12th April 2000

Dear Lord Burns,

I have already made a submission to you on behalf of my family pack of beagles, the Forest and District Beagles, but at the meeting at Coventry this week would have liked to discuss the question of wildlife management in greater detail.

Many of us remember a countryside before farmland bird populations crashed, well documented by the RSPB's publication 'Silent Fields'. Because of a mutual interest in conservation (as you will see from Field Magazine attached) I have regular contact with the RSPB. Mark Avery, Director of Conservation, is happy for me to quote him, albeit that the RSPB are reluctant to make a formal Submission to your Inquiry, because he is desperately concerned about mink predation on bird colonies. He has also told me (announced this week) that their experiments at Abernethy Estate have shown that fox predation has had a critical effect on the Capercaillie. You will know that research by the Game Conservancy at Loddington has proved that fox predation on leverets suppresses the hare population and fox control resulted in the population of hares increasing from 10 to more than 200 in five years. Here in the Peak District the black grouse population (according to RSPB's Roy Taylor) is now down to just two grey hens. Extinction is imminent - the reason as at Abernethy, is fox predation because gamekeeping and foxhunting on the extensive acreage (including the grouse lek) owned by the Peak Park Board has been terminated.

I know that your Inquiry is required to address the question of control, but the MAFF Submission is worryingly simplistic for the future of our wildlife. Every animal is reviewed solely as a pest, by the damage it causes and the recommended control measures. This assessment is surely naive and takes no account of population dynamics, habitat or the growth in civilisation or suburbia across the country. How can we treat our wildlife in such a clinical fashion? Conscientious management requires research, evaluation and an understanding of habitat, food source and predation across a wide variety of the country landscape. To protect some wildlife species all legal fox control methods, however effective some maybe, are arguably essential in certain areas. More subtlety is required elsewhere.

The Brown Hare population is a classic example. To listen to some commentators farming practices are to blame, pesticides and herbicides have ruined the agricultural landscape and hedgerows have been decimated. But the hare population is highest in Eastern Britain where those very farming practices are most apparent. In Western Britain where farms still have hedgerows, and pesticides and herbicides are less frequently used the hare population is lower. The fact that the fox population is high in Western Britain may well be the reason.

Constructive and conscientious management (not MAFF's unilateral single prescription) must be the way forward. I would ask you to consider the conclusions of the Rio Convention, which resulted in the key action plan Agenda 21 to which the UK government was a signatory. The Biodiversity Action Plan which was produced acknowledges that: a) managed sustainable exploitation can bring conservation benefits b) hunting and shooting influences management of large areas of land c) wildlife habitats are created and maintained by the management of sporting estates.

On the moorland described in the Field article [Page 44-47, December 1999], there is now a resident brown hare population - previously absent - usually around 6 as well as nesting curlews, lapwings and a pair of merlins. Such investment by field sport enthusiasts is not unique though this particular example may be better publicised!

In Cheshire we have perhaps the most flourishing Brown Hare Biodiversity Action Plan group in the country. The group includes Cheshire Wildlife Trust, Chester College, Cheshire Constabulary, Warrington Ranger Service, NFU, FRCA, Country Landowners Association, Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, and the Masters of the three packs of beagles in the county. We meet bi-monthly and have recently completed a comprehensive survey of all farmers and landowners. Those members of the group with an academic interest are very enthusiastic but would, I think, acknowledge that all the practical knowledge, the historical information, the intimate contacts with farmers and landowners and the regular daily involvement is provided by those with a sporting interest in the hare population. More importantly, when our research is completed and our strategy developed, it will largely be the hunting members who will provide the delivery system to encourage farmers with the incentive to orchestrate any necessary changes in the farming landscape and the predation control system.

Any ban on hunting with dogs simply to assuage those single issue pressure groups who are essentially concerned with issues of class or a personal and emotional assessment of cruelty would have a seriously detrimental effect on significant numbers of our wildlife and bird populations throughout the countryside.

Yours sincerely,

RICHARD MAY

Date uploaded to website 31 May 2000