Moorland owners fear that EU ruling will devastate landscape

They also fear that a decision by the European Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health to ban Asulam, used to control the spread of bracken, will change the face of Britain’s countryside, devastate wildlife and destroy land management worth around £100m a year.

The herbicide, which the Moorland Association (MA) says has been used safely for more than 35 years, was banned following safety concerns over aerial spraying by spinach growers on the Continent.

But the Moorland Association, which is gearing up for the start of the grouse season in a week’s time, says we face the prospect of ending the successful stewardship of 850,000 acres of precious heather moorland.

Defra is working to find a compromise and a spokesman told the Yorkshire Post: “Asulam is important for the control of bracken.

“We are continuing to support efforts to secure its approval by Europe, with appropriate conditions to protect people and the environment from harm. In the meantime, we are working within the present rules to ensure its continued safe and effective use.”

The European ruling means this is the last summer that land can be sprayed with Asulam, leaving vast tracts of countryside vulnerable to infestation by bracken.

MA vice chairman George Winn-Darley, who manages 6,500 acres of North Yorkshire heather moorland, says this could have a dire impact. “Without the government-approved chemical, successfully and safely used for 35 years, our countryside and rural livelihoods will suffer very serious consequences.

“This will not only adversely affect biodiversity, including endangered species, but also jobs and ultimately the appearance of globally important moors. Three-quarters of the world’s heather moorland is found in the UK. Without Asulam, we would have already lost 50 per cent of it.”

Winn-Darley says although the ban is designed to safeguard spinach grown on the continent it leaves Britain’s moorland, which includes 46 upland bird species, vulnerable to the suffocating effects of bracken. “Grouse breeding will be badly hit, along with the shooting industry, which is worth over £67m in England alone, creates 42,500 days of work a year and supports over 1,500 jobs,” he says.

The bulk of the country’s moorland lies within key tourist areas including large swathes of North Yorkshire, the Peak District and the Cumbria/County Durham borders. Much of it has Site of Special Scientific Interest status and, ironically, is protected under European law for plants and birds.

Bracken control on grouse moors has seen another significant benefit with a 60 per cent reduction in the blood-feeding ticks responsible for life-threatening Lyme disease.

“The EU ban is causing furore in UK farming and conservation circles, and its legislators seem to be throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” says Winn-Darley.

“If we lose our heather moorlands then it’s bad for our economy, it’s bad for bio-diversity, it damages livestock and even our own health.”

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