In Shooting Times, Ken Arkley recently highlighted
the problems posed on the Humber by Natural England’s procedures for
dealing with wildfowling consents (The Battle for Wildfowling, 16th
September). He sounded a stark warning to all wildfowling clubs in
England.
However, it is not only in England that wildfowling
is under serious threat. North of the border, where Scottish fowlers
have traditionally felt that their foreshore rights were reasonably
secure, there have been a number of recent examples which suggest
that their wildfowling smocks are hanging on a desperately shaky
peg.
Most of the problems arise from the fact that the
main strategy for controlling wildfowling on key estuarine sites in
Scotland has been the use of Local Nature Reserves (LNRs). This
model has been used at Montrose Basin, the Eden Estuary, Wigtown
Bay, Aberlady Bay and the John Muir Country Park (Tyninghame Bay).
In each of these cases the LNR byelaws ban wildfowling by
prohibiting the carrying or discharging of guns and by prohibiting
the killing or harming of any animal or bird. Having banned
wildfowling in this way, the byelaws then give the Local Authority a
discretionary right to issue permits subject to whatever conditions
and limitations the Local Authority politicians decide. Altering
those conditions or, indeed, deciding to issue no permits at all,
does not require a change to the byelaws or any level of
consultation or external approval. It is a purely political decision
of the local council.
Tragically, in bygone days when there was a high
level of mutual respect between wildfowlers and other
conservationists, some of those LNRs were actually promoted by
wildfowling clubs. Those clubs are belatedly awakening to the
dangers they now face.
For example, daylight tideflighting has been banned
at Tyninghame Bay. Tideflighting and
moonflighting have both been banned at Montrose Basin and recent
attempts to have moonflighting restored have been thwarted on the
advice of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) who, in their
correspondence with Angus Council, cite totally unsustainable
disturbance concerns. This provides a prime example of the
indisputable fact that, once we lose an element of our sport, it is
exceedingly difficult to get it back.
Perhaps the most dramatic threat is on the Tay
Estuary. Currently the Inner Tay Estuary LNR
covers just a small section at the eastern end of the area and there
are, at present, no byelaws to enforce the “voluntary” no-shooting
zone at Kingoodie Bay. However, the Management Plan for this nature
reserve, recently published by Perth & Kinross Council and supported
by SNH and RSPB, contains a specific objective of enlarging the LNR
to include virtually all the prime wildfowling foreshore between
Perth and Dundee. If this enlargement were to be allowed to proceed,
there would inevitably be an immediate call by the protectionist
bodies for draconian byelaws and extensive sanctuary zones which
could, at a stroke, decimate the wildfowling opportunities on one of
Scotland’s most iconic estuaries.
Lest there be any doubt about the capacity of Local
Authorities to summarily place additional restrictions upon
wildfowling within those LNRs, the loss of a mile of prime
wildfowling foreshore on the Eden Estuary this season establishes,
once and for all, that fowling is in peril. (Shooting Times News,
2nd September). In this case Fife Council altered the permit
conditions on the advice of a Countryside Ranger, supported by
SNH. In the Ranger’s
report, the main argument seemed to be that wildfowlers were
incapable of identifying the high water mark and might inadvertently
shoot on adjacent private land. This suggestion, apart from being a
gross insult to the intelligence and integrity of fowlers, has
serious implications for the future of wildfowling around the entire
Scottish coast.
Two years ago BASC’s Council adopted a policy
statement averring that “BASC will oppose at all levels any
restriction being placed upon wildfowling that is not, in the
opinion of both the Council and its Wildfowling Liaison Committee,
capable of being shown by clear evidence to be necessary for the
future of wildfowling in the UK and the wildfowl and wildlife
habitat on which wildfowling depends”. Never has there been a
greater need for those fine words to be translated into powerful and
effective actions.
In particular, there is an urgent requirement for
rigorous research, over a wide variety of site types, to support a
challenge to the spurious claims of disturbance that are so often
used to justify restrictions upon wildfowling.
Throughout the UK the rights of wildfowlers are being
systematically eroded. The future of our sport depends upon a
strenuous defence of what remains.
(Eric Begbie is a member of BASC’s Wildfowling
Liaison Committee and is the Press Officer of the East of Scotland
Association for Wildfowling and Conservation.)
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