Where to Walk

Visit: www.countrysideaccess.gov.uk/things_to_do/open_access/open_access_maps

To find out where you can walk on moorland, and if you are allowed to take your dog, please click on this link. It takes you to an excellent map resource which allows you to search by place name, postcode, national grid coordinates, OS reference, county or National Park, and lists any restrictions for any particular time. Please plan ahead to safeguard the moors and avoid disappointment.

Watch out - Ticks about.

The worst times for ticks are May to July, and September to October.
Ticks are small insects related to spiders and mites that feed on blood and can carry infections. One bacteria carried by ticks is increasingly causing Lyme Disease in visitors to heather moorland. Cases of Lyme Disease have tripled in the last decade in the UK.

Symptoms:
If, after a visit to moorland, you experience any of these symptoms, seek medical help and mention Lyme Disease. Lyme Disease is successfully treated with a course of antibiotics if caught early.

• A 'bull's eye' shaped rash
• Flu-like Symptoms
• Muscle Ache
• Facial Palsy
• Viral - like Meningitis
• Arthritis or other nerve disorders.

Erythema migrans rash on the upper right arm of a patient with Lyme disease. The shape of the rash varies with bite location.

Prevention: Avoid tick bites by covering skin when visiting moorland - wear long trousers and boots or tuck trousers into socks. Use an insect repellent containing Citridol or Bayrepel or an acaricide e.g. permetherin. Check for ticks and remove any as soon as possible using fine tweezers or a tick tool from pet shops or outdoor equipment retailers. When removing ticks with fine-pointed tweezers, (1) be careful to grab the lower mouthparts close to the skin and then (2) firmly pull upwards. Avoid twisting as this increases the risk of detaching the head and leaving parts of the tick in the wound.

What is the Moorland Association doing about it?
Ticks do particularly well in areas where there is a lot of bracken. Moorland Association members manage their land carefully to stop bracken spreading and have converted 56 square miles of bracken back to heather moorland. However, Europe has banned the most effective and selective herbicide used to control bracken which means from 2013 we will have to apply for Emergency Authorisation to use the herbicide to conserve our treasured landscape and help protect your health.
You can support our campaign to control bracken on our acebook page.

Useful websites

• Health Protection Agency (HPA): www.hpa.org.uk
• Health Protection Scotland (HPS): www.hps.scot.nhs.uk
• European Concerted Action on Lyme Borreliosis (EUCALB): http://meduni09.edis.at/eucalb
• Borreliosis and Associated Diseases Awareness UK (BADA-UK): www.bada-uk.org
• Lyme Disease Action (LDA): www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk