The Grouse Shooting Problem

[00:00:09]I grew up in the countryside we didn't have a lot but my father introduced me to the glory of nature and that wildlife is the most valuable thing on earth [Music] a training countryside management but nowadays I run a gun shop and I'm a youtuber field-sports community is filled with negative people every community is but our community seems to be very negative towards any change yeah and we need to change yeah so room I'll dictate the change ourselves I cooked up some of that ball from yesterday and this is the complete circle of our team increasingly as the world digitizes field-sports have found themselves under scrutiny and of all contemporary field-sports Grouse shooting appears to be the most contentious my main gripe with the activity of some gamekeepers is the illegal killing of birds of prey like ten-pounders you think they're few badder yes and I think there are more bad apples than you do the animosity between both sides it creates a constant feed of biased information all around us separating fact from fiction seems an impossible task whether it's the ecological benefit the persecution of Raptors or the cost to the taxpayer both sides have very different stories for those unfamiliar with the subject the red grouse is a small upland bird that breeds and lives off of heaven in order to create a harvestable surplus the Mullens are managed by again keepers to boost the overall population of these ground nesting birds to do this game keepers use controlled burning to create a diverse range of plant life this management is globally significant with Britain having 75% of the world's heather moorland the red grouse is put on a pedestal by hunters worldwide not only because of their wild and unpredictable nature and jet like speed but because these birds are exclusive to upland Britain and they taste great [Music] to find out what's actually going on I'm gonna head up north and spend the next few days on and around some grouse moors [Applause] my first meeting was with Ian a head keeper in the Yorkshire Dales [Music] apologies to the progress of this question but what does it graph keeper do we work from the Mooers I mean now I saw job is to look after the graph the red grouse that live up on the Mooers here and they predominantly feed on the Heather so a big part of our job is is managing the header by control burning through winter we take in the canopy off the header in small manage patches creating so much work will sort of affect the more I presume effects the valley below financially we are quite a big traditional estate so we have the Grouse shooting on the movers we have the pheasant shoots in a peasant party shooting in the lower ground and the Sun fishing on the river we've managed to all the woodlands all the dry stone walls a good grouse season helps to pay for a lot the walls the tree planting so it's a so and then from the job yet my job and my family and my owner keepers family and the other stuff on the estate more groceries and more funds we can bring in the more work we can do upon the movers pest and purchase control is obviously a large part of the job how does that go yep a separate control it's absolutely key to our job love watching bridge distorts and how the play and literal Corbin and Mara you see all sit and watch it I'm dusk watch the little Cubs playing around but you know how much damage there do and you know if you don't control them though they couldn't that could wipe a whole whole bait out will drive out not just the grouse there all the way there's and everything you have a lot of raptors on the place we've a lot of raptors yeah probably nearly all the species of raptors here at born Braden we do quite a bit of work with BT or natural England we were monitoring Merlin nests and Merlin sites Merlin - we've got Merlin's here yeah looking out here we've probably got three nests - on the opposite bank here and we've got another nests in here this time so on this day probably four or five nest we've done quite a lot of work with with natural England monitoring the nest and the keepers in the area have been granted scheduling one licences to approach the nests and monitor the nest which is a quite a new thing so we are we are very conservation minded directly incentivizing you to be connected to them exactly nice exactly we have the network of capers so we're all in torture together we're all talking alkalyn with new ideas and moving forward with the times as well the management that keepers undergo is such an integral part of the delicate ecosystem I couldn't help but wonder what the estate would look like without the graphs industry's influence this takes me back to a conversation I had before I even started this journey I think it's a really complex situation because rewarding means so many different things to different people the concept of just leaving the land to go back to a natural state just seems really farcical because we are part of that natural state as humans we always have been the way that we interacted landscape shapes the landscape the way that we interact with animals and plants shapes the animals and plants so you don't really believe in the sort of revolve in that is the popular theme of rewilding that we just leave it and stand back and go this isn't that that's not rewarding to you I think there's ways that we can return to a more natural and abundant state a better ecosystem for everyone involved for humans and for animals however I think within the modern world especially within Britain with our scarcity of space that we really it certainly will be a lot harder to do than say somewhere like America and Sweden which is where a lot of people draw their ideas are arriving from people I think