Banning Burns and Lead: Has Britain Gone Bonkers?

Has the UK gone officially mad ?

Let me first start by agreeing with everyone who points out that my country, the USA, is without a doubt in completely certifiable territory. But in some areas we have to worry less, fieldsports among them. It pains me to say, but Mr. Trump has gotten a few things right, such as strengthening NATO and recognizing that the bureaucracy needed streamlining. Unfortunately then his narcissistic streak gets in the way and it all goes downhill quickly. We are, in my humble opinion as a longtime Republican, now former, about to see major inflation with these tariffs, and here I was convinced the Republican Party were the champions of Free Trade. But enough about that, why am I wondering whether the UK has gone mad ?

When the pro-shooting organizations such as the BASC, CA and GWCT out of the blue and without any consultation with very involved players such as ammunition manufacturers, gunmakers, gamekeepers, nor even their members, proposed to move away from lead ammunition, completely ignoring to back it up with proven scientific information, something that they always like to point out concerning their adversaries,  I was very much taken aback regarding the mental state of the organizations who should have the back of the shooting community. As we all agree, those who shoot have an obligation to their quarry, which includes making certain that the shooter tries at all times to make a clean kill, and if the quarry is wounded to retrieve this as soon as possible and dispatch it. This will not be possible with many birds shot with steel, especially on the high birds that are so popular these days, but the birds will die from the steel pellets inside that will start rusting and infecting the bird. At closer range the steel will go right through and the bird will bleed to death, again many beyond the range of the pickers-up. Bismuth does not have sufficient impact for a clean kill in many cases and tungsten, which deforms although not as well as lead, cannot be afforded by the majority of guns. Meanwhile, nobody can quote a single case of lead poisoning caused by eating a game bird, whether bought at the supermarket or at a game dealer store. As soon as the first customer shows up at a dentist office with a broken tooth from eating a game bird, the supermarkets will refuse to sell game shot with steel. All the people so scared of the lead are completely silent about possibly as many as 8 million houses in Britain with lead water pipes, known to have caused lead poisoning, or the 60% plus buildings with lead roofing, nicely polluting the groundwater, let alone say anything about the lead-based paint still present in an estimated 70% of all houses in the UK. All of the above a lot more serious than a pheasant shot with lead.

This in itself would be sufficient to make us foreigners question the sanity of animal rights activists and other anti shooting persons in the UK. But now the Government has, once again in my humble opinion, gone completely bonkers by basically banning heather burning. They should instead be encouraging and increasing it. Sir Keir Starmer, Dame Angela Eagle, Emma Reynolds, Mary Creagh and Baroness Hayman must be secret climate deniers, or possibly pyromaniacs, who cannot wait for the next wildfire to destroy thousands of acres. I would not be surprised if none of them have ever worked on a farm or come along on a shoot. They seem to be actively assisted by an outfit called Protectors of the Wild. I presume Wild Justice was also a delighted participant. Their protection and justice must not cover any animals or flora, both will not have an enjoyable experience when getting caught in a wildfire. Of course, many of us are well aware that the well -being of animals is not what it is really about, it is about jealousy of a perceived elite having a good time, and meanwhile trying hard to get rich from actively thwarting the grouse shooting squires. There is good reason that the angling community does not hear a peep from these people, although they hunt fish, and when I say they it includes me. I agree it is regrettable that a bird cannot be released once successfully shot, then we could only keep what we want for the larder, but that is not possible. If the worry is that the game shot cannot be sold, consider limiting the number of birds that can be released per acre and limiting the size of the bag, both a lot more ethical than banning lead shot. From experience I can assure you I had huge fun on a local shoot having lunch sitting on hay bales in a barn and with a bag of 60 various birds, including some magpies and jays, actually more fun than on a 500 bird day with a very good lunch, terrific claret in a beautiful country mansion. Also fun but not as much as with good friends, good lies and good laughs in the barn.

So now I am wondering whether an army of grouse moor peat depth inspectors will be hired and trained to see where the depth is exceeding 30 centimetres so they can prevent burning. Apparently they are not brave enough to state that heather burning is banned on any moor where grouse is shot by humans. Facts and especially scientific studies do not come up in the conversation, after all they provide inconvenient truths. Instead Ms. Creagh has the gall to state that “heather burning is damaging the precious ecosystems found in these iconic landscapes”. Either she has no clue what she is talking about or she is deliberately stating wrong information, both qualities that politicians worldwide excel at. No matter that burning regenerates the vegetation which makes ground nesting feasible and the new growth provides good cover from avian predators. In addition it provides great food when the chicks are a few weeks old and ensures the presence of insects when the chicks are still younger.

I am happy to say that here in the USA we have actually, most unusually, learned our lesson. This includes even animal rights activists, tree huggers from California and bunny huggers from New York. I imagine even the ladies with little white poodles who think the more deer the better, until the Coyote follow the deer and show an unhealthy interest at lunchtime in Daisy, the tiny poodle with the pink bow in her hair, are now in favour of burning. 

