Caerlaverock wildfowling update

[Dave at kelton]

Below is the agreed statement after a positive meeting with SNH.

 

Dear Wildfowler

 

Please see below the joint statement from yesterdays’ meeting:

 

SNH met today with representatives from BASC, SACS, the local wildfowling clubs, Caerlaverock Community Association and the Caerlaverock Estate to explore how wildfowling on the Caerlaverock National Nature Reserve can be better resourced and managed in the future.   Looking at the proposals made by SNH to run a reduced permit scheme in the coming year all were agreed that a more creative way of sharing the costs was needed. 

 

SNH agreed to work with the local clubs to put in place a formal service level agreement that would enable the clubs to appoint shoot monitors, and work with SNH to ensure compliance with terms of permits.  These monitors would need training which BASC offered to provide.  In addition the national clubs agreed that they could contribute to any legal costs arising in drawing up such an agreement. 

It was agreed too that the permits should allow a maximum bag of five birds per flight.

 

If this agreement can be put in place, then monitoring can take place confidently in close proximity to wildfowlers so enabling the restricted area proposed for shooting to be relaxed.

 

There was a strong ambition that accordingly, the season could start at the beginning of September as usual, but regrettably this ambition might be over ambitious and un-realistic.  SNH agreed that people needed some certainty as to when shooting might take place to allow wildfowlers to plan.   The intent then is to have a scheme in place that will commence as soon as possible – though clearly this depends on rapid progress in drafting and concluding an agreement.  Once heads of terms are agreed, a certain date can be set.

 

There was further discussion about whether or not permits should allow the shooting of ducks.  SNH argued that given the absence of ducks on the Reserve last year, a precautionary approach should be taken with permits disallowing duck shooting.  This was hotly contested as the science shows that more widely in the Solway, there is no decline in duck numbers such as to justify a ban.  The local issues at Caerlaverock itself could be addressed through voluntary restraint. Such a voluntary approach could be encouraged through monitoring if numbers of duck are once again very low on the Reserve. Punt gunning was also discussed and whilst SNH remain of the view that this practice shifts duck roost away from the NNR and the zero count of duck last year is not consistent with a nature reserve, given the relatively few outings of punt guns, it was agreed that these outings should fall under the monitoring process.

 

It was agreed by everyone that the new approach needed to be managed carefully with a proper review of how well it works being undertaken at an early stage.  This could inform improvement of the arrangement if necessary and also feed into a wider community consultation around the Reserve byelaws and the ongoing management of wildfowling and all the other uses of the Reserve in the coming year.    

 

The meeting ended amicably with immediate action to draft heads of terms for an agreement being taken forward by SNH, the local and the national clubs.     

 

 

Susan Copeland

[fse10]

About time some common sense was used & wildfowlers input & offers to help out are taken up. Well done to all involved .

[wisdom]

Yes a positive and sensible outcome and I hope it all works out well for all concerned.

Edited August 23, 2018 by wisdom
Spelling error

[Pushandpull]

Thanks for the post and for your personal input, and thanks to all involved. Probably as good a result as we could expect.

[greenshank1]

That's a great result for everyone. 

Well done local wildfowling clubs and Basc and well done SNH for listening to wildfowlers and working towards a practical solution.

This sets a real president ?

[motty]

Hmmm. I still think there could be a few spanners thrown in the works. No agreements or guarantees have been made yet!

Hopefully it will all turn out ok.

[panoma1]

10 hours ago, motty said:

Hmmm. I still think there could be a few spanners thrown in the works. No agreements or guarantees have been made yet!

Hopefully it will all turn out ok.

This^

I'm an old cynic! I would have liked to see the status quo maintained until the new arrangements are agreed and put in place!

But well done......so far so good......bet that letter Dave at Kenton wrote, put the cat firmly amongst the pigeons with the local politicos? Lol!

[panoma1]

That should be Dave at Kelton........******predictive text! ?

Posted here because there is no edit facility on my last posting??

Edited August 24, 2018 by panoma1
******did it again??