Section:GDN 1N PaGe:3 Edition Date:190812 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 11/8/2019 18:50 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
3Monday 12 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •News
Severin Carrell
Scotland editorI
t was over in seconds. High
over the grouse moor, two
hen harriers wheeled slowly
around each other before,
suddenly, the female darted
underneath her mate to catch
a freshly caught meal dropped from
his talons to take to their chicks.
“That was a food pass,” said
David Frew, the estate manager
for Mar Lodge , a vast Highland
estate near Braemar in the southern
Cairngorms. “You’re really lucky to
have seen that.”
On many grouse moors in
Scotland, hen harriers struggle to
survive. The ground-nesting bird of
prey is shot, trapped or poisoned to
protect valuable grouse stocks.
The grouse season starts today
with the Glorious Twelfth , when
moors across the UK will echo to the
sharp report of shotguns as grouse
are driven into the air by beaters
marching in a line. The aim is to
shoot several hundred grouse a day.
But for the fi rst time in its history,
conventional “driven grouse
shooting ” has been banned at Mar
Lodge, the UK’s largest nationalnature reserve. Owned by the
National Trust for Scotland , it is now
pursuing a radically diff erent policy.
W alked-up shooting , where
grouse breed without human
intervention, is said by proponents
to be closer to the continental model
of hunting – a low-impact activity
where quarry is shot for the pot, not
in the hundreds for a day’s sport.
Its adherents include wealthy
estate owners who are investing
hundreds of millions in rewilding
projects , and gun sports groups
who say it can be cheaper and more
accessible than driven shooting, an
exclusive sport which can cost tens
of thousands of pounds a day.
Anders Povlsen, the Danish
clothing billionaire who is now
Scotland’s largest private landowner ,
allows it on his estates at Glenfeshie
and Gaick in the Cairngorms.
Thomas MacDonell, conservation
director for Povlsen’s Wildland
group , said driven shooting ended
when they bought Glenfeshie in
2006 and at G aick to the south-west,
bought in 2013. In Glenfeshie’s
heyd ay in the 1990s, up to 2,
grouse were shot in a day. Walked-up
shooting means today’s clients ,
including a party who have booked
Glenfeshie this week as part of aHighlands holiday package, may get
about 20 birds on a good day.
Sigrid Rausing , an heir to the Tetra
Pak packaging empire and publisher
of the literary magazine Granta,
allows it at Coignafearn , her estate in
the Monadhl iath mountains, south
of Inverness. So too does her sister
Lisbet Rausing , who is rewilding
Corrour estate near Rannoch Moor.
At Glenfeshie, G aick, Mar Lodge,
Corrour and Coignafern , shrubs
and trees are allowed to regenerate
through culling of red deer, whose
numbers are unsustainable in the
Highlands. Native species such as
mountain hare and birds of prey
are welcomed.
MacDonell said Wildlands’s
grouse are seen simply as part of
nature’s food chain. “Our grouse are
serving an ecological purpose. [The]
eagles need to eat as well. ”
Supporters includ ing Chris
Packham, the wildlife broadcaster ,
see walked-up shooting as a
sustainable alternative. “I t’s an
entirely diff erent mindset than
rocking up for a corporate day
having paid thousands of pounds to
stand in a butt where you want to kill
large numbers of animals ,” he said.
Campaigners want the Scottish
and UK governments to introduceSales of indoor plants blooming as
millennials feed need to nurture
Sarah MarshSales of houseplants are booming as a
result of urbanisation, interior design
trends and millennials ’ desire to have
something to nurture , experts say.
The rise in sales of plants and acces-
sories, as well as the prominence of
popular Instagram accounts dedicated
to plants with tens of thousands ofIt is a trend noted by the online
furniture store Made.com, which
says sales of plant accessories have
quad rupled this year. The Royal Hor-
ticultural Society has also reported
a 10-15% year-on-year increase in
houseplant sales since 2013. The RHS
shop’s sales of houseplants were up
by half last year.
The online plant store Patch Plants
reckons two thirds of Londoners
bought a houseplant in the past 12
months, with a 10% rise in plant pur-
chas es among 25- to 34-year-olds.
Its founder, Freddie Blackett, said :
“ People are increasingly living in tight
spaces in increasingly tight cities so
access to nature is much reduced.”The health benefi ts of plants were
also a draw, he noted, as indoor plants
are believed to help clean the air and
ease depression and anxiety. And
design trends had changed, he said.
“We have seen people move away from
stark minimalism.”
Ali Edwards, design manager at
Made.com, said there ha d been a big
trend for “wellness” within the home.
“We’ve seen a rise in popularity of
calming furnishings ,” he said.
Alice Vincent, who runs an Insta-
gram account , said : “Millennials don’t
have the housing and security our par-
ents had. We grow up slower, and that
doesn’t mean we don’t want to con-
nect [and] have something to nurture .”Best shot
Can grouse
shooting go
sustainable?
▲ David Frew, the estate manager of Mar Lodge, in the
southern Cairngorms PHOTOGRAPH: MURDO MACLEOD/THE GUARDIANstricter controls on driven grouse
moors. An expert group chaired
by Prof Alan Werritty is fi nalising a
report for the Scottish government
that may recommend licensing
of estates , a proposal vigorously
resisted by landowners and pro-
shooting conservation bodies.
Opponents of driven shooting
argue its environmental costs are
too high. Large areas of mature
heather are burnt to cultivate new
shoots for young grouse to eat, and
commercial moors need offi cially
sanctioned suppression of crows ,
ravens, mink, stoats and weasels,
which all feed on chicks, and
mountain hare, which can carry
ticks that feed on grouse.
Colin Shedden , Scottish director
of the British Association for
Shooting & Conservation, rejects
many of these complaints , but
still wishes more estates off ered
walked-up shooting , which with
no beaters and gun-loaders to pay,
and less expectation of huge bags of
game, should be less exclusive.
“ We would like to see estates give
more opportunities for reasonably
priced walk-up grouse shooting ,”
he said. “[It would] increase the
opportunities for ordinary punters
to have a chance.”Labour calls for review
Labour has called for a formal
review into driven grouse shooting
to examine its environmental
and economic impacts, as well
as possible alternatives such as
simulated shoots and wildlife
tourism. T he party noted that grouse
moors covered an area equivalent
to that of Greater London. The
shadow environment secretary, Sue
Hayman , said: “The costs of grouse
shooting on our environment and
wildlife need to be properly weighed
up against the benefi t of land owners
profi ting from shooting parties. For
too long the Tories have bent the
knee to landowners.”
Peter WalkerA hen
harrier
in fl ightGrouse:
political
targets▲ Chris Murphy, Mar Lodge’s head
keeper, prepares for its fi rst season
without traditional grouse beaters
PHOTOGRAPH: MURDO MACLEOD/THE GUARDIAN50%
The growth reported by the Royal
Horticultural Society in its retail
sales of indoor plants last yearfollowers, speaks to a growing trend
among young people, insiders say.
When George Hudson, 24, moved
to London from Derbyshire , he missed
the green spaces he had grown up in.
He now owns a dozen indoor plants.
“It’s partly a back-to-nature thing,
a relief from the developed cities we
live in,” said Hudson. “It gives people
something to look after and care for- something people crave. There is a
bit of a collector’s addiction about it.”
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