YOUR reporting of research findings indicating that certain game keeping activities benefit endangered upland bird species like the curlew ‘Upland bird populations are reliant on moors protection’ (Echo, Aug 14) failed to tell the whole story when it switched to the topic of hen harriers.

This year’s increase in the number of hen harrier chicks fledged on English moors is of course to be welcomed. However, unless this improvement can be sustained it will have little impact on the plight of this iconic bird of prey.

At the moment chicks have only a 20 per cent probability of survival over their first two years. Sadly, the evidence from other scientific studies has demonstrated that the major factor which brought the hen harrier to the brink of extinction in England is the shooting and poisoning of these birds on driven grouse moors.

Decades of negotiation and lobbying the grouse shooting industry, and organisations which represent it, have failed to deal with the issue and put their collective weight behind stopping this criminal activity. I do not dispute that the Moorland Association does some useful conservation work but it falls far short of compensating for the damage done to our fragile upland ecosystems by driven grouse shooting.

Major environmental damage is caused by common grouse moor management practices like heather burning and the draining of blanket bogs.

These contribute significantly to the erosion of peatlands which play a vital role in sustaining the health of our environment. These are important and sensitive conservation issues which deserve fair and balanced reporting in your newspaper. Michael Powell, Stanhope