Yorkshire Water is one of the largest landowners in the region, leasing out moorlands for grouse shooting at the cost of wildlife, habitat, leisure and the regional economy. Grouse shooting on its land is harming:

• Wildlife - overall biodiversity is decreased and unhealthily-high populations of game birds promoted. Mountain hare, hen harriers, foxes, stoats, weasels and corvids are purged by trap and bullet in order to increase red grouse numbers for the guns. Harmful management practices degrade the habitat required for specialist breeding bird species to survive.
• Habitat - intensive management practices such as burning - used to engineer an enlarged grouse population - has significant negative environmental impacts. 
• Leisure - the reputation of the uplands is damaged by grouse shooting, deterring tourists from taking leisure in areas where the practice takes place. 
• Regional economy - grouse shooting displaces visitors to the uplands and tarnishes the reputation of areas heavily reliant on tourist income. Grouse moor management practices also contribute to flooding, costing the regional economy millions of pounds, threatenings livelihoods, homes, businesses, jobs and damaging transport infrastructure.

Grouse shooting is intrinsically incompatible with Yorkshire Water’s duty to provide good, long-term environmental stewardship of the region’s uplands for the benefit of wildlife, habitat, leisure and the regional economy. Yorkshire Water must stop the leasing of its moors for grouse shooting.