have this idea that we can be neutral we can just sort of walk in have a look step away but even by walking into a space you create a new path so how do you feel on that scale of positivity to negativity how does the way that they manage grab small and feel to you as somebody who is sort of objective on the subject it's not simple because there's not a solid alternative there and what it is in terms of what that landscape could be used for it's incredibly positive because you have this space that's being managed well for one species and it's being managed for wildlife in general however it's still yes it has a wider wildlife benefit however it's still being managed for a very elite and very other for most people people to enjoy so it's very difficult to mean simply because it's just like I love the fact that it's there I like the fact that it's being well managed by people who've been magic for generations on generations on generations so know that landscape really well they have a a real visceral connection to that ecosystem and they have been educated at how to interact the institution and lot of them since like birth so I don't want a demeanor because I don't know that you can system like they do however you also know that it's being run for a very select few people to enjoy and it's so expensive so what is the alternative for Apple in Britain I don't the answer is I don't think there is a better alternative currently being profit that can be sustainably managed without higher taxation of everybody I think that's that's what it boils down to and without losing biodiversity yes thank you very much fine thank you very much tiffen good it's more important out the Grouse shooting industry is regularly criticized for being too exclusive I was interested to find out if there was more accessible shooting about in my search I came across Neal and Paul who have dedicated the last 20 years to the accessibility of grass shooting so tell me about your morning this is the 23rd year we've had which started off as a small syndicate and now we've got to where we are now I could honestly say that there's a lot of people shot girls on that mower for the first time than any of the women in the country you've made it really easy and very accessible for people to come and enjoy the sport of grouse shooting yes what is the general consensus of people when they come and experience it for the first time all right she's overjoyed you know because the thing they'd never get the opportunity to shoot grouse we had a that syndicate man we brought his son on his 12th birthday and showed his first grouse Wow and then we had a gentleman come on his 80th birthday never been on the girls and women in his life we shot rang left and you Jake his birthday Wow so you know that's what makes it on that short it's all about giving the enjoyment to people that couldn't afford to shoot girls what does the future look like in your head of grouse shooting definitely quite a fragile political thing at the moment yeah yeah is a bit like the whole shooting industry it needs to be publicized a little bit better I feel until we bring our went to the table we're always really going to be on the back foot defending on yeah you are you just yet you firefighting basically you do nothing more until until people are a little bit more about what we do why we do it and the benefits that has has to everything right across the hall Moreland environment right through the grouse the insects everything everything has its place and and shooters see that and they know that but they're not as keen as maybe the ecologists and there is a butterfly lovers to put this forward because because we naturally quite defensively about it because usually we've used the bad guys doing this or stuff and it's genuinely not the case we're not doing anything at any harm up there you were saying last season usually shoot ten days up there yeah last season you shot one drive we shot what yeah well we shot two drives for half a day and eight birds and then realized that that was we were we didn't have the birds that were required to carry on for the rest of the day so and that's the same on every grouse more right through the whole country even the big commercial mores the only shoot the birds that they've got to shoot they'll never shoot the stock because of his Eva suit we stock you haven't got any birds for next year so nobody's gonna go out and try and we're not out to try and murder every grouse there is it is a completely sustainable it is sustainable and has to be viewed that way more so than any other type of game shooting you can release the pheasants and you can release partridges you can not release grouse what is the alternative for that upload of that more we were just on up on the fell what's the alternative currently it's used for like grazing and and grass shooting yeah yeah I mean it can only ever be used for like grazing because of its triple Assad state it's not something that can be used throughout the winter for grazing sheep and livestock and stuff like that on and it does depend on again they're very heavily governed just to what the more producers that year as well if the more doesn't draw a lot of grass and you want for a lot sheep that was a real pleasure to be invited into those people's homes to experience a little bit in their life two things sort of stand out more than any and that was how accessible these people are making shooting and that that for me is a prime example of where shooting should be the recession of the header and how the uplands are changing really stood out to me so now I'm going down to the University of Liverpool to meet with Professor Rob Mars who is a specialist in ecology and water management [Music] so