Good morning! We have lots to tell you and there's a strong stream of future news in the pipeline too. Here we tell you about a pathetic response from Natural England on issues in an SSSI/SAC/NNR on the edge of Dartmoor, give you a quick update on what you are finding out about SSSIs near you, make some serious and less serious points about Woodcock, thank a couple of young people for their help, and we point you in the direction of our first guest blog which describes the role of the forensics fund we established to speed up investigations into crimes against raptors.
Dartmoor gamebirds: we've had a response to our letter to Natural England on the condition of Dendles Wood SSSI in Devon and the implementation of the new licensing regime on gamebirds releases (which was brought in following our legal challenge). It paints a disturbing picture of inaction across the board. and of the statutory sector as aimless and toothless.
We suspect that Defra will be thrilled to see that Natural England finger their home department, yes, Defra, as having the responsibility for enforcement of relevant licences. We've written back to Natural England and also we'll ask Defra whether they agree that it's their job to enforce these regulations. For more details including Natural England's full response click here.
SSSIs: Natural England confirmed to us that they really haven't assessed the condition of the four Dendles Wood SSSI units since 2009-11 (even though they own one of them!). That's a long time ago. But you are getting similar responses from Natural England if you have written to them about your own local SSSIs. You are shocked. We are shocked about the dire condition of state nature conservation but not terribly surprised. We are definitely interested in seeing responses that you get on this subject - for once, they aren't all exactly the same! Thank you!
Thank you Benji: Benji Fallow is a talented young man and has been selling some of his artwork. He is sending us a £100 donation as a result - click here. Thank you Benji!
Woodcock shooting season: the debate is over but the battle goes on. We've written two blogs - really they are both about the fact that MPs often don't know what they are talking about! This one is about Woodcock vision and is mostly for fun - but it has a lovely piece of artwork from Ronan Jackson aged 11 - click here - and the other is more serious and lays out the reasons why anyone would be foolish to believe that voluntary restraint has done the job - click here.
Raptor Forensics Fund: Guy Shorrock (ex-RSPB) writes about how the fund established by Wild Justice and others to make forensic investigations into wildlife crimes has helped secure convictions - click here.The fund has achieved much in a short time (see also here) and will soon need topping up. Please consider making a donation to make that possible (see below, next paragraph).
If you like what we do and would like to make a general donation which will be used across our range of work, then please consider donating through PayPal, bank transfer or a cheque in the post - see details here. Thank you for all your donations.
That's it for now. We couldn't do any of this without you.
Thank you,
Wild Justice (Directors: Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay).
This is the 140th Wild Justice newsletter.
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