Protection of Hen Harriers

Hen Harriers have been persecuted to the point of extinction in England by the people that own and run shooting estates. This is an incontrovertible fact. The response of the major conservation charities has been weaker than most members would expect. Most surprisingly, the respected Hawk and Owl Trust is agreeing to help with "brood management", which is simply one method for reducing numbers of an almost extinct species! This is a worrying development;  if the removal of Hen Harrier eggs is allowed, how will we stop this being extended to all other birds of prey that the shooting lobby see as a threat??

I've just found this comment on the Hawk and Owl Trust website - it's a brilliant critique!

"Philip, elsewhere you have insisted that ‘a Hen Harrier brood management scheme trial…is the way forward for the recovery of Hen Harrier populations’. This is patently absurd.

Let’s be absolutely clear about the purpose of brood management. It is not, as Andrew Gilruth and others would lead us to believe, a necessary conservation intervention. Hen harriers will recover of their own accord if only the persecution ceased. Rather, it is a tool for keeping the hen harrier population from fully recovering.

Further, allowing shooting interests to reduce the density of hen harriers in order to tackle a perceived conflict with their commercial interests sets an awful precedent. You’ll recall that the government was forced into a u-turn over its plan to ‘trial’ buzzard brood management. Shooting interests would dearly love to be allowed to legally reduce the populations of buzzards, peregrines, sparrowhawks and other birds of prey, each far more abundant than hen harriers. If one allows them to do this to hen harriers, what possible reason could there be to deny them the right to do it to these other, far more common, birds of prey? It would be illogical to allow it in the case of the near-extinct hen harrier, but not the comparatively abundant buzzard, sparrowhawk etc. What argument would the Hawk and Owl Trust present against this wider suppression of bird of prey populations?

Brood management is not required to address the so-called human-wildlife conflict. Diversionary feeding works very well in reducing red grouse losses to hen harriers.

Put simply, the very intensive red grouse management undertaken on driven grouse shooting estates is not sustainable – it’s not an appropriate land-use. It leads not only to conflicts with hen harriers and other predators, but also damage to upland habitats, emissions of biomass carbon and, possibly, increased water run-off and downstream flood risk. Where such intensive management takes place on designated moorland (i.e. SPAs, SACs), it is legally suspect. This land use is not fit for the moorlands upon which it takes place.

In my view, the way forward is for Defra to put the brood management component of the Hen Harrier Plan in the public domain – with supporting evidence to demonstrate why it is necessary – and allow a period of public consultation. The Hawk and Owl Trust must demand this at least, and should not proceed with its involvement until the results of consultation are known.

Further, the legality of any brood management on or affecting SPAs should be demonstrated through a Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA). Again, the Hawk and Owl Trust should not proceed until the results of this assessment are known and consulted upon. As a reputable nature conservation organisation, the Hawk and Owl Trust must know that it would be unlawful to proceed until such an HRA has been completed and has demonstrated that any broad management would not adversely affect any SPAs.

Or is the Hawk and Owl Trust saying that the comparatively small shooting community is a very special case indeed, that UK wildlife laws should be suspended to allow them to suppress the hen harrier population so they can pursue their intensive driven grouse shooting? What other minority sectors should be given special dispensation to ignore hard-earned wildlife protection?"