Winter in Nidderdale

Nidderdale Moorland Group

The first falls of snow of the winter over the weekend enabled our moorland gamekeepers to get out and about early before sunrise to start looking at the tracks left by our resident wildlife on the moors and in the upland woods.

This is an ideal chance to track the movements of predators such as Foxes and Stoats who will need to be managed by targeted, legal predator control ahead of this spring as they are scientifically proven to have a negative impact on all ground nesting birds.

The success of all the ground nesting birds on our managed moorlands, the Red Grouse, Red and Amber Listed waders such as the Curlew, Lapwing, Redshank and Oystercatcher, alongside Hen Harrier, Merlin and Short Eared Owl, relies on all three legs of the nature conservation stool: providing safe habitats, good feed sources and safety from predation by generalist predators using legal predator control methods.

The late Dick Potts of the GWCT used to say conservation was a 3-legged stool. If one leg goes, the whole collapses.

Predator control is an emotive subject for some, but it is not about eradicating any species, it is about creating a balance where both predator and prey have a chance of successfully rearing young and maintaining healthy population levels.