Tick Bite Prevention Week: 26 March - 1 April 2012

Feeding Tick ©BADA UK 

The link between the warm and moist conditions provided by the litter beneath bracken and sheep ticks is well established.  Sheep ticks can transmit Lyme disease to humans and can also pass a range of other diseases to birds and farm livestock.  In view of this threat to human and animal health, The Heather Trust is delighted to support the Tick Bite Prevention Week. 

Bracken control is an important part of moorland management and reducing the area of bracken, which is an ideal habitat for sheep ticks, helps to reduce the spread of Lyme disease; each year it is estimated that around 3,000 people in the UK contract Lyme disease from a tick bite.

The aim of bracken control is to prevent the plant spreading over large areas and smothering other plants.  Where this occurs, there can be an economic impact through loss of grazing and a reduction in shooting potential, and the range of plant and animal species present can be reduced.  There are virtually no winners and therefore the Trust believes that efforts to control bracken should be encouraged at every opportunity.

The ban on the main chemical control product, Asulam, when it comes into full effect, next year, is very significant and will reduce the ability of landowners and managers to control bracken.  The Trust is pleased to have been asked to coordinate the activity of The Bracken Control Group, which will be seeking to find a way to maintain a supply of Asulam until the product can be re-registered for normal use.

Links:

Full press statement

www.tickbitepreventionweek.org

www.brackencontrol.co.uk  

Kyoto Protocol and National Accounting for Peatlands

Work in progress on Exmoor (photo:ENPA)

The IUCN UK Peatland programme has published a briefing that describes the changes to accounting for peatlands introduced as a result of the conference in Durban, last year.

This information is not easy to digest, but the news is good in that drainage and re-wetting of peatlands can now be taken into account to meet emissions reduction targets.

This is recommended reading for all with an interest in peatland management.

'Investing in Peatlands: Demonstrating Success' Symposium 2012

The symposium takes place at Bangor University in North Wales, 26 - 28 June 2012.  The symposium will assess how peatland restoration can safeguard biodiversity and deliver ecosystem services, such as climate and water regulation or preserving knowledge archives, and how challenges in knowledge gaps can be addressed.
This is the third of three conferences being organised by the IUCN UK Peatland Programme.  The website has more information and details of how to book. 

CAP post-2013 - What others are saying

This extract from the latest edition of Landscope from Smiths Gore gives a view of the direction that the ongoing discussions about the review of the CAP are taking.


Government commitment on greening
Defra has said that English farmers entering or renewing agri-environment agreements can subsequently opt out without penalty if they have to make changes to their agreements as a result of CAP greening.


CLA supports greening of CAP
Giving evidence to the open debate on the future EU farm policy, Professor Allan Buckwell, policy director of the Country Land and Business Association, said that the big theme in the reform is greening and not delivering on it would be a “wasted opportunity”. He supported channelling 30% of resources from Pillar 1 towards sustainable environmental management – saying that it would represent a 5-fold increase in current agri- environment expenditure and make the reform ‘highly radical’ although questioned whether a one-year system is the right one for delivering environmental goods. He said that it is logical that organic farming and agri- environment measures with the same higher environmental standards should be automatically entitled to the 30% allocation of direct payments under Pillar 1.

New argument developing on greening and bio-products
The European Commission seems to be politically manoeuvering to include energy crops and non-food crops for biofuels in the greening proposals for the CAP. Environmental bodies are likely to oppose the move but the Commission has recently published a report stating that the EU is in danger of losing its status as global leader in the field of biosciences unless funding is increased and policies, such as the CAP, support the sector.


Scottish Government consultation on proposals
The Scottish Government is consulting on the Pillar 1 and 2 proposals. 

England - Heather Burning Inquiry - More detail

Walshaw Moor Estate, South Pennines.  Follow the links for more background information about the Judicial Review and the Public Inquiry.

England - Heather Burning Inquiry - Walshaw Moor Estate

See today's article in The Telegraph for the background and an update about the public inquiry that has been hearing the appeal by the Walshaw Moor Estate in the South Pennines against restrictions proposed by Natural England on heather burning.

Concerns about burning on blanket bog are at the centre of this issue; Natural England appear to want to restrict the burning cycle preferred by the estate.  The details of the inquiry are not yet available but the outcome, and the judicial review that follows it, will have a major bearing on the management of the English uplands that is likely to spill over into other parts of the UK.

The management of moorland for grouse is correctly reported as being the most significant factor on much of the English uplands.  It attracts the investment, that pays the wages of the gamekeepers, that produce the grouse, that attracts the guns, that provides the income to justify the investment and provides the financial benefit to the whole community.

