UK eagles reintroduction debate

Britain’s plan to bring golden eagles back to England has reopened a harder question: can top predators be restored while illegal raptor killing still happens? (gov.uk) The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said on April 12 that it had approved an additional £1 million to explore a golden eagle reintroduction in England, more than 150 years after the species disappeared there. Forestry England said juveniles aged six to eight weeks could be released as early as 2027. (gov.uk) Forestry England’s feasibility work identified eight potential recovery zones: the Cheviots, North Pennines, Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, Bowland, South Pennines, North York Moors and the South West. The agency said birds from southern Scotland are already crossing the border, but natural recolonisation could take decades. (forestryengland.uk) The English plan leans on a Scottish model. The South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project, backed by a £1,679,600 National Lottery Heritage Fund grant awarded in 2016, helped lift the local population from three breeding pairs in 2018 to 39 birds, according to the fund and project reporting. (heritagefund.org.uk 1) (heritagefund.org.uk 2) The argument now is not only about money. It is also about whether governments are restoring eagles into landscapes where sporting estates still have broad permission to kill some wild birds under general licences. (nature.scot) That issue sharpened in February, when NatureScot restricted general licences at Raeshaw Estate and Watherston Wood in the Scottish Borders for three years, until January 2029. The agency said Police Scotland evidence included the October 2023 disappearance of a satellite-tagged golden eagle named Merrick, plus golden eagle blood, feathers and shotgun cartridge wadding recovered at the same location. (nature.scot) NatureScot said the restriction still allows land managers to apply for individual licences, but with stricter record-keeping and monitoring. The agency called that a “proportionate response” and said it would keep working with Police Scotland on wildlife crime cases that may justify further restrictions. (nature.scot) Supporters of reintroduction say the English plan is broader than moving birds. Forestry England said success depends on “strong relationships” with landowners, land managers, farmers and local communities, and said public support tested high in the feasibility study. (forestryengland.uk) Britain is already running another eagle restoration in the south. Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation began releasing white-tailed eagles on the Isle of Wight in 2019, and the project recorded a chick in 2023, the first wild-born white-tailed eagle in England in more than 240 years. (forestryengland.uk) The government’s case is that England now has suitable habitat and a working template from Scotland. The unresolved part is whether legal protections and enforcement will keep pace with the birds once they are back in the sky. (gov.uk) (nature.scot)