Tag: burning

This is turning into a ‘join-the-dots’ good news story, as York Council has now joined the Mayor of Doncaster and Calderdale and Wakefield Councils in proposing an end to grouse moor burning and pushing Defra to impose a ban that has been in the offing for years. As the numbers of grouse on each moor has exploded (as estates seek to make as much money as possible by cramming as many grouse onto the moors as they can) columns of smoke have become as much a part of the moorland landscape as mammal traps and ‘keep out’ signs. Does that really matter? It really does….

In the last two weeks both Wakefield and Calderdale Councils have announced their intentions to push for a ban on burning moorland within their boroughs. Now the democratically-elected Mayor of Doncaster, Ros Jones CBE has written to the government urging Defra to deliver the burning ban “to help stop flooding in communities on the River Don”. Given the major floods in Fishlake and Doncaster, which sit downstream from the Peak District, at the end of last year, this request can only put more pressure on the government to act.

It’s been a disastrous year already for an industry that has long been associated with wildlife crime, environmental damage, and ad hominem attacks on ‘animal rights extremists’ (or as we know them, ‘people who care about wildlife’). And it has been entirely of their own making. Recent developments in Yorkshire certainly won’t have helped the mood. On July 16th it was announced that Wakefield Council had banned moor burning, and today, according to a press-release from the grassroots organisation Ban Bloodsports on Yorkshire’s Moors, they’ve been joined by Calderdale Council. Interestingly, Calderdale covers the notorious Walshaw Estate…

According to a very welcome press-release from Ban Bloodsports on Yorkshire’s Moors (BBYM) Wakefield Council has joined the battle to save the county’s peat moors from being damaged for grouse shooting. There are numerous ways to achieve the end of grouse shooting. Changing public acceptance of the mass slaughter of wildlife by shooters is one. Calling out the seemingly endless wildlife crime that underpins grouse shooting is another. And denying the shooters the land or the ‘right’ habitat to practice their sordid hobby is another…