Category: News

A new scientific research paper published yesterday suggests that prescribed burning, including muirburn on grouse moors, continues to ‘fall short of sustainable practices’.

The research was authored by scientists at the RSPB and was published in the peer-reviewed journal Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation:

Annual extent of prescribed burning on moorland in Great Britain and overlap with ecosystem services (Shewring et al. 2024).

The paper presents an assessment of the annual extent of prescribed burning occurring on moorland in Great Britain (2017-2022) and further assesses the overlap of burning with key upland ecosystem services.  Using high resolution satellite images of the GB uplands for five consecutive burning seasons, the authors developed a semi-automated method to detect and map the new burn scars in moorland vegetation. 

This new method has enabled a more rapid assessment of the annual amount of burning that occurred across the GB uplands over five burning seasons (2017/18 to 2021/22) and further allowed researchers to look at where burning is coincident with known fire-sensitive features (e.g. peat soils, protected areas, steep ground and alpine habitats). 

The study detected burning in many protected areas, with those in the North of England, and especially the North York Moors SAC/ SPA, subject to the highest percentage area burned.

Over these five burning seasons, an average of 15,250 ha of vegetation was burnt each year (59% of GB burned area was in Scotland with 39% in England). 

In England, the area mapped as burnt during the 2021/22 burning season dropped to 1,859 ha, a decline of 73% when compared with the average of the four previous burning seasons – a pattern not repeated for Scotland.

The decline in the overall area burnt in England during the 2021/22 burning season is coincident with the new Heather and Grass etc Burning (England) Regulations that came into force in May 2021.  Researchers will now use the method to map the extent of burning for the last two burning seasons in England to see if the decline has continued.

I’m sure it’ll also come in handy for monitoring the forthcoming adherence to the new regulations under the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act. It’s easy to hide away evidence of illegal raptor persecution – not so easy to hide evidence of illegal muirburn.

Clearly any decline in burning on sensitive features like peatlands is welcome.  However, despite the decline in the area burnt in England during the 2021/22 burning season, the study still found that 41% of the area mapped as burnt was on deep peat.  These findings are consistent with the reports of burning the RSPB receive via its burning app, with one-third of reports received apparently of fires on deep peat.

Last year, two grouse moor owners were convicted for burning on deep peat in protected areas, one in the Peak District (here) and one in Nidderdale; embarrassingly, that estate was owned by a Board member of the Moorland Association (here).

For further summary information about this latest research I’d recommend this blog written by the lead author Mike Shewring, and this blog by co-author Pat Thompson.

The full paper can be read/downloaded here:

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is advertising for a Scottish Raptor Monitoring Officer to support the well-established Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme (SRMS).

This is a part-time position (3 days per week) on a fixed two-year contract. Salary: £25,110 per annum + 11% employer pension contribution.

Role overview:

The Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme is seeking a people-person who is keen to share their passion for raptors and raptor monitoring, to take a coordinating role within the Scheme on behalf of all its partners and keep SRMS data contributors informed and engaged with our work. The successful candidate will promote, organise and deliver both face-to-face and online training, which may include raptor monitoring survey techniques and online data entry to existing and new audiences. They will be responsible for continuing to build and nurture a community of engaged and motivated volunteers delivering data to inform the conservation of Scottish raptors. 

Detailed job description:

The closing date for applications is Friday 24th May 2024. Interviews will be held in Stirling the week commencing 3 June 2024.

For further details and to apply, please click here.

The League Against Cruel Sports is advertising for a Wildlife Crime Intelligence Analyst.

This is a permanent, full time position, 35 hours per week. Hybrid working, primarily from home. Salary: £32-35,000 per annum.

What you’ll do:

• Analyse intelligence, knowledge systems and operational reports. 
• Produce tactical and strategic target profiles, problem summaries and strategic documents. 
• Liaise with external agencies, partners and contractors to gather relevant information. 
• Present intelligence and analytical findings to internal and external audiences. 
• Manage geospatial mapping tools and provide analytical support for investigations. 
• Assist in the development of intelligence collection plans and strategies.

Who you are:

• A proficient analyst with demonstrable experience in a comparable environment, such as law enforcement. 
• A passionate advocate for wildlife protection and animal welfare. 
• A skilled analytical thinker with a keen eye for detail and accuracy. 
• A clear and effective communicator with strong interpersonal skills. 

A detailed job description is available here:

The League is looking to fill this role quickly and will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis. To apply, submit your CV and a covering letter to people@league.org.uk

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is advertising an exciting new position as the Welsh Raptor Monitoring Coordinator, to support the newly-funded Welsh Raptor Monitoring Project.

This project is funded by the Nature Networks Programme and is being delivered by the Heritage Fund, on behalf of the Welsh Government.    

This is a permanent, full-time role based in the BTO Cymru office in Bangor, although you will be able to work from home part of the time on a hybrid working regime.  Salary: £30,135 per annum + 11% employer pension contribution.

The role will involve developing, coordinating and promoting the project and its data collection methods, training and reporting.

The full job description can be downloaded here:

Closing date for receipt of applications is Sunday 5th May and interviews will be held at Bangor during the middle of the week commencing 13th May. If you have any questions, please contact recruitment@bto.org

For further details and to apply for this position, please click here.

I was on BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today programme this morning, discussing Wild Justice’s successful legal challenge against DEFRA’s unlawful gamebird release licences.

DEFRA conceded that Ministers Therese Coffey and Richard Benyon had unlawfully authorised gamebird release licences for the Deben Estuary and Breckland Special Protection Areas but refutes Wild Justice’s claim that those decisions were tainted by the appearance of bias.

The thing is, it wasn’t just Wild Justice that had those suspicions of bias – the Ministers’ own civil servants had warned of the perception of bias and had urged the Ministers to take additional advice from organisations such as the RSPB and the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) instead of just relying on the advice of the pro-game-shooting Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).

The Ministers chose to ignore that advice.

You can listen to the interview here (starts at 08.29 mins), available on BBC Sounds for 29 days.

Wild Justice will be releasing some of the documents released in this case over the coming weeks. Keep an eye on the Wild Justice blog or better still, sign up to their free newsletter (here) delivered straight to your inbox.