believe an issue is worth fighting for and they have a case that stands a reasonable chance of success – that’s what access to justice is all about and, indeed, is one of the main guiding principles behind the formation of Wild Justice.

But it is about time BASC reined in the hypocrisy and stopped trying to demonise Wild Justice for doing something that BASC is now bragging about trying to emulate!

DEFRA publishes latest version of General Licences following Wild Justice legal challenge

In February 2019 a new conservation campaign group, Wild Justice, launched its first legal challenge against the casual killing of millions of birds, as authorised by statutory agency Natural England under the guise of General Licences.

These General Licences have been published at the start of each year and have permitted users to kill unlimited numbers of birds such as Carrion Crows, Rooks, Magpies, Woodpigeons, Jackdaws, Jays and Ring-necked Parakeets.

[Common Jay photo by Andy Rouse]

General Licence users don’t have to apply to use the licences, don’t have to justify why killing the birds is necessary, don’t have to explain why alternative non-lethal measures such as scaring or proofing are ineffective or impracticable, and don’t have to report on how many birds are killed. All a person needs to do to ‘qualify’ to kill unlimited numbers of these birds is to claim to have read and understood the relevant General Licence.

Wild Justice believed the system was unlawful and argued that, amongst other things, it was Natural England’s responsibility to satisfy itself that killing was an appropriate last resort. Natural England disagreed so Wild Justice applied for permission to seek a Judicial Review.

Shortly afterwards, Natural England finally acknowledged the General Licences were indeed unlawful and pulled them at ridiculously short notice. DEFRA then removed the licensing authority role from Natural England and took it on itself, issuing temporary General Licences last year and this year, whilst having to conduct a scientific review, survey and consultation of the entire system.

The new General Licences that have been published today will become enacted on 1 January 2021. On a first glance through, they are certainly different – some species have been removed from the kill list of some of the General Licences (e.g. as of 1 January 2021 it’ll be unlawful to kill rooks or jackdaws under the guise of conserving bird species) and other species have more restricted terms of how and when that species can be killed (e.g. as of 1 January 2021 General Licence users will be able to kill Jays to protect Honey Buzzards – yep, that’s what the new licence says).

Further licence conditions relating to trapping regulations and killing birds on protected sites are due to be published before 1 January 2021.

Of course, these new General Licences will be the subject of close scrutiny, certainly by Wild Justice and no doubt by the shooting organisations, and are still open to further legal challenge if necessary.

The new General Licences for England can be viewed here:

Conservation licence GL34/GL40: here

Public health & safety licence GL35/GL41: here

Serious damage licence GL36/GL42: here

Wild Justice is also currently challenging the General Licences issued in Wales by Natural Resources Wales and the court hearing is due in mid December 2020 (see here for background to that case).

Proposal to reintroduce golden eagles to Wales: information withheld

Way back in February 2019, in a publicity fanfare, a claim was made that a licence application to reintroduce golden eagles to Snowdonia would be submitted to Natural Resources Wales (NRW) ‘by summer’ by an organisation called Wilder Britain (see here and here).

In November 2019 an FoI request to NRW revealed that no such application had been received (see here).

[A young golden eagle, photo Getty Images]

Dr Paul O’Donoghue of Wilder Britain was back in the press again in August this year, fundraising for his proposed reintroduction project, which raised questions about whether there was genuine intent to try and reintroduce golden eagles or whether it was just an ongoing publicity/fundraising stunt from the previous year (see here).

O’Donoghue hosted several poorly-attended public meetings this summer, some of them announced at very short notice, and these elicited some interesting commentary from those who managed to attend and also from members of the Welsh Parliament (see here and here).

In August a Freedom of Information request was submitted to NRW to find out more details about O’Donoghue’s proposals. NRW has finally responded and has refused to release any information because it needed O’Donoghue’s consent and he has refused permission:

Interesting. An appeal has been lodged with NRW because I believe it’s in the public interest to see what advice NRW has been giving to O’Donoghue about a proposed reintroduction scheme.

Meanwhile, a more open and transparent organisation interested in a Welsh reintroduction of both golden and white-tailed eagles, under the project Eagle Reintroduction Wales, is continuing its involvement in online interviews and question & answer sessions which allow any interested member of the public an opportunity to find out more details, ask questions and listen to the responses.

The next one is this evening at 17.30hrs with ERW project manager Dr Sophie-lee Williams and can be watched here.

Man charged in relation to alleged theft of peregrine eggs in Derbyshire Peak District

Earlier last year Derbyshire Constabulary appealed for information after a pair of peregrines in the Peak District abandoned their breeding attempt in suspicious circumstances (see here).

It was later reported that eggs had been stolen from three peregrine nest sites in the Peak District this spring (see here) and officers from Derbyshire Constabulary believed they were being stolen for the Middle Eastern falconry trade.

Earlier this evening Derbyshire Constabulary issued a statement on Facebook, as follows:

Things sometimes take a while to come to fruition in our job, but two of our lengthy investigations have finally reached the point where people can be charged and summoned to court to answer for their actions.

The first involves the theft from a farm in the Bradwell area of a collection of vintage tractor parts which were part of a long-term project and labour of love on the part of the owner. Many of the parts were recovered and a salvage business underpinned by crime operating in neighbouring South Yorkshire was uncovered. The recovery of some stolen car parts from Buxton was a bonus too.

