Wanted: Source of Heather for Cutting

A contractor who is bidding to carry out the next phase of heather regeneration work as part of the Moors for the Future Project in the Peak District is looking for a source of heather to cut for brash to be applied to bare peat.

The heather needs to be mature (probably at least 200mm tall) with access for cutting machinery and within reach of a road or track.

The contractor is looking for up to 70ha and is offering £2/T for the cut material.  The amount of cut material produced will vary with the age and density of the heather but is likely to be in the range 25-75T/ha.

The contractor is a recognised and well-respected moorland contractor who has a range of specialised equipment to carry out this work and therefore will cause minimum impact on the ground.

The benefit of this for the landowner, is to provide some income in return for having an area of heather managed without cost.

If anyone is interested in this, please get in touch:

01387 723201  simon.thorp@heathertrust.co.uk

Wales: Glastir and Common Land

Farmers Weekly Interactive carried an article quoting the Common Land Committee of the Farmers Union of Wales expressing concerns about the effect of Glastir.

Apparently, 80% of the commoners on a common will need to sign up to a scheme and there will be nervousness about how the actions of the minority might affect the majority.  In common with other agri-environment schemes, the rules set by the EU for Glastir are not thought to be flexible enough to cope with the unique management structure of commons, and perhaps the same concern could be expressed for the crofting counties of Scotland.

Is Wales about to get this wrong?  Are the same problems that limit the effectiveness of Environmental Stewardship in England and Rural Priorities in Scotland about to be repeated?  How can we break out of this apparently vicious circle?

Scotland: Wildlife & Natural Environment Bill - Call for Views

The Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs and Environment Committee is seeking views on the general principles of the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill. The Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 9 June 2010 and it is expected that the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee will be designated lead Committee for scrutiny of the Bill’s general principles. The Scottish Government has produced a Policy Memorandum and Explanatory Notes, including a Financial Memorandum, to accompany the Bill.

The closing date for written submissions is Wednesday, 1 September 2010.  The Committee prefers to receive written submissions electronically in Word format, and prefers that responses do not exceed 4 A4 pages in length, if possible.  These should be sent to:  rae.committee@scottish.parliament.uk

From the Trust's perspective, I am principally concerned with the Muirburn provisions.  In general, I am happy with these, as they represent a big step in the right direction.  The price is losing the ability to burn above 450m (1,500ft) to 15 May - I think this is reasonable.  

My one area of concern is the neighbour notification provisions.  We have forsaken the opportunity to apply common sense and introduced a bureaucratic system which once again is likely to be largely ignored.  However, this is not a deal breaker and I hope that the land management community will be able to benefit from the increased flexibility that these changes will introduce.

For those wanting more detail, the Muirburn section in the Explanatory Notes starts at paragraph 145, and the financial section on muirburn at paragraph 252.

Wales: Glastir Scheme - New application period

The Welsh Assembly Government has announced that the application period to join the All-Wales element of the Glastir scheme will run from October 4th to November 22nd 2010.  This is to accommodate a final change to the scheme's options in direct response to discussions with the farming unions.  


See the Welsh Assembly website for more details. 

IUCN UK Peatland Programme’s Commission of Inquiry on Peatlands

I contributed to the review of 'Policy Options for Sustainable Management of UK Peatlands' which is one of eight scientific reviews of priority topics carried out as part of the Commission of Inquiry.

All eight Reviews are now available to download and the Commission is inviting interested organisations and individuals to respond to the draft Reviews.  Responses should be sent by e-mail to the Inquiry team at consultation@iucn.org.uk as soon as possible and no later than Monday, 20 September 2010.

The draft reviews will be discussed at the upcoming 'Investing in Peatlands - the Climate Challenge' conference at Durham University on 28-29 September 2010.  For more information, and to register for the conference, visit http://iucn-uk-peatlandprogramme.org/conference2010.

The Commission of Inquiry will also examine wider issues of relevance to policy and land management practice and therefore it is keen to receive general views on the priorities for delivering peatland restoration.

