Wildlife charity says moorland management is needed as it questions Government's 25 year Environment plan

A new study claims that having managed moorland offers the best hope of reaching the Government’s 25-year Environment Plan goals.

A new scientific review conducted by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) which says many of the daily activities carried out on grouse moors produce a wide range of public goods, including increasing biodiversity and saving threatened species, mitigating climate change and reducing the risk of wildfire.

The study examined work carried out by Regional Moorland Groups on managed moorland – such as controlled burns, rewetting of peat bogs and predation management – and was analysed in relation to society’s wants and needs, as expressed by goals in the Government’s 25-year Environment Plan (25YEP).

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The conclusion was that moorland ecosystems managed for grouse shooting deliver a net gain for society under the specifications outlined by Defra.

A new scientific review conducted by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) says many of the daily activities carried out on grouse moors produce a wide range of public goods, including increasing biodiversity and saving threatened species, mitigating climate change and reducing the risk of wildfire.A new scientific review conducted by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) says many of the daily activities carried out on grouse moors produce a wide range of public goods, including increasing biodiversity and saving threatened species, mitigating climate change and reducing the risk of wildfire.
A new scientific review conducted by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) says many of the daily activities carried out on grouse moors produce a wide range of public goods, including increasing biodiversity and saving threatened species, mitigating climate change and reducing the risk of wildfire.

The likely benefits of alternative land uses which are often promoted as alternatives to grouse moors, such as rewilding, commercial forestry, energy production and agricultural intensification, were also compared in the study.

When pitted against the goals set out by 25YEP, alternatives such as rewilding – particularly when it involves reintroduction of new species and a stop to management practices entirely – and commercial timber performed poorly.

The authors of the report highlighted that it was important to bear in mind that some of the alternative uses – such as either managed or ‘abandonment’ rewilding – have been subject to very little research on their contribution to either public goods, or the specific goals of the 25YEP.

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It makes for a risky basis to policy, added critics, while some practices set out in the government strategy have been used for years by people who know and work the moorlands already.

Controlled heather burning is one of the ways wildfire risks are mitigated as the flora is kept to manageable levels.Controlled heather burning is one of the ways wildfire risks are mitigated as the flora is kept to manageable levels.
Controlled heather burning is one of the ways wildfire risks are mitigated as the flora is kept to manageable levels.

Henrietta Appleton, co-author of the study, said: “It must be risky to base policy on an assumption that the outcomes of rewilding are better than grouse moor management.”

And as the Glorious Twelfth rolls around on the country calendar again, the 25 YEP goals against which the value of grouse shooting was considered include clear air, clean and plentiful water, thriving plants and wildlife, reduced risk of harm from environmental hazards (including flooding, wildfire and tick-borne diseases), and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

In the last 100 years the demands placed on the UK’s moorlands has changed as people have realised the important role that they play in carbon storage, water storage, and also the benefit they deliver to the public in terms of access to the outdoors and for recreation. In the post-war years the uplands were drained to maximise their agricultural and forestry potential.

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But over the last few decades moorland managers and landowners have carried out work including peat restoration, drain blocking, the cutting and burning of heather for wildfire mitigation, and the creation of ponds to help bird, mammal and insect life to thrive. Many of these actions – which began long before the government’s environment plan came into existence – appear to deliver the exact aims which the plan wants to achieve.

Richard Bailey, co-ordinator of the Peak District Moorland Group and a conservation manager himself, explains how he first started rewetting moorland three decades ago.

“I find it quite amusing when organisations and individuals use the term “rewetting” as if it is a new process. When I started my moorland keepering career three decades ago, Lindsay Waddell and myself were already blocking drainage grips with wooden boards.

“We called them “bog flushes” then, and their primary purpose was to increase insect life to improve chick survival rates for all ground nesting birds on the moors. Moorland managers were therefore once again at the front of the queue when it came to nature recovery, diversity and moorland restoration.”

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The report concludes that moorland ecosystems, managed sensibly and properly, deliver a net gain for society.

However, as has been acknowledged by the The British Association for Shooting and Conservation as well as The Moorland Association, one issue is that the public does not realise and the wider environmental movement does not recognise this fact, which means that grouse moors are often under appreciated and under valued.

The Regional Moorland Groups believe that the reason for this is often down to the constant criticism that moorland management is subjected to, whether that is attacks on heather burning in the press and on social media, harassment of gamekeepers while they are carrying out their daily work, or simply negative attitudes towards grouse shooting as a whole.

To try and tackle this, BASC with Countryside Learning and moorland groups in the North welcomed 3,000 children to the moors in July for the Let’s Learn Moor outdoor classroom, covering topics from species conservation, wildfire prevention, sheep shearing, mountain rescue, carbon capture, tick management and ground-nesting birds.

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