Unsubstantiated

While this joint initiative to protect rural communities and environment is to be welcomed, claims made by the RSPB in the article have been based entirely on supposition.

They are misleading, and at best unhelpful.

According to the RSPB, North Yorkshire was last year the worst county of all for the persecution of birds of prey, with hen harriers being particularly hard hit.

However, they have no evidence with which to back up that accusation.

The RSPB will be aware that when publishing its report “A Future for the Hen Harrier in England?” in December 2008, Natural England admitted that there was no proof linking any evidence of persecution with an individual, and that breeding failure of hen harriers could be attributed to any number of factors, including the weather, lack of food, and predation.

The North Yorkshire moors do have excellent habitat for hen harriers, as does other heather moorland in the North of England, including the RSPB’s own flagship upland reserve at Geltsdale in the North Pennines.

There, no hen harriers have successfully bred since 2006, yet there has been no suggestion that this could have also been due to illegal persecution; or that this might have been the reason for hen harriers failing to breed on moorland that is not shot for grouse.

The RSPB would therefore do well to restrict its claims to those that it is able to substantiate, and to acknowledge the considerable conservation benefits of moorland management as carried out on grouse moors.

It is on those that the highest breeding densities of threatened grounds nesting birds, such as curlew and golden plover, can be found; not on its Geltsdale reserve, or those areas of heather moorland where grouse shooting does not take place.

ADRIAN BLACKMORE Moorlands director, Countryside Alliance, Barnard Castle.