An Open Inquiry event is to be held at the University of Edinburgh on 3 November 2010 which will take oral evidence based on these submissions.

Phytophthora Ramorum and Kernoviae

Stem lesions on Bilberry

For those still struggling with pronunciation try:  "fy-toff-thora"

These two, linked diseases reportedly attack heather, although their common name of "Sudden Oak Death" gives an indication of the preferred host.  Apparently this disease is more of a threat in England and Wales than in Scotland, although I do not think that there is any scope for complacency anywhere.  There have been several hundred recorded outbreaks in England & Wales, but only 29 in Scotland.

The main host for spreading the diseases is Rhododendron but of concern is the outbreak that has been reported in Japanese Larch in SW England.  The diseases capacity for affecting heather & bilberry (blaeberry) is not yet clear, although these species are reported as hosts.

For those seeking to know more and to see photographs of the disease, I suggest that Scottish Government's website that has links to the guidance available on the Food & Environment Research Agency's site.

A programme of inspections, control and monitoring is underway throughout the UK and it is clear that vigilance and early treatment of outbreaks will aid the control of this new pest.  I recommend that all owners of woodland, especially those containing exotic plants, should take the time to familiarise themselves with this disease.  Owners of moorland need to be on their guard and I will aim to keep you up to date with further developments.

The Annual Report 2010

The Annual Report has been published and circulated to all members of the Trust and a selected wider audience.  It is not available on line, but a list of contents is included on the Trust's website.

As the Report is produced each year, there is always a debate about what topics to include and what to leave out.  I try to achieve a balance between the relatively dull reporting of the Trust's year with guest articles, which generally make more interesting reading.  Rather than this eclectic mix of articles there has been a suggestion that the guest articles should focus on a particular theme each year.  An alternative might be to include a specialist section on a particular topic that could perhaps have articles from different viewpoints.

I would welcome any views about this.  As I get older, the Policemen get younger and the next Annual Report only seems to be days away.

Board members might like to comment on whether we should be placing the guest articles on the web - there has always been the concern that this dilutes the impact of the main publication.

Wales - Glastir - Common Land Element

Details of the Common Land Element have been announced.  This information is extensive but contains a useful summary of the overall scheme.

Glastir will replace the four existing agri-environment schemes from 1 January 2012.  It is a 5 year whole farm sustainable land management scheme available to farmers and land managers across Wales. The scheme pays for the delivery of specified environmental goods and services aimed at combating climate change, improving water management and maintaining and enhancing biodiversity. The scheme is also designed to deliver measurable outcomes at both a farm and landscape scale in a cost effective manner.

Glastir consists of three elements: 

• All-Wales Element (AWE) - a whole farm land management scheme which is open to application from all farmers and land managers throughout Wales.
• Targeted Element (TE) – a part farm scheme intended to deliver significant improvements to the environmental status of a range of habitats, species, soils and water that might also require changes to current agricultural practices.
• Common Land Element - designed to provide support for the delivery of environmental benefits on common Land.

'It would be boring if it was easy'.  As more details of the scheme emerge, the number of hoops that have to be jumped through increases.  The Scottish Rural Development Programme has been described as a scheme for professionals, as it is difficult to understand unless you are dealing with it all the time.  In view of the need to satisfy the EU regulations, it is almost inevitable that Glastir has to go down the same route.  

Wouldn't it be nice if we could cut the bureaucracy; reduce the size of the army needed to set up, and monitor these schemes; and leave land managers to spend the time and effort doing what they do best.

From Farmers Weekly Interactive (FWi)

More than 295,000ha of England's uplands has been signed up for environmental management under the Uplands Entry Level Stewardship scheme.

Over 2,000 farmers have joined the scheme since the application period opened on 1 July, taking it more than half way towards Natural England's goal of covering 505,000ha of land covered with management agreements by next year.