we're now starting here at the University of Liverpool with Professor Robert Mars and he's gonna talk me through effect of Heather burning effect of Moreland management for grouse and positives and negatives of that how do you feel about grouse shooting on the whole well I have virtually no feeling about crows she's been on the whole mean I don't grouse shoot never have grouse shot and as such I see it just as our management or in the in the uplands my interest is purely scientific and that I want to understand how the habitats of what the moorland itself apart from all of the fringe benefits that the owner might do the management for is it is it ecologically a good thing is it does that value what it does because are people just been written by staff of the game Conservancy showing that Anna - grouse Muir the conservation benefits are are much better than unmanaged nervous but of course it depends what you want as a target if you are happy to accept a bond mosaic then you will have a different suite of bird species for example from an unmanaged mule so to some extent management will impinge on what you get but it depends on what you wish at different balances yeah it's what you know absolutely yeah the positive thing about grouse shooting is in my view they produce a mosaic of Heather patches using prescribed burning that's done over the winter and early spring in order to provide new shoots for the the grouse chicks I see the the patchwork as our means of helping to prevent world fire and wildfire is a of big concern on unmanaged Moors over the last few years obviously well not just the last few years but it's an ongoing issue because you have a fire prone fire adapted shrub there's a dominant species and in a dry year it will bond very easily and once it started it is very difficult to stop as we found out last year over to the east of Manchester what research needs to be done next in terms of upland management or do you think that is a case of if you're you're saying that burning or cutting is necessary it's definitely beneficial certainly to public mores do you think that's something that should be put in place and if so how do we go about actually getting these all things done the conservation agencies tend to not be in favor of bonding or indeed cutting at the moment because they would prefer a wedding up solution to provide our Moss based Magnum based solution um I would like to see research at that actually show that it reduces fewer than reduces fire risk I think that's a key bit of information that's needed and secondly I think that further research and bonding and cutting would be useful most of our knowledge about bonding comes from a single experiment that I've worked on that was set up two years after I was born and it's often criticized because it's supposedly a typical well it's a typical in that it's a Tigger it's the only one no there is no other and that's the problem you need to have and any good science you need to have good quality experiments in a range of situations and unfortunately in the up ones time is not on your side it always takes time how do you feel that that science and politics and emotions seem to be being put into a bit of a blender at the moment always on the up issues about my breath oh I think we should take the emotion out of it completely unlooked at the data that our search data that come because often in science you get a completely different answer to your perceived wisdom beforehand and that's why you do proper experiments you shouldn't be in search of answers you should be in search of science absolutely the answer of what comes out of a the experiments you don't um prejudge them and you don't design the experiments to prove something walks or something doesn't work you do an experiment to test the hypothesis it's been absolutely fascinating yeah thank you very very much geography the professor taught me so much about wildfires and how and why they happen this inspired me to go to Santa worth more a nun managed more near Manchester that unfortunately suffered a wildfire earlier this year Wow I mean obviously knew the extent of the damage but actually seeing it in real life it's just one small portion of that face it's overwhelming the tool Heather isn't something I've really encountered before because I've only ever been to managed areas but if you look at this this is nearly three foot tall if you imagine that whole Bank was covered in this that's a lot of fuel one of the things I learned from the professor was that to reduce the risk of wildfire one has to reduce the fuel load since there's a few options for this including cutting burning and a few other bits however burning is conclusively and scientifically the best proven way to reduce the risks of this sort catastrophe should it be publicly funded well I don't know is the answer there they're currently funding the rewetting program that has no scientific basis however burning could happily be privately funded and is happily privately funded all over the country by the grass industry I fell runner showed us a path at the back of the hill and says you're going to get a much better view of the devastation from the top and through the clouds across the back everywhere you can see there's a network of black patches all connected all coming down to that Bank it really is quite a view I'm not really sure how it makes me feel but it scared the power of nature that's for sure [Music] what a view to wake up to a I've also now got get in the car and drive halfway across the country to knitted ale where we were going to be meeting with a keeper could void Burroughs who takes a more holistic approach to wildlife management [Music] with my journey drawing to an end I thought I would take a