Environmental vandalism by Landlord

[Gimlet]

My Landlord of my shooting ground is one of the worst environmental vandals I have ever seen.

Today he has begun hedge cutting in the middle of July. Worst of all most of our hedges are hawthorn, a vital nest site species and winter food source for birds. He does this every year. This estate now produces almost no haws or any other hedgerow berries.

 

He also systematically sprays the underbrush in hedgrows and byways all over the estate every summer, killing all nettles he sees and any hedgrow flowers. He wades into woods spraying bramble patches for no rational reason whatever.

He sprays stream banks thinking the vegetation will choke the stream and cause flooding. It is a winter chalk stream, a unique habitat. It doesn't flow in summer anyway and people have been living on its banks since the ice-age and no one has been flooded yet.

Wherever he goes he leaves a trail of dead brown vegetation and smashed nest sites. It looks as though a plague has passed through the landscape.

He is utterly ignorant of native ecology and will listen to no one. All around him are fools and only he understands land management. Needless to say, he is not from a farming or land management background.

 

I feel a mixture of despair and utter fury when I see the destruction each year. I have tried reasoning with him over individual instances but he isn't interested. If I confront him as I would like to I will lose my shooting.

 

I have contacted Natural England and told them of his activities. They say there is little they can do unless he is on one of their stewardship schemes.

Who else in authority can I report him to and recruit to my cause to stop this lunatic?

I'll be grateful for any advice I can get.

Edited July 19, 2011 by Gimlet

[Andy75]

It's against the law to cut the hedges before a certain date - the company I work for actually manufactures these devices. You can check with DEFRA and complain - he can be fined heavily for ruining them this early. I'm sure they will be able to point you in the right direction - there was a thread about this in the past, will have a quick search.

[Andy75]

Here we go :

PW post : http://forums.pigeonwatch.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/16790-hedge-trimming/page__p__158903__hl__bomford__fromsearch__1#entry158903

RSPB moved the link tho : http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/advice/legal/hedgerows/index.aspx

 

Area of interest :

Constraints on hedgerow management have been set out in the legally defined Codes of Good Farming Practice, which applies to all farmers participating in an agri-environment scheme or who are in receipt of Less Favoured Area payments.

 

Under these guidelines hedgerow trimming is not permitted between 1 March and 31 July in England and Scotland, 15 March and 31 August in Wales and 1 March and 31 August in Northern Ireland

From : http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/advice/legal/hedgerows/rules.aspx

 

Hope this helps!

Edited July 19, 2011 by Andy75

[al4x]

Its not against the law per se unless he is in one of the existing schemes, however destroying nests etc is

Personally I think you need to step back he may be doing stuff you don't agree with but its his land. There may be issues of spraying the river bank etc depending what he is using but thats about the extent of it. Trying to educate him is the best way forward

[Andy75]

Yes after a better read, you're quite right - he can't be banged up or action taken until he is in a scheme.

[ste12b]

My Landlord of my shooting ground is one of the worst environmental vandals I have ever seen.

Today he has begun hedge cutting in the middle of July. Worst of all most of our hedges are hawthorn, a vital nest site species and winter food source for birds. He does this every year. This estate now produces almost no haws or any other hedgerow berries.

 

He also systematically sprays the underbrush in hedgrows and byways all over the estate every summer, killing all nettles he sees and any hedgrow flowers. He wades into woods spraying bramble patches for no rational reason whatever.

He sprays stream banks thinking the vegetation will choke the stream and cause flooding. It is a winter chalk stream, a unique habitat. It doesn't flow in summer anyway and people have been living on its banks since the ice-age and no one has been flooded yet.

Wherever he goes he leaves a trail of dead brown vegetation and smashed nest sites. It looks as though a plague has passed through the landscape.

He is utterly ignorant of native ecology and will listen to no one. All around him are fools and only he understands land management. Needless to say, he is not from a farming or land management background.

 

I feel a mixture of despair and utter fury when I see the destruction each year. I have tried reasoning with him over individual instances but he isn't interested. If I confront him as I would like to I will lose my shooting.

