GWCT News Blog

We respond to a recent piece in The Telegraph on mountain hare declines.

The RSPB press office forgot to mention (Mountain hares on grouse moors down 99% in 60 years, 14 August) that their study reinforces what is already known, that mountain hares are notoriously difficult to count and estimates based on walking through the heather can be no better than a guess. 

he RSPB is right to call in gamekeepers and follow the evidence (Rod Liddle - Royal Society for the Protection of (some) Birds. Not you, crow - you must die in agony, August 12) that predation can and does impact curlew populations. Our upland experiment predicted that predation control can nearly double curlew numbers in five years but, without it, they are facing local extinctions.

The RSPB is right to call in gamekeepers and follow the evidence (RSPB defends crow cull as members fly off the handle, August 7) that predation can and does impact prey populations.

It is bizarre that the RSPB should now suggest (Feathers fly over who to thank for saving hen harrier, Aug 6) that these successes have been achieved through nest protection alone. 

We welcome news of the extension to the ‘payment by results’ pilot (Defra to fund revolutionary ‘payment by results’ agri-environment scheme, August 2), which recognises that farmers are well-placed to implement measures which will boost the environment around them. 

In written evidence to a 2016 Parliamentary Committee, the RSPB stated that moorland drains were “cut in the 60s and 70s to improve grazing” for sheep. It is bizarre that they should now suggest that gamekeepers dug these drains for their grouse (RSPB accuses gamekeepers of deliberately drying land, July 5). 

Our response to a recent piece in The Sunday Times concerning the Saddleworth Moor fire, in which RSPB Senior Uplands Policy Officer, Pat Thompson is quoted.

We respond to George Monbiot's accusation in The Guardian that grouse shooting is responsible for the Saddleworth Moor fire.