Climate change, I will not get into a discussion to what degree influenced by us humans, is real. That means, more drought, harder rains, more storms, more lightning, harder winters, etc. All these contribute to more wildfires, even hard rains do, because they will run off the land not soak it, and it is a widely held mistaken belief that a wet area is not in danger of a wildfire. To the contrary, it may be smouldering for a few days and then explode when least expected. For years, wisdom here was to let nature run its course and take care of all the debris and broken off branches and other highly flammable stuff that was left on the ground and any fire that started was extinguished as soon as possible. Any fire was considered bad, even those started by our indigenous people, who have used burning for many hundreds of years as they knew it was beneficial for the land, its flora and fauna. Until the wilffires were getting too big to be extinguished quickly. Ranch houses, holiday houses, villages, whole areas of towns burned, many lives were lost, animals perished, old trees and young trees burned to a crisp. 

And year after year it was getting worse, and then it dawned on most people exposed to these dangers that the solution might actually be controlled burns, maybe the Indian tribes were right. These days just in the State of California there are around 30 citizen groups, called Prescribed Burn Associations, with large groups of volunteers and more are sprouting up. This includes quite a number of sceptical huggers, both the tree and bunny variety. California being California, they even invented a new profession, Fire Ecologist. Not surprising seeing that of all the wildfires in California between 1950 and 2023 that were considered major, only two happened before the year 2000. Tribal members are allowed to do controlled burning again on their land. This benefited the animals, plants and even prompted salmon to come once again up a river that had become much cleaner. In 2017 one of these groups did a prescribed burn just a few months before the Nuns Fire in that area. The fire destroyed many acres but on the ground of the prescribed burn it left a perfectly intact ecosystem and did not go past it. Professional firefighters became convinced of the benefits of controlled burning. As one Chief put it “we can either burn it on our terms or it is going to burn on its own time and on its own terms”. 

In the SouthEast of the USA we are very used to prescribed burning. All the Quail shooting plantations do it. Where I have the pleasure of shooting, the courses are burnt every two years. Everyone knows the benefits for the land and its occupants. This happens in March after the Quail season is over and the Departments of Natural Resources control who burns when, mainly to control the amount of smoke over the nearby roads. Without it, it would be a very different story, not just for the birds, but for the entire biodiversity. In the 31 years that we have been shooting there, I do not recall a single wildfire out of control in our area. There have been wild fires in the mountain areas, but nothing compared to the Western States. And herein lies my fear for the moors of England. Contrary to general belief, only about 15% of wildfires are caused by natural causes, mainly lightning. 85% are caused by humans from campfires, burning cigarettes thrown out of a car, an evening in the open with the barbie, and unfortunately pyromaniacs. Once the grouse shooters are pestered away and no more gamekeepers look after the well-being of the moor, the urban humans will invade and not be limited to stealing eggs and killing small animals and invertebrates and such, but starting fires, being oblivious to the perils they are exposing nature to, it is just another High Street with heather. I suspect that it will leave the Chris Packham’s of this world cold that curlews are gone, heather no longer blooms and deer have moved to more welcoming places, the only important thing is that the grouse shooters have disappeared. I would like to quote this paragraph from the South Carolina Dept of Natural Resources:

Woody vegetation such as shrubs and most hardwoods are generally not adapted to tolerate fire and are therefore killed back with the use of prescribed fire. The repeated use of fire over time can eliminate this woody vegetation from the understory of a forest stand, allowing native species of grasses and forbs to thrive in the absence of the woody competition. Native grasses and forbs are fire-adapted and highly responsive to fire, often resprouting in just a matter of a few days after a prescribed fire. Not only is the lush new green growth excellent forage for many species of wildlife, this herbaceous layer is also very diverse. Different flowering and seeding times for a wide variety of plants provides additional food sources directly for wildlife throughout the year. This wide variety of understory plants also serves host to different varieties of insects, another primary food source for many wildlife species. Along with the wide array of food sources, this native vegetation also provides much needed structure for ground nesting birds.

So, do I think the United Kingdom has gone officially mad, no even this bloody foreigner is not so rude as to state that, there are still lots of intelligent and logical thinking people in the country. But are the Government and the many supporters of this stupid policy making a big mistake that I fear will have major consequences, yes they are. It is very sad that this is based on completely wrong personal reasons instead of on sound science. And a healthy discussion about such matters is very difficult these days. In this respect I would like to end with a quote of a very wise philosopher, Erasmus of Rotterdam, commenting on all the turmoil following Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and the subsequent reformation, to show that in some ways we humans have made remarkably little progress;

“I see some people endowed who are so uncontrollably attached to their own opinion that they cannot bear anything which dissents from it. I ask you, what sort of sincere judgment can there be when people behave in this way? Who will learn anything fruitful from this sort of discussion—beyond the fact that each leaves the encounter bespattered with the other’s filth?”