Dismissing all environmentalists as "bunny huggers" is throwing the baby out with the bathwater, both in terms of lumping people together and blinding ourselves to the need for a positive environmentalist support for things we want, as people and as anglers.
In this case, I understand that the legal challenge, pre-empted by Natural England, was about the automatic renewal of a license to shoot that covered sacred ibis, parakeets, and jays as well as crows and pigeons, and there will be a different system in place before long. Hardly apocalypse now.
I don't buy into a simple distinction between environmentalists (boo!) and those trustworthy guardians of traditional countryside values, landowners and the shooting industries(hooray!).
To give just one example: grouse moors - those profitable playgrounds of the rich – are a Bermuda Triangle where birds of prey disappear and a heather monoculture induced to feed young birds. They are owned by a tiny elite who receive public subsidy for their contribution to environmental damage.
To mention another, the pheasant shooting industry sees some 40 million pheasants released each year, to impact on native species via competition for food, prompting further predator suppression and, as roadkill when the over-eating, stuffed pheasants wander into the road, providing a useful food source for “pest” species. Those who rear them bear no responsibility for them when released. It has also secured state-sponsored persecution of a protected species – the buzzard – to satisfy some of our richest fellow citizens.
I’m afraid that dividing us up into ignorant tree-huggers and savvy country folk misses that point that a lot of damage to our environment is actually caused by those who own the land and milk it for profit – and often with the aid of public subsidy. We rely on environmentalists to inform us about the threats to our countryside, and to expose the murky politics around those who threaten it.
True, there are idiots out there who would raid a zoo and liberate the animals etc, but there are idiots in every walk of life. The Daily Mail takes a "tree-hugger" view of environmentalists - but don't forget long-term former editor Pauk Dacre owns a grouse moor. Opposing environmental politics is a step backwards.