The Uplands ELS, which replaces the Hill Farm Allowance, aims to reward farmers for mixing environmental stewardship, such as grassland management, restoring farm buildings with food production.

Wales - Young Entry Support Scheme

This strikes me as an excellent initiative.

Are we doing enough to encourage farming successors in other parts of the UK?

Heather Beetle Season

The time when heather beetle damage starts to be noticed is upon us again.  I am getting unconfirmed reports of damage from SW England and at Langholm.  After the damage at Langholm last year, a further outbreak is to be expected as the beetle's predators are unlikely to have built to a level to control the outbreak yet.

The results we collated for the 2009 season are still on the Trust's website and I will keep this page open and update it with 2010 reports as these become available.  This page also contains links to our guidance document and the review of Heather Beetle carried out by The University of Liverpool.

If you have an outbreak, or are worried that you might have one, please could you send me details.  If you would like to speak to me about the outbreak it would help to have some photographs to give me a feel for the level of damage.

If the damage is confirmed to be as a result of heather beetle, it would be very helpful if you could complete the survey form that can be downloaded from the website so that we can collate the data in the same format on receipt.  Please note that the Freepost address is no longer available and if returning the form by post, you will need to add a stamp.

Scotland: Bracken Control Event

I flagged this event previously but I can confirm that it will take place in Glenshee on Wednesday, 4th August.  Prof Rob Marrs and Roderick Robinson, a specialist in chemical control of bracken, will be speaking at the event.

We are now taking bookings and the booking form can be found as part of the flyer that is available from the Trust's website.

We are still working up the other two events that will form part of the SRDP funded Upland Managment; Rights & Wrongs project.  These events will cover heather restoration (October / November 2010) & muirburn (March 2011); I will let you know when more details are available.

Windfarms only giving half power

One for the windfarm sceptics.  See the Scotsman's article.

After sailing for two weeks in late June on the west coast of Scotland, I can vouch for the lack of wind during that period and the inactivity of many of the windfarms that can be seen from the sea.

Wind is an energy source that has been ignored until recently, but are we in danger of putting too many eggs in the wind farm basket?  Are we devoting enough resources to developing alternative sources of energy - wave, power, hydro or even nuclear?

Biodiversity: 10 Messages for 2010

The EU Environment Agency is publishing 10 messages for 2010 about biodiversity as part of the International Year of Biodiversity.  The messages are straightforward and easily digested if you have time for a skim through them.

Only seven of the ten are on the website at present, with the most important from my perspective relating to mountain ecosystems still to come.  With a bit of luck they will have all ten available by the end of the year!

Biochar

Taken from the Rural Enterprise Solutions Knowledge Network Weekly Summary


Biochar is a fine-grained, highly porous material similar to charcoal, that is produced from the decomposition of plant-derived organic matter (biomass) in a low- or zero-oxygen environment (a process known as pyrolysis).  Biochar is already found in soils around the world as a consequence of naturally-occurring fires and, in the Amazon, as a deliberate result of its addition by past human populations (the so-called terra preta soils). These terra preta soils are famous for enhancing the year-on-year fertility of soils and are, nowadays, highly valued as composts. 


Contemporary interest in biochar is, first and foremost, driven by its potential role as a response to the problem of climate change. This is through the long-term storage of carbon in soils in a stable form. If untreated (i.e. non-pyrolysed) organic matter is added to soils, many of the nutrients contained therein are released. The carbon in the material is rapidly converted into carbon dioxide (‘mineralised’) and released to the atmosphere. Usually, all the carbon has disappeared as CO2 within 1 to 5 years, which is why adding organic matter to soils doesn’t help very much in efforts to limit climate change. By contrast, the carbon atoms in biochar molecules are strongly bound to one another, and this makes biochar resistant to attack and decomposition by micro-organisms. 

The full report can be downloaded from the Defra website.


In my view, this means that biochar could be useful stuff.  The next question is can it be produced as a product of heather burning?

