Recording equipment to the North York Moors

Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund #2: Helmsley Monitors

This Summer we launched the Protecting the Wild Equipment Fund to put ‘eyes in the field’ and empower people to protect British wildlife.

Any money raised from paid subscriptions on our Substack platform goes straight into the Equipment Fund to provide groups and individuals with equipment (eg trail cameras, radios or night vision optics) that they may not be able to afford without a little help.

We’ve only been on Substack a month, but thanks to our generous supporters we’re already looking at being able to distribute several hundred pounds worth of equipment every month. Imagine what we will be giving out by the end of our first year!

What you're helping us provide

Requests for equipment are coming in fast now. As we told you earlier our first purchase was radios for the excellent Cheshire Borderland Monitors, who wrote in a blog for us that the radios would enable them to stay in touch with each other on the ground, monitoring hunts, and ultimately protecting the wild.

This week we've sent recording equipment to Helmsley Monitors, a small group of independent monitors who cover NE Yorkshire, especially watching over the numerous hunting packs that range over the North York Moors National Park. That’s right, there are fox and hare hunting packs operating INSIDE one of our most beautiful national parks!

These monitors do an amazing job, cover hundreds of miles, and are facing up to some of the wealthiest families in that part of the country. We’re proud to be on their side.

• They’ve written a blog for us explaining what they do and how the Equipment fund will help them. You can read that here:

  'Eyes in the Field': Monitoring hunting in the North York Moors National Park

Thank you!

Putting ‘eyes in the field’ is a key part of what Protect the Wild means by ‘empowering people to protect British wildlife’. We want wildlife criminals wherever they are to be constantly looking over their shoulder, wondering whether there are cameras trained on them, recording equipment listening to what they’re saying, or groups talking with each other as they close in around them.

The more equipment we can buy and send out the better. Every penny and pound raised will go into the equipment fund, and we’d like to say a huge thanks to every single person who is subscribed to us on Substack.

We also want to acknowledge that this is your money we have the privilege of distributing. We want you to know that every request made to us is checked out thoroughly. We speak to every individual or group before offering them equipment, and we make sure they understand the terms and conditions of use that we ask of them (you can read those here)

With your support we will be giving out many more pieces of equipment to groups over the coming months and years. And we will always keep you up to date with how your support is directly helping wildlife!