News

THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR ICONIC HEATHER MOORLANDS?

November 12th, 2009

Natural England’s new policy document ‘Vital Uplands’, due to be published today (12th November), threatens open heather moorland as we know it. The Moorland Association is alarmed that Natural England wants to stop the traditional land management techniques of heather burning and grazing, and instead encourage the encroachment of trees and scrub on some of our most iconic and treasured landscapes.

Said Martin Gillibrand, Secretary of The Moorland Association: “The integrated management of rotation heather burning and carefully balanced sheep grazing, has protected our heather moorland from disappearing for at least the last century. As a result, much of this rare habitat in England has more recently become protected by law for its unique vegetation and birdlife. To make policy changes that will destroy what is protected now, is not legal and will not lead to the benefits claimed by Natural England.

Scrub and tree encroachment will have a negative impact on the existing wildlife ideally suited to the current open habitat. For example vulnerable populations of Merlin, Britain’s smallest bird of prey, are heavily protected through Sites of Special Scientific Interest and Special Protection Areas, but the bird will cease to nest if its breeding sites become encroached by trees and scrub.

Burning is crucial for the healthy regeneration of what remains of our heather moorland; 75% of what is left in the world is found in Britain. Reducing the frequency and/or the area over which burning currently takes place will reduce the vigor with which the heather grows and regenerates, reduce its nutritional value to feed sheep, cattle and red grouse and reduce the amount of carbon it can absorb. Further reducing the productivity of agriculturally poor upland areas will undermine economically viable enterprises that exist.

An increase in trees, scrub and woody stemmed old heather will also increase the biomass available to a wildfire, the threat from which has greatly increased with hotter drier spells. Doubling the biomass quadruples the intensity with which a fire burns, not only destroying the important surface vegetation but also the seed germination layer and crucially the carbon rich soil below, potentially releasing tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

The way in which controlled rotational heather burning is conducted is described in detail in the Government’s recently revised Heather and Grass Burning Code, and if carefully adhered to by highly experienced gamekeepers, it negates any claims that burning will contribute to water discolouration, the reduction in peat forming plants, or the reduction in the capacity of soils to store carbon.

These are all issues undergoing scientific research and as yet there are no clear cut results to indicate that a change in land management policy is needed. If and when there are, these must be carefully balanced with land use to retain what is working well in the uplands and help improve areas that need it most.”

There are pockets of SSSI land that have already seen a shift away from heather burning and grazing that clearly demonstrate how our open heather moorland may look by 2060 should Natural England’s ill advised ‘Vision’ for the uplands come to fruition.

Bridestones Moor East of the A169 in the North York Moors National Park is a very popular visitor’s destination for its Jurassic rock formations, but walkers now struggle through tick infested bracken and degenerate heather, and once open views are being blotted out by trees. Bracken is notoriously difficult and expensive to control once it takes a hold and ticks on the North York Moors are known to carry the louping ill virus, (fatal for some birds and mammals) and bacteria that causes Lyme Disease in humans.

Stony Marl Moor south of Whitby has also not been managed by controlled burning or grazing for many years and now requires ‘scrub control’ management as a component of a new agri-environment scheme funded by the tax payer.