Hunt saboteurs have disrupted shoots near Pateley Bridge at the start of the grouse shooting season.

Calder Valley Hunt Saboteurs ran a series of protests shortly after the ‘Glorious Twelfth’ — the date in August marking the beginning of the annual grouse shooting season.

The saboteurs targeted shoots on Heathfield Moor, Braithwaite Moor, Ramsgill Bents Moor and Stean Moor.

The group claimed on Facebook its protests led to “shooters sullenly trudging back to their vehicles” and cancelling their planned activities.

Hunt saboteurs protest in Nidderdale.

Mendip Hunt Saboteurs also took part in the protests. Both groups are part of the Hunt Saboteurs Association, which opposes the hunting of wildlife in Britain.

The saboteurs shared pictures on Facebook of the police arriving at the scene and claimed the police failed to “deter” them.

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North Yorkshire Police’s community messaging website posted a message alerting people to the situation. It said:

“Anti-grouse shooting activists are operating in the area of Lofthouse and Ramsgill who are affecting local businesses and communities. Please report any issues of concern or suspicious vehicles to North Yorkshire Police on 101.”

Police responds to a protest.

The Stray Ferret asked North Yorkshire Police for further details of the activists, including whether they were doing anything illegal.

A police spokesperson said:

“Local residents had reported unusual activity and unknown vehicles in the area, so a message was sent via community messenger to ensure local residents were aware of possible protest activity in the area and provide some reassurance.”

More than 150 children from Nidderdale have taken part in an educational scheme which aims to teach people about moorland landscapes.

The Let’s Learn Moor events are co-ordinated by Countryside Learning, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) and the Regional Moorland Groups.

The scheme saw children from Nidderdale put out wildfires with an argo, rescue a teacher who needed stretchering off the moor with fell rescue, and watch a sheep shearing demonstration this week.

Also in attendance were Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue and the fire brigade from Lofthouse Volunteer Fire Station, which supplements the nearby retained stations of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue.

Almost 12,000 children have now attended Let’s Learn Moor events since the project was launched in 2017 – and more than 2,000 of them attended events across the north of England this week alone.

Curtis Mossop, BASC’s head of education and outreach, said: 

“Nidderdale Moorland Group’s Let’s Learn Moor days are a fantastic example of how multi-faceted our moorland areas are. 

“Hosted by the gamekeepers, but supported by Yorkshire Water, Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue, Lofthouse Fire Station, a local farmer and local beekeepers, the children learn to understand that these are incredibly important ecosystems which require a multitude of management techniques. 

“Who better to teach that than the very people who live and work on the moor.”

Tracy Johnson, from the Nidderdale Moorland Group, said:

“As an organiser it’s s so rewarding to see how excited the children are to learn about what happens on the moors and to have a go at doing things themselves.

“Although for many of them the Yorkshire Moors are not far from where they live, lots of them may never visit them or understand what goes on.”

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The National Trust has introduced cattle to the moorland at Brimham Rocks in Nidderdale.

A herd of Belted Galloways will graze the vegetation from June to October as part of the site’s moorland management plan.

The trust said grazing will improve the moorland at Brimham as well as improving the habitat for ground nesting birds.

A fence has been erected around the cattle’s roaming area on the south and north moors. To maintain Brimham moorland as open access land, gates have been installed on public rights of way as well as on the most popular desire lines.

Natural heather moorland habitats are rarer than rainforest. According to the Moorland Association, 75% of the world’s remaining heather moorland is found in Britain and that habitat has been declining rapidly.

The moorland at Brimham has the distinction of being home to three local varieties: ling heather, bell heather and cross-leaved heath. Unattended bracken will damage the heather moorland beyond repair, according to the trust.

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Brimham Rocks

Alec Boyd, area ranger at Brimham Rocks said reintroducing cattle was “a very important step to improving the condition of the moor”, adding: 

“We are using cattle instead of sheep or horses because the cattle rips and pulls rather than nibbles at the vegetation.

“They also eat on the move, a little here and a little there, and are less selective than sheep or horses – they aren’t as choosy about what they eat. This helps create a varied age structure that will benefit other species that call moorland their home.”

Belted Galloways are hardy but placid, which means they are unlikely to be fazed by members of the public and their dogs.

A trust spokesperson said it acquired Brimham Rocks in 1970 and there has not been any grazing since then, but it is thought grazing took place prior to this.

Further information is available here.

Ring Ouzels have returned to the Nidderdale moors to breed after flying back from winter in the Atlas Mountains in North-West Africa.

The birds are a close relative of the Blackbird but are slightly smaller and slimmer with longer tails and a distinctive white crescent across the top of the breast.

In the UK, Ring Ouzels are of high conservation concern and are classified as ‘Red Listed’ after declining by almost 50% in the last 40 years.

The birds are known as the ‘Blackbirds of the mountains’ and enjoy eating juniper berries. The migration route of the birds follow where juniper berries grow.

