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The recent Parliamentary Questions on wildfire impacts have exposed something inexcusable: the Government is making sweeping land-management policy decisions without any consolidated assessment of wildfire consequences. This is not evidence-based policymaking—it is ideology masquerading as environmental protection. The Policy-Making Scandal When James Cartlidge MP asked for basic wildfire data—hectares burned, firefighting costs, health impacts—Defra's response was staggering

As reported yesterday by the Peak District Moorland Group , Howard Jones, an RSPB ‘Senior Investigation Officer’ gave a presentation this week in Glossop which offered a masterclass in how to manipulate an audience through selective presentation. It also highlighted why the RSPB's Investigation Team has become such a liability to genuine bird conservation. For those unfamiliar with Jones's modus operandi, the evening followed a predictable pattern: emotive imagery, carefully

When policymakers prioritise clever rhetoric over fire science, landscapes and communities pay the price "Only this morning, I was asking myself, is there anywhere more eastern Mediterranean than the UK?" With this flippant remark, Alistair Crowle—co-author of Natural England's controversial heather burning review—sought to dismiss legitimate comparisons between UK wildfire management and the catastrophic fires faced last summer in Southern Europe. It's the kind of glib, self

In recent years Natural England have portrayed traditional moorland management techniques as reckless and claimed controlled burning ‘threatens peatland habitats and increases wildfire risk’. Through selective evidence presentation and carefully choreographed policy announcements, the agency has systematically undermined experience built up generation after generation whilst presenting its own approach as unimpeachably scientific. Freedom of Information requests by the Moorla

The North York Moors presents one of Britain's most beautiful but unforgiving winter landscapes. When snow sweeps across these high moorlands, transforming familiar tracks into treacherous white expanses, it's not the emergency services who are first on the scene. It's the gamekeepers and farmworkers—those who know every fold and hollow of this terrain—who become the unlikely first responders. Stretching across more than 550 square miles of upland plateau, the North York Moor

Wild Justice spends much of its time attacking the shooting community. They've launched futile legal challenge after legal challenge against the supposedly devastating impact of non-native birds released by private estates. Yet when Sadiq Khan spent £550,000 of taxpayers' money introducing non-native white storks to one of London's poorest boroughs, Wild Justice fell conspicuously silent. For years, Wild Justice has attacked shooting estates about releasing pheasants—birds th

When Natural England and the University of Exeter embarked on their "Bog Talk" research project in 2023, they promised groundbreaking insights into environmental land management in peatland areas. What they delivered, after £52,887.59 of public money and nearly two years of delays and tensions, was a seven-page report containing findings that would surprise no one who has spent an afternoon in an upland pub. Acronym Soup The project was delivered under the RENEW (Renewing Bi

A letter to the next BBC Director General from the Regional Moorland Groups has called for urgent reform of the Corporation's rural media output. This comes after the release of new polling which reveals a huge loss of faith in the broadcaster from people living and working in the countryside. A survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Regional Moorland Groups found that 38pc of people living in the countryside felt the BBC’s coverage of rural life was “inaccurate”– with

There's a glaring contradiction at the heart of the hen harrier conservation debate, and it's one that neither Defra nor the RSPB seems willing to address. If licensing of game shooting is truly the solution to hen harrier persecution—as conservation groups insist with absolute certainty—then why is the government pumping £424,000 annually into the National Wildlife Crime Unit for enforcement that these same groups claim has spectacularly failed? The Northern England Raptor F

When it comes to Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in unfavourable condition, private landowners—particularly driven grouse moor estates—face relentless attack. The RSPB leads the charge, routinely weaponising unfavourable SSSI statistics to demand licensing schemes, ban moorland burning, and restrict shooting. Every percentage point of unfavourable condition on private land becomes ammunition in their campaign against traditional moorland management. Yet data from

The Banbury Ornithological Society's curlew "rescue" project is an obscene waste of charitable and public funds—a textbook example of ideologically-driven conservation that prioritises feeling good over achieving results. After watching curlew numbers crash by 80% in two decades, their solution is to beg for £50,000 to erect some temporary fencing and bribe farmers. It's conservation malpractice dressed up as environmental stewardship. Let's be brutally clear about what this

A recent press release distributed by the RPSB to various papers and media organisations has been, once again, recruiting member of the public to ‘ report incidents of moorland burning on peatlands’ using their app or website. This isn’t the first time the RSPB have encouraged the public to log incidents of burning, however the topic has of course been subject to more scrutiny this year due to the new laws in England which mean that (as of September 2025) a licence is requi

Campaign group Hen Harrier Action today announced that 75% of the hen harriers they tagged this summer with the RSPB have died. Despite the groups’ best efforts to incite hostility against gamekeepers as usual, even the RSPB confirmed there is ‘no reason to believe their deaths were suspicious’. The comment is not surprising given one of the birds, Henrietta, showed it had died far out to sea, seemingly on its way to Greenland. Whilst the death of any hen harrier is u

A report from Wildlife and Countryside Link, released this week, covers the topic of national Wildlife Crime and has some extremely positive news for all those who care about or are involved in the protection and future of the UK’s bird of prey population. One of the notable trends highlighted in the report is ‘a record low of incident reports of crimes against birds of prey since 2017’. Delving into the statistics in the report, which were supplied by the RSPB, we see a re

In late summer, a press release was launched by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) , announcing that they would be shutting down the Yorkshire Dales National Park Bird of Prey Partnership as it had “not delivered sufficient results” and that “all initiatives to tackle bird of prey crime had been unsuccessful”. This was met with disappointment by many of those within the group – which is made up of a number of organisations and groups including Natural Engla

When people think of wildfire hotspots, the UK rarely features on the list. But the record-breaking 2025 fire season shattered that assumption. Over 46,000 hectares were scorched—the largest area ever recorded—proving that the UK is not exempt from the global wildfire crisis. While the blackened landscapes drew headlines, a more insidious consequence went largely unnoticed: the climate cost. These fires unleashed vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, feeding a dangerous

Since new regulation towards heather burning was recently introduced there has been widespread criticism against DEFRA. In this week's Spectator the issues emerging from the policy, and the reasons behind it, were eloquently highlighted by Matt Ridley who expertly dissects the arguments from those proponents of the ban. As first published by The Spectator: "This year has been a bad one for wildfires in Britain. In June, nearly 30,000 acres burned near Carrbridge in the Highla

Traditional moorland management involves cool rotational burning in areas that are suitable and at times and in conditions that mean it...

When it comes to wildfires Natural England have been saying one thing and then doing something entirely different. Until now however no...

What wasn't the minister told? A lot of people who know a lot about moorland management think that the Defra minister Mary Creagh made...