Grouse moor licencing, Scotland.

I have some lovely photos of smoke inversion taken yesterday from the Cairngorms. In this still, high pressure air it just hangs in the glens

Very noticeable yesterday looking across from Tromie to the Monaliadh.

Is a H&S action a feasible way to prevent estates burning the moors? After all they wouldn’t be allowed to pour poison into a stream that fed a water supply.

I imagine the argument is that these windless days are when burning is “safe”. Which really should open up a bigger question.

Highlandman, purely depends on the people doing it. See also speed of insurance payments after the deeside flooding a few years ago.

This should be the last year of this as muirburn is going to be included in the licensing and my guess is the estates have been burning huge areas knowing that in future they will not be able to do so. Same as they have done with killing hares.

‘S’alright, we can just blame those awful right to roam ramblers and their wild camping fires, plus mountain bikers dropping cigarettes on the hills. It wusnae us that started the fires, we just have to go and help them spread, sorry, beat them out..’

we see bluster in the press about woodburning stoves, but why so little criticism of the vast amount of particulate pollution produced by burning thousands of acres of heather and peat annually

I was pondering exactly this whilst out walking on Ben Rinnes the other night where you could clearly see the smog hanging about.

On a slightly different note, when I was learning to fly the farmer with the field at the end of the runway thought it would be a good idea to burn his stubble with a circuit full of learners. A little bit hairy landing when you can’t see properly and you’ve got updrafts from the burning on short finals.

Thankfully stubble burning is now banned, glad to hear that muirburn is going too.

Muirburn is still going to be allowed IIRC just far more controlled in extent and timings. Details are not yet available

It always amuses me that in the book “kidnapped” they protagonists hide in the heather in glencoe. You couldn’t do that now as its never allowed to grow to its full height. As a kid in yorkshire I remember hiding in heather that must have been over 2 ft high. I cannot remember seeing any that high since

TJ;I did heather as one of my talks for the ML. Shepherds used to cut a circular brake in the heather and use it as a shep pen. And the shipyards used to damp under industrial presses with it.

Looks like that Packham’s been out with the poison again!

https://raptorpersecutionscotland.wordpress.com/2021/03/02/peregrine-found-poisoned-on-grouse-moor-in-peak-district-national-park/?fbclid=IwAR3llr5TJus0giAeed5VT4avqQM3BaxB_sFrbPzP_3tYrjRlKIRsAgOMYlw

It’s good to know the future of the industry is in eloquent, influential and informed hands

The SGA had their AGM last week, the Chairs speech included gems like this:

Government interference generally in rural life has not helped sustain community. The drink driving limits. It’s great in the city, trains, buses and taxis everywhere. Try finding a bus or taxi in the rural areas where most of us live and work. This policy has seriously affected social cohesion in the countryside, along with rural pubs having to close.

And he complains that politicians don’t want to engage with them!

Self destruct mode fully engaged.

And again FFS!

https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/b/investigations/posts/illegal-eagle-owl-decoy-two-buzzards-shot-on-north-yorkshire-grouse-moor

The SGA had their AGM last week, the Chairs speech included gems like this:

For those who are curious a transcript is here
It really is a masterpiece although the drink drive is a particular highlight.

Sadly on the broader grouse moor issue the post immediately prior to that is the SNP rural cabinet secretary seeming to have believed one of their propaganda videos.

And again FFS!

It is a good example of just how hard it is to prosecute these sort of crimes and also an example of where licensing could be effective.

that Packham fellow is a busy chap making all this up and faking it

Walking today on part of the Glenlivet Estate just outside Tomintoul and there were a number of freshly shot brown hare within a short distance. The closed season is from 1st February – there’s no way those carcasses are 5 weeks old.

Walking today on part of the Glenlivet Estate just outside Tomintoul and there were a number of freshly shot brown hare within a short distance. The closed season is from 1st February – there’s no way those carcasses are 5 weeks old.

Why oh why would anyone kill hares & not use them as food? I have no problem with shooting for food but it’s persecuting other wildlife & killing for no reason that boils my water.

Why oh why would anyone kill hares & not use them as food

Its claimed they can pass diseases on to the grouse and hence they have to go.