 

I have contacted Natural England and told them of his activities. They say there is little they can do unless he is on one of their stewardship schemes.

Who else in authority can I report him to and recruit to my cause to stop this lunatic?

I'll be grateful for any advice I can get.

 

 

For the spraying on the river bank contact the Environment Agency. If its a pollution incident i.e. fish deaths contact 0800 80 70 60.

[reaper6]

You can ring the enviroment agency about him spraying the river banks.....according to the law he must apply in writing to the EA every time you spray within 1 meter of a watercourse and with what chemical...if he hasnt applied then they will be down on him like a ton of bricks ......as for the hedges try the RSPB for advice

[chuck]

can not cut hedges before august or you lose your single farm payments which everyone claims.

[Dave-G]

He'll be wondering who has grassed him up - and will probably remember who tried to get him to desist.

 

I can see a conflict though if he's growing: Most young things have probably flown the nest by now and by the time August comes he'll likely be a very busy chappy on crop harvest~ploughing~disking~drilling etc I think?

 

This has possibly answered something I have often wondered about: Why my largest permission current manager(growing) leaves trimming the headlands and margins till after the harvest~drilling etc. By that time the gamekeepers have their poults in so don't like me shooting vermin there. His predecessor cut them before the harvest when presumably there was less other work to do.

 

If I have this all wrong you might realise I am not a farmer.

Edited July 20, 2011 by Dave-G

[CharlieT]

If you feel that strongly about someone farming their land in the manner they see fit the least you can do is to put your money where your mouth is and tell him to stick his shooting permission.

[Gimlet]

If you feel that strongly about someone farming their land in the manner they see fit the least you can do is to put your money where your mouth is and tell him to stick his shooting permission.

 

I could do but that wouldn't stop him doing it.

I have a good shoot here and hope to be taking over the deer stalking too. This is not a point of principle I'd just like to find some way of inducing him to behave responsibly. I don't buy the notion that you can do what you like on your own land. You can own the title, the buildings the fixtures and fittings and the crops you plant, but no one owns the wild life and all landowners have a moral responsibility for the creatures and habitat that falls under their care. No one should assume the right to deploy destructive practises for which there is no commercial imperative.

He does what he does because he isn't a farmer. He has married/bought into the business and what he doesn't know about he'll google over a bottle of wine and become an instant expert on.

His destructive practises have no commercial or agricultural justification whatever. The field work is done by contractors. A lot of what he does is merely acting on a whim. I don't think he's a malicious person, just uninformed.

I don't want to ruin the guy, just as Al4x says educate him. But he won't listen to me, nor to neighbouring farmers who've been doing the job for generations. They've tried telling him as well.

It needs an official body, who he will have to listen to, to have a word in his ear, without putting him out of business.

Thats what I'm after.

I realise this is a delicate situation and I could be setting a trap for myself but I'm far from the only person locally who has expressed concern. I raise the subject here in case some ones been there before and knows how best to proceed.

[39TDS]

can not cut hedges before august or you lose your single farm payments which everyone claims.

This is the answer that counts.

 

Farmers and landowners get paid a fair whack of money out of the EU, in return for this payment there are basic rules for looking after the countryside. Those rules say you can't do pretty much all the stuff you mention. If he breaks those rules he will have his SFP either reduced or withdrawn. Losing tens of thousands of pounds will make him listen.

You may feel reluctant to report him but think of it as the same as a dole scrounger or someone claiming disability when they are fit and well. Same thing

 

ps. I am a farmer and complied with the rules before they were even invented, it's not hard.

[remmy1100]

saw my local council cutting hedges other day and a farmer i shoot for he also sprays nettles ect as they are required by law to control injurable plant spieces.

[mcw65]

councils can cut hedges as they are along the side of the road and can cause problems,spraying can be done at any time but away from water courses

[CharlieT]

saw my local council cutting hedges other day and a farmer i shoot for he also sprays nettles ect as they are required by law to control injurable plant spieces.