While grouse might be the driving factor, we should not lose sight of the other benefits that management of our uplands brings.  Increasingly the wider benefits from management are being recognised: for agriculture, through improved quality of grazing; for biodiversity, through the increased species mix; for the ecosystem services, through amongst other factors, better quality water and better storage of carbon in peat; and for the landscape, by avoiding monocultures of invasive species such as bracken, scrub and coarse grasses.

A Heather Trust view is that it is possible to meet all these diverse objectives through an integrated, management approach.  To achieve this we must not stop the private investment in these areas and to justify this investment requires grouse production, and an appropriate burning regime.  To turn off the private investment is to condemn much of the uplands to becoming an unproductive, species-poor desert.

Thinking CAP: Upland Research & Management

The online booking facility is now available from the GWCT website.  For details see the earlier post, below.

Thinking CAP: Upland Research & Management - 13 March 2012

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust in partnership with Scotland’s Moorland Forum will be holding an event on Tuesday 13 March 2012 between 09:30 and 15:00 at the Huntingtower Hotel, Crieff Road, Perth PH1 3JT

The Thinking CAP event is being supported by Scottish Natural Heritage and the Scottish Government. It will consider the current state of evidence about upland management and how this relates to the funding available through the Scottish Rural Development Programme.  The funding options in the SRDP are under review and in the afternoon delegates will have an opportunity to provide feedback on the relevance of the current options and discuss changes that they would like to see introduced.

Registration, coffee and lunch: £12 inc VAT per attendee

2 Feb 12 - the online booking facility is now available from the GWCT website 

The Thinking CAP event has been kindly sponsored by Turcan Connell and PDG Helicopters.

Wales - Heather Burning Leaflet

A new leaflet has been published to provide guidance about heather & grass burning in Wales.  To a casual observer it is a strange document that seems to serve little purpose.

I would not argue with the sentence on the website that states, "Burning can be dangerous and cause damage to the environment and wildlife." if it was placed in context.  Where is the balancing statement about the benefits that well conducted burning can provide?

My view remains that good burning is good; bad burning needs to be stamped out.  This can only be achieved by encouraging people to get the training and experience needed to burn properly.  Emphasising the negative side of burning will result in less effort and more areas of rank heather that is looking for a way to die.  Heather beetle needs no second invitation, as I witnessed first hand in mid-Wales last year.

If we want to retain heather in Wales, it needs more management, not less.

Bleaklow gets more heather seed

The next phase of the re-seeding work on Bleaklow in the Peak District is underway with 5,500 bags of seed waiting (see the photo) to be airlifted onto the moor.  Details about the work of the MoorLIFE project have been published in the local paper.

50,000 year old peat moss

Here is some information from research in Hawaii that could cause a stunned silence if dropped into conversation during a Christmas social gathering.

If you do not know anything about sphagnum mosses, you will not be alone, but look out for the 'simple' guide that will be published by the Field Studies Council early next year, which has been part sponsored by The Heather Trust.

Scotland: High Nature Value farming and crofting

Scottish Environment Link has published a file note that provides a  definition of High Nature Value Farming and argues that it deserves more consideration.  A thought from the file note to ponder: rather than see a large part of Scotland dismissed as being a 'Less Favoured Area' (LFA) would it be better to view these areas as being potentially high value in terms of the environmental goods produced.  Is your cup half empty or half full?  Perhaps the introduction of 'Areas facing Natural Constraint' (ANC) as a successor to LFA will help introduce a change of perception.

Scotland: The Woodland Expansion Advisory Group

The Woodland Expansion Advisory Group (WEAG) has been established in response to The Scottish Government's wish to increase the amount of woodland cover in Scotland from 17% to 25%.  The WEAG has established a consultation process which closes on 6 January 2012 and a copy of a letter that was sent by the Group to stakeholders can be downloaded from the FCS website.

The WEAG has announced a series of seven stakeholder events across Scotland between 21 February and 1 March 2012, and details can be found on the WEAG page of the website.

I aim to add some further thoughts to the blog as I develop the Trust's response to the consultation, but in the meantime the WEAG has announced a series of seven stakeholder events across Scotland between 21 February and 1 March 2012, and details can be found on the WEAG page of the website.

More on the 2011 Grouse Season

A second article about the success of the 2011 grouse season in today's edition of The Scotsman is by Lord Hopetoun, the chairman of the Scottish Land & Estates Moorland Group.  He comments on the environmental benefits arising from the investment in moorland management, and also very importantly on the benefits to the communities in the areas where this investment takes place.

The Grouse Season in Scotland

The Scotsman carries a summary of the 2011 Scottish grouse season.  As stated in the article, 2011 has been a season to savour and this is good news all round.

From a Heather Trust perspective, good grouse bags can only be achieved from well-managed moorland and the income generated from the grouse justifies the continuation of this management.  It may also encourage those who are not managing their moors to their potential to invest in them for the benefit of grouse and all moorland and upland plants and species.