News and Views

Abstract

THE managing committee of the National Trust estate at Ashridge has recently let the shooting over the property to some local sportsmen. Many naturalists are much concerned at the inevitable interference with the wild life and the consequent destruction of hawks, owls, and other ‘vermin.’ At a recent meeting, the Herts Natural History Society unanimously passed a resolution deploring the action of the National Trust in letting the shooting rights on the Ashridge estate, recently acquired for the nation by public subscription. The resolution points out that the preservation and shooting of game inevitably entails the destruction, disturbance, and discouragement of various beautiful and interesting forms of wild life; and that the establishment of the Ashridge estate as a national Nature reserve is much more in accord with public feeling, and with aesthetic and scientific interests, than the letting of shooting rights to private persons. Having regard to the facts above stated, the Herts Society urges the National Trust definitely to establish the Ashridge estate as a Nature reserve and wild life sanctuary, which step the continuance of game preserving and shooting on the estate would render impossible. The establishment of Nature reserves is an ecological experiment of the results of which we know at present very little. Animals may need a certain amount of control as well as the vegetation, and aliens such as the grey squirrel have to be prevented from interfering. But at present we imagine that all biologists would agree that the best thing to do is to leave the animals alone and see what happens. Shooting for sport must always be detrimental.