 

 

There is no law that requires landowners to control any weed.

 

However, it makes good farming sense and practice to control invasive weeds where they compete with or are likely to spread to farm crops. Some environmental schemes restrict spraying, topping field margins and hedge cutting at certain times but that would depend on which scheme level the landowner is signed up to for that particular and specific area of land. For instance we have some headlands that are not in any scheme so that we can manage them in a particular way such as topping and spraying as and when we chose.

[39TDS]

There is no law that requires landowners to control any weed.

There are.

Town and Country Planning Act 1990

Weeds Act 1959

Ragwort Control Act 2003

No idea how often these laws are used, but the threat of any/all SFP being withdrawn will usually do the trick anyway.

[Gimlet]

Sensible weed control in or adjacent to crops is one thing, but this guy hand sprays hedgrows, banks and verges that are nowhere near crops because certain species seem to offend him.

If the SFP is effectively a payment for good stewardship then Defra are due a call and will receive one shortly.

Thanks for the input everyone.

[CharlieT]

There are.

Town and Country Planning Act 1990

Weeds Act 1959

Ragwort Control Act 2003

No idea how often these laws are used, but the threat of any/all SFP being withdrawn will usually do the trick anyway.

 

I think you will find that those acts do not compel landowners to control weeds but lay the ground for the mechanics to introduce control orders which is a totally different thing.

[mcw65]

Yes there is,the notifiable weeds act which covers ragwort etc

[CharlieT]

Yes there is,the notifiable weeds act which covers ragwort etc

 

 

There is NO such thing as a notifiable weed and it is not an offence to have Ragwort and other invasive weeds growing on your land.

 

The Weed Act gives government agencies the necissary legislation to invoke "control orders" against such weeds but as I said it is not an offence to have them growing on your land and you are not obliged to control them unless a control order has been served against you.

[Kes]

I'm surprised by Charlie t's comments as I vaguely remember the 'Noxious Weeds Act of 1868?' which does specify ragwort.

This plant has a 90% germination rate for the 900,000 seeds each plant produces, hence its categorisation. It could require a 'control order' but if its so prolific and unpleasant - why?

[Lampwick]

I'm sure the Wildlife & countryside Act 1981 Part 1 has something to say about protecting nesting birds!

 

Shippy

[CharlieT]

I'm surprised by Charlie t's comments as I vaguely remember the 'Noxious Weeds Act of 1868?' which does specify ragwort.

This plant has a 90% germination rate for the 900,000 seeds each plant produces, hence its categorisation. It could require a 'control order' but if its so prolific and unpleasant - why?

 

Kes

 

There is indeed the Weed Act 1959 which covers Ragwort and a few other weeds.

 

However, what I was trying to get across was the fact that there is no legislation in place making it an offence to have these weeds growing on your land as had been suggested. If you have them on your land and allow them to spread to neighbouring agricultural land the weed act allows a Control Order to be made to enforce the landowner to control them.

 

 

Charlie

[highseas]

you have the same problem as me my boss is a rapist,,, he will rape and pillage the land for what ever he can get from her selling bluebell and snowdrop bulbs to ******!!! cutting and spraying every thing that wont make him money (christmas trees) useing chemicals willy nilly and blocking salmon and seatrout streams to redds (he has been bumbed for this all ready ..twice!)

[Gimlet]

you have the same problem as me my boss is a rapist,,, he will rape and pillage the land for what ever he can get from her selling bluebell and snowdrop bulbs to ******!!! cutting and spraying every thing that wont make him money (christmas trees) useing chemicals willy nilly and blocking salmon and seatrout streams to redds (he has been bumbed for this all ready ..twice!)

 

He hasn't got a twin brother down in Dorset has he?

Where's that island where they did the anthrax testing? Can't we stick both of them there with a couple of strimmers and a shed full of chemicals?

 

Isn't digging up wild bluebells a criminal offence?

Edited July 28, 2011 by Gimlet