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Nidderdale Moorland Group posted on its Facebook page that AONB gamekeepers work to ensure the ground-nesting birds can safely incubate and rear their young chicks when they arrive.

Nesting begins from mid-April when the female lays 3-5 eggs in a nest found on the ground or in moorland gullies, craggy screes or rocky areas.

The female will do most of the incubating, but both parents feed the chicks who fledge after 12-16 days.

AONB moorland gamekeepers recorded the birds’ distinctive call last weekend whilst watching a returning male on the moor.

The males like to find a prominent perch from which the strong, flutey song can be heard.

Listen below to the call of a Ring Ouzel.

Firefighters from Harrogate and Knaresborough tackled a wildfire on moorland near Brimham Rocks this afternoon.

The cause of the blaze, which affected a 50 metre x 50 metre stretch of land at the popular visitor spot near Pateley Bridge, is unknown.

The fire, which was reported at 2pm, was extinguished quickly.

But it prompted Harrogate Fire Station to issue a warning to people to be aware that the land is dry and to be careful putting out cigarettes and avoid open fires and barbecues, except in safe areas.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service‘s incident log says:

“Crews used one hose reel jet and grass beaters to extinguish the heather fire which measured 50m x 50m. The cause is unknown at this time.

Harrogate Fire Station issued a tweet warning the land is dry and for people to be extra careful in the countryside.

This afternoon, fire engines from Harrogate and Knaresborough attended a wildfire measuring 50m x 50m at Brimham Rocks near Pateley Bridge.

Fortunately they managed to get this under control and prevented the fire from spreading. Cause is unknown 1/5 pic.twitter.com/m9n890ufnL

— Harrogate Fire station (@Harrogate_NYFRS) March 22, 2022

Oven fire and trapped child

Firefighters responded to two other local fires today.

At 12.49pm, crews from Ripon and Bedale were summoned to reports of an oven on fire at a home in Melmerby.

The fire was out by the time the firefighters arrived.

At 2.41pm, Ripon firefighters responded to reports of a small child accidentally locked in a car at Stonebridgegate in Ripon.

The incident log says:

“Crews from Ripon released the child, who was distressed, by gaining entry through the rear window.”

Harrogate district residents may have to wait another two months for their TV signal to return, it emerged yesterday.

It was initially thought that an 80m temporary transmitter, being built to replace the Bilsdale transmitter damaged by fire on August 10, would take just three weeks to complete.

But a meeting of the North York Moors National Park Authority heard its construction was some way from starting and would take a month alone.

The need to follow international regulations to protect the sensitive moorland around the mast has also caused delays.

Members were told many people living in the north-east, including North Yorkshire, still had no signal and that escalating frustrations over that had been exacerbated in the Bilsdale area by the lack of a mobile phone signal as a result of the fire.

The authority pledged to do everything in its power to accelerate the erection of the temporary mast, including delegating any necessary decision-making powers to the most senior officers to bypass committee meetings.

However, the meeting heard Arqiva had been concentrating its efforts with the landowners, Mexborough Estate, to overcome access issues and had not contacted the national park authority until several weeks after the fire.

Exclusion zone

Chris France, the authority’s director of planning, said that as far as he was aware the 309-metre guyed mast structure, which was constructed in 1969, appeared to be beyond repair with “a huge bulge in it”, leaving it so insecure a 400-metre exclusion zone had been created around it.

Arqiva is targeting using a disused quarry on the moor to the south of the exclusion zone for an emergency mast because that would have least impact on the biodiversity.

Mr France said that emergency national planning regulations allowed replacement masts as long as they were movable without the need to go through the planning process.

Arqiva has proposed to put it on sleds, weighed down by large blocks of concrete flown there by helicopters. The structure would then be secured by guys attached to the surrounding heather moorland.

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The site has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and classified as a European Special Protection Area and a Special Area of Conservation since the mast was built so Arqiva consultants have asked whether it is necessary to screen the development for environmental and habitat impacts.

Mr France said if screening processes were deemed necessary the timescale for any consultation may take a further month.

A temporary mast would not be permanently tied down and may not last in winter conditions. Arqiuva has indicated after three months “another replacement replacement mast” may be required which it said would be subject to full planning permission.

‘Taking longer than we anticipated’

The meeting heard a second complication was that the mast had mobile phone equipment on it and people living and working in the area had been left with no signal. Members were told mobile phone operators were now searching for places to put a mast up.

A spokesman for Arqiva said as Bilsdale is a Site of Special Scientific Interest to replicate what is there would not be a simple task. He added:

“The legal process to secure appropriate access to the site to build the temporary mast is taking longer than we initially anticipated and as a result it will not be operational by this weekend as we’d hoped.

“We are making representations to the court as to the severity and the urgency of the situation, but we are in the hands of the judicial system currently.”