Scotland - The Future of Single Farm Payments

For those wanting a quick summary of the progress of the Pack Inquiry and how the future looks, I suggest the latest bulletin provided by Lindsays WS which can be found here.  Other topics that may also be of interest are covered in the same bulletin.

Full details about the Pack Inquiry are available from the Scottish Government's website.

CRC Uplands Inquiry Report

The Commission for Rural Communities published its inquiry report High Ground, high potential - a future for England’s Upland Communities.
The Commission has since fallen victim to the Government’s financial cutbacks and has been scrapped. However, its report is worthy of careful consideration. True, it is based on research carried out in England but I doubt that anyone from other parts of the UK would dispute that its findings are broadly relevant across the whole country.

Some of the more interesting findings include a comment about the lack of leadership or vision in the uplands and how the inquiry had revealed dissatisfaction with the disjointed and sometimes confusing nature of current policies. Policies were criticised as ‘top down’, sporadic, short-term interventions. The report summarises the policy weaknesses as: non-participatory, one-size-fits-all, fragmented, and uninformed.
Conclusions - summary of requirements:
1. A new integrated strategy for the uplands
2. Strengthening leadership and momentum
3. Empowering communities in the uplands
4. A new approach to funding (a better targeted CAP)
5. Developing markets for carbon and water
6. Securing the future for hill farmers
7. Encouraging enterprise in new green growth areas
8. Raising aspirations: supporting the development of communities
9. Improving broadband and mobile telephone communications
10. Planning to enable sustainable upland communities

The content of this comes does not come as a surprise; these findings could have been taken from our Annual Reports.  What is perhaps surprising is that these issues have been recognised and presented to government.  It remains to be seen if this report produces any action.

Culling Mountain Hares For Tick And Louping-Ill Virus In Control

Knowledge of Scotland has published a Policy Briefing about research that has just been published.   Note that there are links to more detailed information from the sidebar of this briefing.

In summary, the briefing states that the evidence used to support the culling of mountain hares to control ticks, louping ill and increase grouse densities is limited and equivocal.

The research comments on the estate in Morayshire where it was shown that the culling of hares did help with the reduction of tick numbers and the prevalence of louping ill.  However, this is seen as an exception as there were very few other hosts on this estate, particularly deer.   The point is not that hares do not carry ticks, but that the culling of hares in the presence of other hosts will not be effective.

Before embarking on any management programme, it is important to dispel myths and apply fact. This is particularly true of a tick reduction programme. Great attention to detail is required by everyone involved in the management of the area (for example, sporting and agricultural tenants, owners, keepers) for the duration of the project which is likely to be at least five years, and above all, funding is required for the duration. If these requirements cannot be satisfied, I suggest it would be better not to start with a control programme and to invest the funds elsewhere.

Based on my experience gained on similar schemes in different parts of the country, I would be pleased to help anybody who believes they have a tick and louping ill problem.

Upland Management: Rights & Wrongs

I have obtained funding through the Skills Development Scheme, which is part of the Scottish Rural Development Programme, to run three events in the Cairngorms National Park before the end of March, next year.

The events will cover three different topics in three different locations: bracken control, heather restoration and muirburn. The first of these three events will be held in Glenshee on Wednesday, 4 August 2010 and it will be based on the Spittal of Glenshee Hotel.  Presentations, including one by our own president, Prof Rob Marrs,  will be given in the morning and this will be followed by a series of practical demonstrations on an area of bracken close by, in the afternoon. Further details will be published soon.

The details for the remaining two events are being worked up at the moment, and I will circulate details as soon as they are available.

Peat bog restoration methods may harm insect species

See the short article on the University of Plymouth website.

Raising of water tables by blocking of grips appears not to be all good news.  First, it was the increase in Methane emissions after re-wetting and now it is damage to insect populations.  There are also question marks about the impact on dissolved and particulate organic carbon.

This is all very much emerging knowledge, and I will be trying to fill in the gaps in this Blog as more information comes available.