Test other solutions to resolve Hen Harrier conflict: our letter published in The Independent

Past efforts to resolve the proven conflict between hen harriers and grouse moors, with diversionary feeding and legislation, have failed. Adam Lusher’s suggestion of making landowners legally liable for their employees’ actions is little better because they already are (With endangered hen harriers being illegally killed, is it time to even up the balance of power on grouse moors?).

The ten-year Langholm Moor study shows that we should test other solutions to resolve the conflict, such as actively managing harrier broods, to ensure they thrive alongside economic grouse moors. This is important for our harriers because, in the words of the RSPB, the “management of land for grouse shooting has protected upland areas from the worst of over-grazing and blanket conifer plantations whilst generating income for upland communities and forming a uniquely British form of cultural land use”.

Andrew Gilruth
Communications Director
Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust