The National Trust owns over 12,670 hectares of moorlands in the Peak District. It’s a honey pot for tourists, walkers and runners who love these open landscapes. You might think these are all wild, healthy habitats, rich in wildlife and untouched by human hand. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth - at least not on those moors that are managed for grouse-shooting. There it can be more like a wildlife war-zone, where only the grouse are allowed to live in peace. Our petition calls on the National Trust to seize the opportunity to make two of its own moorland estates in Derbyshire completely shooting-free to allow proper restoration of these degraded landscapes, both for wildlife and for people to enjoy. To do this, it simply needs not to decide not to licence out the shooting rights there when they next expire in 2018 - it's not a ban. It's common sense, based on the needs of conservation.
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Moorland, the National Trust and shooting tenants
Almost every privately-owned moorland across the Peak District is now managed for grouse-shooting. Despite being part of the Dark Peak ‘Site of Special Scientific Interest’, crimes against protected wildlife still occur on these remote uplands, but can rarely be proven. Nothing is allowed to exist on these moors if it conflicts with profitable shooting. This includes birds of prey like Peregrine Falcon, Goshawk and Hen Harrier, and even the Mountain Hare. The RSPB have twice produced publications entitled “Peak Malpractice” to highlight these illegal activities. There are 8,000 hectares of moorland in the National Trust estates of Hope Woodlands and Park Hall in Derbyshire. Shooting rights have been let out to a single, commercial tenant. Whilst this may bring extra income to the Trust, it does nothing to enhance the Trust’s reputation, nor the richness of the landscapes around the Kinder Scout plateau, Bleaklow or the Upper Derwent above Ladybower. Concern over the ways these moors are managed by tenants has been growing for some time.
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Early in 2016 a man was secretly filmed with a gun and a decoy hen harrier on these National Trust moors. Now, even the Trust has had enough. In June it served notice on its shooting tenant, saying it no longer had confidence he was committed to their vision for the land. We agree. But will the Trust appoint another shooting tenant? We earnestly hope it will not. Can any tenant realistically manage our precious moorlands for grouse-shooting whilst also restoring the landscape and permitting top predators to breed unmolested? We doubt it. Recent evidence of the shooting industry’s failure to clean up its act across the whole country supports this view. So this is one small opportunity to see what happens if shooting doesn't resume in one small part of the Peak District.
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What your petition signature says:
Your signature on this petition says a big “Well Done” to the NT for their actions thus far in revoking the licence of their shooting tenant. But it calls on the Trust to find a very different solution to restoring our moorlands, as described in their own “Vision for the High Peak”. Together, our voices say: “no more shooting on the Hope Woodlands or Park Hall Estates in Derbyshire. We think there are better ways to care for the moors and better partners must be found who have similar conservation values and a shared vision of rewilding these upland landscapes.”
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Is this a call for a ban on shooting?
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| Park Hall (dark purple) and Hope Woodlands (light purple), covering Kinder Scout, Bleaklow, Birchinlee Pasture. Owned by the National Trust - who have lost confidence in their shooting tenant, and whose licence is being revoked. |
No. This petition is simply asking the National Trust not to replace the shooting tenant whose licence they have revoked on with another shooting tenant or tenants on those two particular estates on one SSSI within the Derbyshire Peak District.
There's plenty of grouse shooting and intensive moorland management going on all round it, including other National Trust estates nearby. So this action would simply create a single large sanctuary across Kinder Scout and Bleaklow where moorland habitats can recover from intensive grouse management and key species from prolonged historic persecution.
There's plenty of grouse shooting and intensive moorland management going on all round it, including other National Trust estates nearby. So this action would simply create a single large sanctuary across Kinder Scout and Bleaklow where moorland habitats can recover from intensive grouse management and key species from prolonged historic persecution.
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This petition is promoted by a coalition of a dozen outdoor and environmental organisations from around Derbyshire and the Peak District who want to send a message to the National Trust. It includes groups like the Dark Peak Fell Runners, Derbyshire Ornithological Society and Derbyshire Mammal Group.
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| Map to show the location of every grouse-shooting butt in the Peak District Purple areas are National Trust-owned. Darkest purple shows the Hope Woodlands and Park Hall NT Estates from where the current shooting tenant will be evicted in 2018. |
