Today, in the run up to the start of the Red Grouse shooting season on Saturday – The Inglorious 12th – Wild Justice publishes a report assessing the five-year trial of a controversial conservation measure. Some people call it brood management, we call it brood meddling. This trial only applies to England and came out of discussions between Defra and a range of shooting organisations. No such measures are being talked about or implemented in Scotland (which alongside England, has large areas of grouse moors) or Northern Ireland or Wales (both of which do have grouse moors, but they don’t make up a very high proportion of the upland area).
Our report finds that little has really been learned from this trial and many of the data remain unanalysed. Basically, we are pretty critical of how things are going. Read our report (takes a few seconds to load) and see what you think: