Given that there are counties in Brazil the size of the UK (not to mention in China too) I think the idea that a handful of UK landowners hold the keys to fixing climate change is fanciful at best.
This article is full is contradictions and mistruths. One can only imagen the author has never visited a grouse moor.
​
*’These months are characterised by intensive burning, as vast swathes of England’s moors are set alight by landowners to stimulate the growth of heather, which grouse populations feed on. In the process, they’re burning peat, and releasing tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.’*
Heather burning has a long history in use in managing moorland and while carried out by game keepers on grouse moors, though not exclusively practice by them. Prescribed heather burning, or ‘muirburn’, is prescribed by law and can be carried out during October up to mid-april in most of the UK. In practice most is carried out in March when the plant material has dried out, allowing it to burn properly, while cold damp conditions under foot make it easier to control. It is typified by planned burns of small patches of older heather, normally between 30m x 30m but often larger, aiming are low intensity, quick, ‘cool burn’ to remove the heath and grass canopy without damaging the underlying roots, peat or soil layer. The burning encourages new shoots to grow, which are more palatable and offer better nutrients to the grouse, livestock and other animals that live on the moors. Is does not leave the moors in a poor condition or effect the peat. If it did, this would be a disaster for the grouse as all the roots and seed would be destroyed and it would take years for the heather to grow back, depriving them of there main food source.
What is a serious threat to moors are wild fires. They will often cover vast areas and burn with a far greater intensity and severity, sometimes consuming all the available fuel above ground, as well as a significant amounts of the underlying peat. One study in the Peak District (Driver of Change in Upland Environments) showed that heather burning can reduce wild fire risk by removing the fuel load and that land associated with grouse mor management has a significantly lower frequency of wildfires. Further, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Services support land management that reduces fuel load, including muirburn.
If then goes on to talk about re-wilding, without defining what they actually what specific areas they want to rewild – though one can presume the grouse moors fall under this vague notion. So if it includes moorland, then rewild it how?
No other country has extensive heather uplands equivalent to those in the UK. Most of the heather areas are lowland or costal, with the UK having over 75% of the worlds heather moorland. For this reason, the 1992 Rio Convention on Biodiversity recognises the global importance of UK heather moorland.
Heather dominated moorland supports groups and species of flora and fauna found no where else, and cannot exist in land used for woodland or commercial forestry, and so sustainable grouse moor management is essential in there conservation and to increase the overall biodiversity in the uplands. These species include varieties of berry, grass, sedge and mosses such as sphagnum, as well as moths, bees, butterflies, beetles and crane flies to name but a few. Perhaps more charismatic there are rare birds like, curlew, golden plover, lapwing and the red grouse itself, as well as mountain hares. Whilst the overall number of these species of animals and plants found on heather moorland can be low density, those species that do thrive in this environment are usually uncommon and found nowhere else, meaning maintaining and conserving heather moorland is vitally important.
The uncomfortable truth for all the anti-shooting lobby is that grouse moor management carried out by shooting estates helps conserve the heather moorland ecosystem. Until 2000, heather cover was falling sharply in the UK, the key reasons being overgrazing by sheep and commercial forestry plantations. However, a GWCT study showed that management for driven grouse shooting slows the loss of heather from the landscape. Between 1940 and 1980, moors that stopped shooting lost 41% of there heather cover, whilst moors maintaining shooting lost only 24%. Historically, a landowners commitment to driven grouse shooting dissuaded them from converting the moors into other land uses such as forestry or agriculture, which for some reason this article is arguing for!
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Given that there are counties in Brazil the size of the UK (not to mention in China too) I think the idea that a handful of UK landowners hold the keys to fixing climate change is fanciful at best.
This article is full is contradictions and mistruths. One can only imagen the author has never visited a grouse moor.
​
*’These months are characterised by intensive burning, as vast swathes of England’s moors are set alight by landowners to stimulate the growth of heather, which grouse populations feed on. In the process, they’re burning peat, and releasing tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.’*
Heather burning has a long history in use in managing moorland and while carried out by game keepers on grouse moors, though not exclusively practice by them. Prescribed heather burning, or ‘muirburn’, is prescribed by law and can be carried out during October up to mid-april in most of the UK. In practice most is carried out in March when the plant material has dried out, allowing it to burn properly, while cold damp conditions under foot make it easier to control. It is typified by planned burns of small patches of older heather, normally between 30m x 30m but often larger, aiming are low intensity, quick, ‘cool burn’ to remove the heath and grass canopy without damaging the underlying roots, peat or soil layer. The burning encourages new shoots to grow, which are more palatable and offer better nutrients to the grouse, livestock and other animals that live on the moors. Is does not leave the moors in a poor condition or effect the peat. If it did, this would be a disaster for the grouse as all the roots and seed would be destroyed and it would take years for the heather to grow back, depriving them of there main food source.
What is a serious threat to moors are wild fires. They will often cover vast areas and burn with a far greater intensity and severity, sometimes consuming all the available fuel above ground, as well as a significant amounts of the underlying peat. One study in the Peak District (Driver of Change in Upland Environments) showed that heather burning can reduce wild fire risk by removing the fuel load and that land associated with grouse mor management has a significantly lower frequency of wildfires. Further, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Services support land management that reduces fuel load, including muirburn.
If then goes on to talk about re-wilding, without defining what they actually what specific areas they want to rewild – though one can presume the grouse moors fall under this vague notion. So if it includes moorland, then rewild it how?
No other country has extensive heather uplands equivalent to those in the UK. Most of the heather areas are lowland or costal, with the UK having over 75% of the worlds heather moorland. For this reason, the 1992 Rio Convention on Biodiversity recognises the global importance of UK heather moorland.
Heather dominated moorland supports groups and species of flora and fauna found no where else, and cannot exist in land used for woodland or commercial forestry, and so sustainable grouse moor management is essential in there conservation and to increase the overall biodiversity in the uplands. These species include varieties of berry, grass, sedge and mosses such as sphagnum, as well as moths, bees, butterflies, beetles and crane flies to name but a few. Perhaps more charismatic there are rare birds like, curlew, golden plover, lapwing and the red grouse itself, as well as mountain hares. Whilst the overall number of these species of animals and plants found on heather moorland can be low density, those species that do thrive in this environment are usually uncommon and found nowhere else, meaning maintaining and conserving heather moorland is vitally important.
The uncomfortable truth for all the anti-shooting lobby is that grouse moor management carried out by shooting estates helps conserve the heather moorland ecosystem. Until 2000, heather cover was falling sharply in the UK, the key reasons being overgrazing by sheep and commercial forestry plantations. However, a GWCT study showed that management for driven grouse shooting slows the loss of heather from the landscape. Between 1940 and 1980, moors that stopped shooting lost 41% of there heather cover, whilst moors maintaining shooting lost only 24%. Historically, a landowners commitment to driven grouse shooting dissuaded them from converting the moors into other land uses such as forestry or agriculture, which for some reason this article is arguing for!