Our regular followers will know that we’ve invested a lot of time and effort into the problem of bird of prey persecution and trying to fathom where these illegally taken eggs are ending up and who’s involved. We were very pleased, therefore, back in the spring when we were presented with excellent video evidence of someone taking some peregrine falcon eggs from a breeding site in the Peak District. Thanks to the power of social media helping to identify the suspect we embarked on another long investigation which has now yielded charges, not only for the egg taking offences but for a firearms offence too.

Whilst this is very encouraging for us and those others we work with it doesn’t mean we’ve cracked it. Quite the opposite, in fact, and we’ll be putting next season’s plan together over the coming weeks.

ENDS

Well done, Derbyshire Constabulary.

Shame the RSPB wasn’t credited for providing the covertly-filmed footage, though.

NB: As this is a live prosecution comments won’t be published until criminal proceedings have concluded.

UPDATE 17 November 2020: Derbyshire man due in court in February for alleged theft of Peregrine eggs in Peak District (here)

Grouse moor report ‘ignores key issues’, say Scottish Greens

Press release from the Scottish Greens following the recent publication of the latest Scottish Government-commissioned report on the socioeconomic and biodiversity impacts of grouse moor management:

Commenting on the publication of a new Scottish Government report into grouse moor management, Scottish Green rural economy spokesperson John Finnie said:

“It is welcome that The Scottish Government is exploring alternatives to grouse moors. This report shows that alternative uses would boost Scotland’s rural economy. A move to conservation or renewable energy, for example, would dwarf the economic impact of grouse moor management. Previous research has shown this would also create new jobs, especially in forestry.

“However, while this research recognises the growing public and political concern about grouse moors, it ignores some key issues. For example, the persecution of eagles and other raptors damages Scotland’s reputation as an eco-tourism destination, yet there’s no mention of it.

“It also fails to address the damaging impact of muirburn on our climate ambitions.

“The Scottish Government has dragged its heels for almost a year since the Werrity review published its limited findings. During that time we’ve seen the burning of peatland and the killing of wildlife continue. People have been shooting grouse even during COVID restrictions.

“Scotland’s land needs to be freed up for the economic and social benefit of all of its people and used in ways that contributes to a thriving rural economy and natural environment. It’s time for the Scottish Government to get on with it.”

ENDS

Eagle Reintroduction Wales Project – 2 x live interviews coming up

As regular blog readers will know, there are currently proposals to reintroduce eagles to Wales by two organisations with very different approaches: Wilder Britain and the Eagle Reintroduction Wales Project.

The Eagle Reintroduction Wales Project, led by Dr Sophie-lee Williams, is currently assessing the feasibility of reintroducing golden and white-tailed eagles across Wales and has conducted extensive research to inform its proposals. Some of this research has already been published in peer-reviewed journals (e.g. here) and more output is expected shortly. The ERW Project is working with Cardiff University (where Sophie-Lee has just completed her PhD on this topic) and is liaising closely with a network of national and international eagle experts.

There are two forthcoming opportunities to ask Sophie-lee about any aspect of the project:

Facebook live interview/Q&A session on Sunday 8th November at 17.30hrs. Interview hosted by Mike Raine here

Facebook live interview/Q&A session on Tuesday 10th November at 19.00hrs. Interview hosted by Bywyd Gwyllt Glaslyn Wildlife here

Hopefully these live interviews will be recorded so if you can’t make the live session you can catch up with the videos later.

For previous blogs about the proposals to reintroduce eagles to Wales please see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here for background.

Another raptor poisoner convicted in Spain

A farmer has been convicted of laying out poisoned baits in the Sierra Magina Natural Park in Andalucía in 2016 that killed two Bearded vultures from a reintroduction programme, as well as one Cinereous vulture, a golden eagle and numerous mammals.

He’s been fined 4,500 Euros and is banned from working as a cattle rancher for three years, although this sentence is apparently being appealed.

Further details about this case, including an extensive multi-agency investigation, can be read on the Vulture Conservation Foundation website here.

[One of the poisoned Bearded vultures, photo via Vulture Conservation Foundation]

Tackling the illegal poisoning of birds of prey is taken seriously in Spain with, for example, the deployment of specialist poison detection dogs and investigators given the authority to conduct unannounced spot checks in areas of suspicion. In recent years successful prosecutions have resulted in massive fines, custodial sentences and extended hunting disqualifications for those convicted of laying poisoned baits (e.g. see here, here, here, here and here).

Meanwhile, over here the illegal poisoning of birds of prey (and anything else unfortunate to consume the bait) continues without consequence. These are some of the cases reported this year alone, many during lockdown, and none of them are heading towards a prosecution:

The illegal killing of a white-tailed eagle found on a grouse moor inside the Cairngorms National Park in Scotland (here), the mass poisoning of 23 buzzards in a field in Co Cork, Ireland (here), the poisoning of four peregrines on Guernsey in the Channel Islands (here), the poisoning of a family’s pet dog, believed to have consumed a poisoned bait intended for birds of prey in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire (here), the poisoning of a buzzard found dead on a grouse moor in the North York Moors National Park (here), the poisoning of a buzzard in Nidderdale, North Yorkshire (here), the poisoning of a buzzard and a kestrel in Derbyshire (here), the poisoning of three peregrines and a buzzard in Staffordshire (here), the poisoning of a peregrine in South Yorkshire (here) and the poisoning of two peregrines in North Yorkshire (here).

There may well be further poisoning cases that haven’t yet been publicised.