Judge refuses to ban goose shooting

     A JUDGE refused yesterday to ban a farmer from shooting wild geese on a nature reserve.
     Daniel Quinn, of Powhillon Farm, Ruthwell, near Dumfries, was prosecuted last year under the Wildlife and Countryside Act for shooting three geese.
    However, he was acquitted on a statutory defence that the killing on his farm, part of a Reserve owned by the Wildfowl Trust, had been necessary to prevent serious damage to crops.
      After the trial, Mr Quinn was granted a licence by the Scottish Secretary allowing limited shooting of wild geese to prevent serious crop damage.

     This week the Wildfowl Trust had asked Lord Johnston to grant an interim interdict banning Mr Quinn from shooting the birds at Powhillon. The Court of Session heard that some 13,700 wild geese spend the winter in the Solway area before returning to the Artic to breed around April.
     Gordon Reid, QC, for the trust said it believed Mr Quinn's claims of damage were exaggerated. Other farmers had, used scaring methods with relative success.
     The geese were part of a long-standing research project and it would be disrupted by the deaths of even one or two of the birds, he claimed.

     Refusing to grant an interdict, Lord Johnston said the case raised the extremely knotty problem of conflict between conservation and the interests of a farmer.
     If he found in favour of the Wildfowl Trust, he would effectively be revoking the licence issued to Mr Quinn and that was not appropriate when the court had not heard full evidence in the case.
     He recognized, however, that with denial, of the interim interdict, the death, of “a few birds" was likely and that was to be regretted in conservation and scientific terms.
     If Mr Quinn abused the conditions of his licence, he could leave himself open to

prosecution, Lord Johnston warned him.
“Without the licence, I would not have had much hesitation in supporting the trust’s position,” he added.
     Last night Mr Quinn said: "This is absolutely marvelous. What a relief — it has been a tremendous burden."
     "They the Wildfowl Trust knew serious damage was happening here. They made their case on saying there was no damage and then in the middle of the case they turned round and said they were willing to compensate for damage. I’m sure there will be a few civil cases come out of this."
 

     Mr Reid added that under the lease covering Powhillon Farm, the trust, as landlords, had exclusive rights over the hunting, killing, and taking of game, which included the wild geese. The licence issued to Mr Quinn had been on condition that it was not taken as superseding any term of the lease.

Farmer who has a licence to kill

     FEW of God’s creatures can be as heavily protected as the barnacle goose in southern Scotland. All 13,700 of those which breed on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard migrate each year to the Solway coast salt-marshes. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest qualifying for designation under the Ramsar, Berne and Bonn conventions.
Caerlaverock, the geese’s sole winter home, is a Special Protection Area and a Unesco biosphere reserve. Scottish Natural Heritage has a National Nature Reserve there, within which the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust runs a showpiece refuge which attracts 16,000 people a year. The barnacles are “the jewel in the crown.” says John Doherty, the refuge manager.
There’s more. The geese are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 and by the EC Birds Directive. And Dumfries and Galloway Regional Council and the tourist board use them in their logos.
With this level of protection you might

think the geese were safe. Wrong. Enter Danny Quinn whose family has farmed at Powhillon on the northern edge of the reserve for over 60 years. To Quinn the geese are vermin.
Last March, after fruitless attempts to scare the geese off and protect his crops, Quinn shot a brace of barnacles.
In December he made legal history when Dumfries Sheriff Court agreed that shooting some of Britain’s most protected birds was a valid defence of Quinn’s crops. He now has a licence to kill them and the ramifications are enormous.
“What this means is that there is no longer such a thing as a protected bird in Britain,” says Doherty. “We are dismayed and astonished.”
The trust, which is considering an appeal, is gobsmacked. Sir Hector Monro, Scottish Office Agriculture Minister (and Quinn’s MP) granted the licence.
Yet, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) – also headed

by Monro – are negotiating with Scottish farmers over the possible introduction of a compensation scheme. Quinn says the trust stood to make thousands of pounds a year.
A compensation scheme exists in Islay, where Greenland-bred barnacles winter. Solway farmers say they lose £15,000 (RM61,500) a year each from the birds, and the farmer’s union have been campaigning for compensation for years.
Meanwhile, Quinn has more than geese to worry about, waging a long and bitter war against the trust over the state of his 112ha holding, bought by the trust in 1975.
He claims that the trust is trying to drive him out. John Doherty categorically denies this and says Quinn has rejected several proposals for a solution.
“There is on the table a negotiable programme for investment in the farm involving tens of thousands of pounds.” he says. Nevertheless, Quinn’s sheds have fallen down.