moment to sit down and reflect on what I have learned [Music] shooting grouse although popularized as an elitist sport would seem to be accessible for less than the cost of a football ticket as for claims that I've read that grouse moors are barren of life they just aren't true [Music] out of all the possible uses for the uplands I've seen it would appear grazing is just not good for wildlife unmanage ground is fairly void of life and more importantly is a huge fire risk amenity land seems to suffer too much human pressure to sustain life and wind power has its own variety of human and animal conflicts each of the examples has some benefits to a small suite of Wildlife but none is as bar diverse as the mosaic of Heather and Bob the grass must provide anyway let's go see what [Music] so have you seen a change in Heather coverage over your lifetime fifty years ago grading increased so shape were very profitable sort of put a lot of sheep on the moor and we little a lot of Heather got lost in the last fifty years and now we are starting to get that that habit out back it's not just blanket ever it's Heather bilberry cotton grass Moss Moss the spackle applause is with the grip block even what will go on have a look at this pregnant motor track create a lot most pregnant boss we're doing everything to encourage this program because this patents good it holds a holds all the insect life and the insect life is not just good for the grouse it's great for the for all the way it is they they'll all feed on feed on it so it's about creating a bottom-up eco create a habitat what's suitable for everything not just not just not just not just go yeah grouse is what the bill pays the bills and looks after this but we've also got a responsibility to look after the rest of the wildlife and I care about that as well I don't want y'all to go for my kids they want nothing go on for generations series an artificial habitat but it's managed for the greater good yeah well if you come up here in spring and you and and and you said on that hill in the spring and your early morning you listen to the wildlife on here it's alive like I said it's a pleasure to be up here that and you look back you through your Heather management you're burning your predator control and all the other jobs are doing them more and it gives you that sort of satisfaction that you're part of helping that that Wildlife's thrive and you're passionate about wildlife in it so yeah another great good good Grouse is is part my job but I'm passionate about all parts of wildlife not just the grouse I love I love the waders I love the everything insects have a big thing about insects bees are my thing about bees at the minute but yeah we're going to do everything to help these because we are in danger River the country have losing a lot of these species and if we we're not here to look after them who is going to be here to look after it exactly who's gonna put up money government's not gonna fund more than management know and where we've got it that's what looks at you if you go into other part of the country which isn't manage moorland there isn't the notes there people can do this unmanage more a couple of days ago and there's there's nothing yeah walked here and we've already seen plenty yeah so yeah but we've and we've we've got to be proud of all that I want to I want to make sure that's there for my kids and hopefully their kids to see the future owner on my journey I met a guy called Martin Jim he's very much into his rewilding and wilderness and his main thing was it's about being connected and being a positive part of wildlife as opposed to trying to manage manage it without being a part of it I think there's a lot of the problem we face is people are just removed from being a part of that wild life cycle which you obviously are a major part of well we were involved with a wild life not just on the mall but it goes down throughout the state with on the mall and ready to plan a lot of Waterland and all that waddle and is is with while it's all native waddled it's not quick girl its combi there's not a timber it's native woodland orcs Hazel's Holly mountain ash birch and that that is for shooting as much as the white of that life that it's Adlon it will help with the shooting Britain it's also gonna help with a natural environment the biodiversity Jordan management the wildlife populate the bird life we create a corridor all them for the burst travel up the insect life there wasn't a lot of insect life so that's going to create insect life and then we go further into the farmland putting pollinator mixes in for the bees we're putting some herbs into the grassland it's a small scale but hopefully both at small scale will making a difference not just to the shooting the farming but for the planet Earth photo yeah yeah yeah well I hope the hot would doing that and and as we progress and learn and it's successful hopefully other people start doing it as well what we do generate from shooting helps us to be able to do a lot of fun a lot of these projects [Music] this journey has taught me a lot the recurring theme from both sides of this discussion is that management is essential whether the target is to boost your wildlife fire management or to earn revenue it seems impossible to get the most out of upland Britain without human intervention everybody agrees the biodiversity must have diversity none of the people I met want a blanket of heather moorland they all agree that there is various uses for upland britain as long as they are beneficial to wildlife and nature every gamekeeper I of that is really just a conservationist who's been paid for by a game shooting grouse shooting might not be for everybody but it is for conservation [Music]