Resources on devastation of British game-bird hunting: Connecting 'Celtic Rainforest' loss, news of peatland fires, the release of millions of non-native birds a year, and mass leisure

(Originally posted elsewhere on 30 May 2022.)

So this news from 29 May 2022 about how, to prepare land for the lucrative bird-hunting season in the UK, wealthy hunting/shooting estate owners burn peat bogs and peatlands, imperiling biodiversity and integrity of these native ecosystems.

This also brings to mind other dangerous effects of the hunting season, since the UK releases tens of millions of non-native birds every year on these estates for sport hunting.

Nearby Ireland has also lost 99% of its native peatlands and bogs (not due to hunting season, but due to the use of peat as an energy source in the recent past).

And even though these environmental advocates and media people are using the term “rainforest” in this article in order to invoke how peatlands sequester carbon on a scale comparable to rainforests, it’s worth pointing out that, coincidentally, both Ireland and England/Great Britain were in the recent past once home to actual rainforest, the globally-rare unique ecosystem that is temperate rainforest. 80% of Ireland used to be home to native forests/trees; now, only 1% of Ireland is covered by native trees. In England, rainforest seems to be prevented from regenerating by development, private estates, and sheep grazing. But small pockets of what you might call rainforest still exist in the British Isles.

Headline, images, captions, and screenshots of text from: Justin Rowlatt. “Peat soil fires: Campaigners say England’s ‘rainforests’ illegally burned.” BBC News. 29 May 2022.

Also brings to mind the downfall of Irish peatlands. Since the historic industrial use of peat as a major fuel/energy source, peatlands now cover only 1% of the land in Ireland that they used to occupy.

Meanwhile 80% of Ireland used to be covered by native forests, but now native trees cover only 1% of Ireland (meaning that “green” Ireland now has potentially the lowest native forest coverage of any European nation).

You can read about Ireland’s peat and rainforest here: Chris Baraniuk. “What would a truly wild Ireland look like?” Future Planet – BBC News.11 February 2021.

And England itself also used to be the home of actual rainforest.

Here: Guy Shrubsole. “Life finds a way: in search of England’s lost, forgotten rainforests.” The Guardian. 29 April 2021.

Here’s something from: Nicholas Milton. “Game birds ‘could wipe out adders in most of Britain within 12 years.’“ The Guardian. 1 October 2020.

By 2020, it has been estimated that the UK releases approximately 47 million non-native pheasants and 10 million partridges across these estates each year for the purpose of hunting.

Millions of non-native birds are released every year.