Alexander Darwell, the Dartmoor landowner in the news recently for successfully restricting wild camping on his land, has, according to a report in The Guardian, been warned by Natural England not to release pheasants on his ground near Dendles Wood. This wood is a surviving fragment of temperate rainforest, a rare and endangered habitat in the UK. It is protected as both a national nature reserve and as a site of special scientific interest, while it is also within the Dartmoor special area of conservation. It is directly adjacent to Darwell’s 4,000-acre Blachford Estate. Temperate rainforest is hardly natural pheasant habitat, but pheasants are said to be one of the most numerous birds in the wood. Natural England’s concern appears to be the fact that the wood is one of the few sites in England where the blue ground beetle, Carabus intricatus, is found. At up to 38mm long, it is Britain’s largest ground beetle, and is easily recognised by its striking blue wing cases. Long thou