It’s all very well saving hares carry ticks and disease that harm the grouse, but there are barely any grouse – you have to go a long way up onto the moors to find any and they are only in small numbers. You won’t find grouse 1km from Tomintoul.

I’ve always hated hare shoots. Make me sick.

dovebiker – report it please. they are a protected species and the cops need to know

the hares are slaughtered because they think they compete with the grouse and give them illnesses. Utter nonsense of course

It’s all very well saving hares carry ticks and disease that harm the grouse

Dont get me wrong I am no defender of these arseholes. From what I understand the evidence is slim to bugger all supporting the claim. However sadly for some a if it moves shoot it principle seems to apply aside from for their preferred species where it is a “wait until the season opens then shoot it” and a few species which are perceived as nonharmful to the preferred species and so might make good PR.

Packham gets a death threat 2 years ago and the SGA claim he sent it to himself after their “handwriting expert” said so and get one of their tame sunday papers to publish this absurd claim. this is after SGA members and officers have mounted a long campaign of abuse against him

Local police say the claim is nonsense

desperate stuff indeed

President of the SGA wished a member who said he intended to shoot Packham the best of luck.

I’ve only met two actual gamekeepers, one was mentioned earlier. Both were purebred shitbags so forgive me for tarring them all with the same brush.

Interestingly all the interactions I have had with gamekeepers ( not many) have been pleasant and polite – even when we rode our bikes thru the middle of a driven shoot we were just asked nicely to go over the brow of the hill to look at our map rather than stop where we were. One ( on a deer shooting estate) even pointed out and otter to us and told us were to go to see Sea Eagles

The Sunday times article ( I referred to above) that the SGA fed their dubious analysis to the paper for has backfired spectacularly with the ST having commissioned their own expert who said it was not Packhams writing and included police quote that the SGAs claim is bogus

tee hee

The only gamekeeper I ever knew personally had his kids in my local school. Nice as ninepence to your face & could talk about conservation & animal welfare all day long. Later convicted of possession of a massive amount of carbofuran.

Sorry, Daily Record article but it was the first link to come up, but there are plenty of others Dean Barr Conviction.

It’s good to convict the gamekeeper in these cases but the big hammer should come down on the estate owners. I’m talking big fines that they’d actually feel in the bank balance & not jus a few bob. It would make them more selective on who they employ.

It’s good to convict the gamekeeper in these cases but the big hammer should come down on the estate owners. I’m talking big fines that they’d actually feel in the bank balance & not jus a few bob. It would make them more selective on who they employ.

This is the exact reason why licensing is such a good step.

… and why the moor owners are so against it.

But I can’t see either the Tories or the SNP leaping to act.

The Tories won’t do anything about it, theyr’e all for shooting & screw the bycatch. Nobs.

I’ve always hated hare shoots. Make me sick.

Not a problem around these parts, we have blokes with long dogs turn up after dark for a bit of harmless ’sport’…
Hares are still around, fortunately, I saw four across a field where they’re often seen, a week or so back, late in the afternoon. The bastards with long dogs who course with them is a difficult problem to fix, though.

The reason so many are shot is because coarsing is banned.
Go figure.
Hare populations go through the roof on agricultural land round here so are shot in large numbers

That would largely be due to a lack of natural predators – foxes, raptors etc?

Hare populations go through the roof on agricultural land round here so are shot in large numbers

Cos hares a such a nuisance, eating all those crops, digging holes (they don’t). It’s just a case of shooters having targets.

That would largely be due to a lack of natural predators – foxes, raptors etc?

Definately, because theyr’e persecuted by gamekeepers/landowners.

Just to point out. Hares cause massive crop damage on arable. Land.

You can rant about shooter all day but pest control is required.
I usd to carry it out with lurchers while I was doing rabbits but as I can’t they now get shot.
Every single farmer I shoot for wants every hare seen shot.
I don’t shoot hares. Never have, never will.

It would make them more selective on who they employ.

I think they are already just not in the sense you are hoping for.

Estate next to me lost a worker today in a tragic accident whilst burning heather.
Poor guys clothes caught fire. Dangerous work.

Keen mountain biker and leaves 3 kids.