Countryside Alliance - love the countryside

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Simon Hart writes: On Tuesday the Government launched a consultation on ‘Dangerous Dogs’ with a fanfare of media coverage about a 12 fold increase in dog fighting and a rising number of dog attacks on postal workers. These issues may, as Ministers suggest, be of growing public concern, but some of the ‘solutions’ proposed in the consultation bare little, if any, relation to the problems they are supposed to address.

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Simon Hart writes: The Moorlands Association this week released an Uplands Manifesto, which makes a number of important recommendations to the next Government about safeguarding our precious moorlands. Unsurprisingly it identifies shooting and related moorland management as the beating heart of English and Welsh uplands.

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Simon Hart writes: The Moorlands Association this week released an Uplands Manifesto, which makes a number of important recommendations to the next Government about safeguarding our precious moorlands. Unsurprisingly it identifies shooting and related moorland management as the beating heart of English and Welsh uplands.

Game- to-Eat is delighted that, for the second year running, it is to be the main sponsor of the Living Heritage country shows. The thirteen show schedule kicks off in Thame on the weekend of 3rd April and then moves around the country until October 2010. The Living Heritage shows are the ideal platform to show a new audience how versatile game is, and Chefs Rob Marles and Tony Robertson will be showcasing their skills. To accommodate the interest in cooking game the demonstration theatre will be bigger and better with even more seating this year. Read on for dates and venues....

Conservationists, landowners and managers face a continuing challenge in ensuring that endangered bird species remain a key part England’s uplands. Whilst the positive stories for some of those species is excellent news, there is understandable concern for those that are doing less well.
As an integral feature of the uplands, grouse moors and their management have played a large part in producing a landscape that is both rich in wildlife and biodiversity. Home to the red grouse, this is a species that is only found in those areas that are dominated by heather moorland, and it is unique to the United Kingdom. Many people do not realise that grouse are truly wild, and that unlike pheasant and partridge its population is not maintained or increased by the release of birds which have been hatched or reared in captivity. Living on the moor all year round, red grouse travel very little during their lives, and their particular vulnerability to predation, disease, weather and loss of suitable habitat makes the preservation of this species both demanding and important.