According to an article in The Telegraph, landowners say grouse shooting on English moors is under threat from a landmark legal action brought by Natural England.
The government’s conservation advisory body is trying to stop the Walshaw Moor Estate in the Pennines from burning heather on blanket bog. The landowner claims that English Nature is using it as a test case that could prove ‘disastrous’ for nearly all of England’s 148 grouse moors.
Heather burning, along with other intensive ‘management’ activities such as predator ‘control’ [killing], is seen as an integral technique for promoting unnaturally high densities of red grouse for shooting.
Article in The Telegraph here
Additional information from the law firm Gordons, acting on behalf of Walshaw Moor Estate here
Raptor Persecution UK 
The article doesn’t mention any of the other methods for encouraging new heather grow. In this area they are cutting instead of burning and investing vast amounts on restoration of the moors.
Human exploitation has destroyed 25% of the world’s peatlands; in the UK nearly 95% of peatlands has been damaged, the most common factors? over grazing and managed burning. (Is it fair to assume that the people that have caused this damage are not paying for the restoration?).
In the 2006 assessment of the condition of upland peats (on SSSIs) in England, the three most common damaging activities were found to be over-grazing, managed burning and drainage (Williams 2006)
It seems that some people simply don’t care what the results of their actions are, that they see everything as a threat to them and are simply unable or unwilling to accept scientific evidence if it doesn’t fit in with their plans.
Industries face challenges all the time and in order to survive they adapt, this particular industry seems to prefer to play “the woe is me” card and the “do you know how important our industry is” card,
Get real and start to toe the line like the rest of us have to, work with the people that are trying to improve these areas for everyone instead of either pretending that you care and carrying on regardless or moaning continually about how badly done to you are.
Rant over……………
I welcome any debate such as this which reminds the public about what a totally artificial habitat mangaed grouse moor really is…most folks think that our heather covered uplands are as natural as a marsh or mountain top.
When people have grasped that we can start to have a real debate about whether the killing of raptors on these places – which we are repeatedly told is necessary to make them economically viable – is justifiable.
I am not at all surprised to find that the same people who have killed off thousands of harriers, buzzards and eagles over the last 150 years, have also been destroying the underlying habitat.Managed grouse moors? Its an unplanned mess.
Whats needed is research into alternative, sustainable and perhaps even productive [?!] uses for our Uplands.
At last, hopefully it will finally recognised that the muirburn code requires no burning of blanket bog…..this type of behaviour does not comply with GAEC….so why do they still get single farm payment when they dont comply with the code?