His house has a gaping crack in it. The trust’s sea wall has collapsed and half his land is flooded. “I will fight on.” He says, “even if it kills me.”
Elsewhere, SNH are working on a solution to the goose-versus-farmer saga. They have been paying the farmers to introduce grazing in an attempt to improve the holding capacity of the sanctuary.
They have issued farmers with gas guns and barriers and have offered Quinn an agreement to allow his farm to be included in the sanctuary. Quinn has rejected this.
Now other Solway farmers have said they, too, will apply for shooting licences as a last resort to shoot the barnacle geese.
One of them, Jim Brown says: “We are holding talks with Scottish Natural Heritage. They say they are seriously looking at the crop damage. They are coming back in March. We will wait until then. If there is no compensation scheme on the way, then we, too, will apply for licences.” – The Guardian

Squabble as the geese fly

ALMOST 200 years ago an eminent travel writer visited the hamlet of Powhillon on the coast of the Solway Firth and discovered "12 mud huts, with walls full of grooves and hollows". Powhillon is now a 280-acre farm, but some things never change: if you stand in the farmhouse and the farmer, Danny Quinn, stands in the stable, you can shake hands through a gaping "groove and hollow" in the structure. Powhillon is at the centre of one of Scotland's most intriguing land-use conflicts. The cracks are a symbol of the wrangle over the upkeep of a farm, which has been tenented by the family of Mr Quinn's wife since 1916. Equally symbolic are 145 permanently flooded acres, the fallen haysheds and 124 cattle which wade waist-deep in a quagmire which used to be pastureland. At the centre of the conflict are the 13,700 barnacle geese which migrate from their breeding ground in Spitzbergen to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust refuge at Caerlaverock. Mr Quinn farms just outside the reserve, but the voracious geese do not respect boundaries. The trust purchased Powhillon in 1975 in order to use it as a buffer zone in which illicit wildfowling could be controlled. Just before Christmas Mr Quinn made legal history when Dumfries Sheriff Court accepted that he had a valid defence for shooting protected barnacle geese: the protection of his livelihood from crop-loving birds. Locals now call him the "Lone Ranger", although he has promised to use his 12-bore sparingly. Buoyed by his success, he filed a sixth application to the Scottish Office Agriculture and Fisheries Division for a licence to shoot the species. On January 12, the Minister, Sir Hector Monro (Mr Quinn's MP), decided to grant the first licence to a farmer to shoot a Spitzbergen-bred barnacle goose. The trust failed to win an interim interdict at the Court of Session. Mr John Doherty, the centre manager at Caerlaverock, summed up the concerns of birdwatchers: "What this means in general terms is that there is no longer such a thing as a protected bird in Britain. "We are dismayed and astonished that the Secretary of State has granted a licence. Scottish Natural Heritage have been trying to negotiate an agreement with the farmer. Thousands of pounds would be paid to him to tolerate the geese.” A compensation scheme exists on Islay, where farmers are paid £9.50 for every Greenland barnacle which dines on their acres. Mr Doherty says Mr Quinn was effectively offered £17 per goose “in open court” but he declined the offer as “derisory.” No other Solway farmer has had an offer of compensation, although some say they lose £15,000 every year.

Andy Murray

Ruffled feathers: Norway is considering protesting against a licence for a Scottish farmer to shoot protected barnacle geese

The trust has not repaired a seawall which prevents one of Europe's fastest tides from deluging the fields of Powhillon. Mr Quinn says: "We have been to hell and back. This whole thing must have cost me £50,000. The farm is ruined and there is no price to put on the heartache it has cost my family." Mr Doherty describes Mr Quinn's allegation that the trust is trying to drive his family out as "a serious accusation which we categorically deny". A negotiable programme for major investment in the farm involving tens of thousands of pounds has been on the table for years, he contends and Mr Quinn has rejected every proposal for a happy solution. The ultimate solution may be "divorce" in the Scottish Land Court, but Mr Quinn wants Scottish Secretary Ian Lang to act as an arbiter. "It is extremely worrying to the-trust that the property is being wrecked by the dispute," says Mr Doherty. Meanwhile, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) have been paying farmers to introduce merse grazing on the Solway, and they have issued gas guns to them to try to scare geese off their land. Mrs Marion Hughes, area manager of SNH, says they have offered Mr Quinn a management agreement to allow Powhillon to be included in their National Nature Reserve. He has not accepted it. "We are hoping to introduce a stewardship scheme on the merses," she said. "I cannot say whether a compensation scheme would be appropriate on the Solway, but it is one of the options being investigated." Mr Quinn's farming colleagues are holding on to their safety catches. But one of them, Mr Jim Brown, declared: "Scottish Natural Heritage say they are seriously looking at the crop damage. They are coming back in March. We will wait until then. If there is no compensation scheme on the way, then we will apply for licences like Danny Quinn.” Norwegian ornithologists recently entered the fray by calling on their government to send an official protest to the Scottish Office. The Norwegian Ornithological Society claims the shooting of barnacle geese is “unprecedented”. They issued the following statement: “This ready relaxation of the regulations for a local problem in Scotland may lead to the undoing of the international protection effort which has saved this population from extinction.”

Mr Doherty, a dedicated conservationist, looks upon the Spitzbergen geese as "a small and vulnerable population which were saved from extinction". There were only 400 of them after the Second World War, but there will probably be nearly 15,000 of them next winter an evironmental success story which inspired Dumfries and Galloway Regional Council and the area tourist board to adopt the species in their logos. The geese are still protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act, by the EC Birds Directive, and by the Berne, Bonn and Ramsar conventions. They winter in a Special Protection Area and a Site of Special Scientific Interest. But the "Lone Ranger" is entitled to shoot a couple now and again if they descend upon his fields. Mr Doherty warns that Mr Quinn’s problem with geese and the long dispute over the maintenance of the farm are two separate issues. The Quinns sleep uneasily at night for fear that their house will eventually fall down. They have vowed to fight their landlords. The trust is on record saying it will not capitulate to unreasonable demands and it will not flinch from terminating the lease.

Protected geese put suckler herd's livelihood at risk

from grazing damage by geese," he said. He also claimed his landlord failed to provide adequate buildings or fencing. That, coupled with damage caused by the geese, forced him to sell off his flock of 130 ewes in 1990. "Now I have had to reduce the sucklers there is no way I can make a living here."
Mr Quinn is claiming damages of more than £300,000 from his landlord for breaches of contract under the lease and £90,000 a year for loss of income. He is also claiming £250,000 from the Scottish Office for failing to provide him with a licence to shoot geese.
"The local Department of Agriculture advised the Scottish Office in 1987 to issue a licence, yet it wasn't granted till 1994. Now it is too late and 80 acres of old meadows that were protected by a SSSI and the lease have been destroyed by geese damage," said Mr Quinn.

• On Tuesday Mr Quinn sold 52 cows for an average of £610.

A DUMFRIES farmer is seeking compensation of £0.5m after over­grazing by geese forced him to cut his suckler herd from 124 cows to 40.
Danny Quinn rents Powhillon Farm, Glencaple near Dumfries, from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. The family had been ten­ants of the 116ha (286 acre) farm since 1916. The Trust acquired the farm in 1975.
Acrimony between the Trust and Mr Quinn came to a head last November when a judge dismissed criminal charges against him for shooting protected Barnacle and Pinkfoot geese. The judge ruled that farmers had the right to pro­tect their crops from serious dam­age.
As a result the Scottish Office granted him a licence to shoot geese. But Mr Quinn claims more guns are needed. "We need a number of guns to protect this farm