From ‘Wild Justice’…… From ‘Emergence’ Magazine…..
by Bernie Bell - 10:08 on 10 February 2025
From ‘Wild Justice’……
“We're back with an update sooner than we expected. It was only Thursday when we told you that our petition - click here - to ban driven grouse shooting had recently passed 55,000 signatures but now we've passed 61,000 and we're knocking at the door of 62,000. Thank you!
And 'Thank you!' to the RSPB and others for help (see below). We need 39,000 more signatures before the petition closes on 22 May in order to trigger a parliamentary debate where the future of driven grouse shooting will be discussed. Things are going well but we aren't by any means certain of reaching that 100,000 figure.
Today's newsletter also brings you the next three of a series of a dozen blogs about raptor persecution incidents. We call this series 'How low will they go?' because they illustrate the depths of criminality which have occurred where birds of prey have been harmed on or near grouse moors.
Each of these posts is shocking; each is sad; each is an indictment of the grouse shooting industry. They are just a selection of the incidents that the grouse shooters don't want the public to know about and don't want you to remember.
How low will they go?
· NEW: Nowhere is safe (Golden Eagle and White-tailed Eagle) - click here.
· NEW: An ambush (Hen Harrier) - click here.
· NEW: A double whammy (Red Kite) - click here.
· Shooting a sleeping beauty (Golden Eagle) - click here.
· The indiscriminate persecutors (Merlin) - click here.
· Faking it: death by decoy (Hen Harrier) - click here.
We'll be adding to this list over the next couple of weeks.
Here, below, are other blog posts which relate to our petition and the reasons for banning driven grouse shooting. Please feel free to forward this email to your friends and family to let them know what is happening up on the remote moors and what they can do to make things better.
What driven grouse shooting is - and why we want it banned: read this blog for a simple introduction to the issues - click here.
Our petition is flying: where our petition stands in the list of parliamentary petitions (12th out of 794, and the highest ranking environmental petition) and a list of 38 constituencies with 200+ signatures. Is your constituency in the list? To find out - click here.
Population level impacts: the known and documented persecution incidents are examples of widespread criminality on grouse moors. They are, to use a cliched phrase, 'just the tip of the iceberg' of criminality. Only about 10% of an iceberg pokes out above the water surface whereas it's probably less than 1% of crimes against birds of prey which are documented in the detail of the examples in 'How low will they go'. The cases of individual birds being shot, poisoned, trapped or trampled add up to population impacts, in fact landscape scale impacts as shown by scientists. See what you think by reading these three blogs:
· Population impacts on Golden Eagles - click here
· Population impacts on Peregrine Falcons - click here
· Population impacts on Hen Harriers - click here.
Active support for this petition from the RSPB and others: we've been talking to, maybe nagging, the RSPB for a while about supporting our petition so that there is a debate about the future of driven grouse shooting. And many of you who are RSPB members have been encouraging the RSPB to act too. We think you had an impact. On Saturday, the RSPB's 'Saturday morning nature fix' newsletter led with an image of a ringtail Hen Harrier and the words: 'Help secure a parliamentary debate on grouse shooting. Wild Justice’s driven grouse shooting petition is gaining momentum. We agree that we need to see the illegal killing of birds of prey stopped and the burning of peatland extinguished.'.
That newsletter has added 4,000 - 5,000 signatures to the petition over the weekend and that's great. 'Thank you, RSPB!, and 'Thank you!' too to PETA, the League Against Cruel Sports and Rewilding Britain for your help so far. These are very different organisations but they and others are supporting the need for abolition or at least extensive reform of intensive grouse shooting.
Have a look at the RSPB's excellent video explaining the range of problems with driven grouse shooting - they think it makes the case for licensing, we think it makes the case for a ban of this industry which is 'out of control' - click here.
The initial government response to our petition: the initial Westminster government response to our petition was disrespectful to the 47,000 people who had signed our petition (now over 61,000) and contained a gross factual error. The Parliamentary Petitions Committee is investigating the matters raised in our letter - click here.
That’s it for now! We won't get to 100,000 signatures without your support so please spread the word. Please forward this email to friends and tell people at work about it. Please find someone else to sign it today!
We won't be back with a petition update until next week but, you never know, we might have other news, if so, we'll be in touch.
Thank you.
Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).”
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From ‘Emergence’ Magazine…..
Restoration in the Wake of Wildfires
by Lauren E. Oakes
“New growth must come from a vision beyond the embers, a belief in resilience, and a recognition that the fate of forests and all other life is intertwined.”
Burning for a month, the Palisades and Eaton Fires in Southern California traveled across thirty-seven thousand acres of land, decimating innumerable human and more-than-human habitats. Out of the many stories of community and care emerging from this disaster, environmental scientist Lauren E. Oakes pulls forward one of an Altadena gardener, who, mid-evacuation, sent out a call for native seeds that could help restore vegetation, and repair soil health and air quality, in the aftermath of the inferno. As climate-fueled fires increase and intensify, part of a larger cycle of extreme ecological destruction, Lauren considers how learning what seeds to plant—literal and metaphorical—can help us restore both life and Earth in the wake of profound loss.”
https://emergencemagazine.org/op_ed/beginning-with-seeds/
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