A Review of Natural England's Upland Evidence Review

The first phase of Natural England’s Upland Evidence Review was completed at the end of May, last year, with the publication of the five topic reports that covered:

• Tracks on blanket peat
• Restoration of blanket bog
• The effects of managed burning on upland peatland
• Upland hay meadows
• Moorland grazing and stocking rates

Full details and downloads are available from the Natural England website.

On behalf of the Trust, I supported the Upland Evidence Review by contributing to the production of the Tracks report, and I am also a member of the Defra Upland Stakeholders Forum, which has had a role overseeing the Review.  

As a result of this involvement, I have seen the draft internal guidance that Natural England is now producing.  This next phase of the work is the ‘evidence to advice’ phase that is developing the evidence established in the five topic reviews into guidance that Natural England can give to its staff when dealing with land management issues.  Note that this is internal advice for Natural England staff and is not advice for the owners and managers of land.

The internal guidance is being developed at three levels:

• Quick start – things to think about
• Upland Principles – summary guidance
• Upland Practitioner – detailed guidance 

The quick start guidance provides context and I have no issue with this.  The Upland Principles have been drafted in four sections, as the burning and restoration topics have been addressed in one paper.  I am happy with the approach that has been adopted for three of the papers but I have difficulty with the burning and restoration paper.

The burning and restoration paper was published after the other three and was circulated for discussion at the meeting of the Best Practice Burning Group, last month.  The late circulation of this report and its contents was bound to produce some fireworks, and we were not disappointed.  The challenge was that I found myself as Chairman of the meeting and had the task of producing a coherent response to the paper from the meeting.

The week following the Burning Group meeting I was treated to another review of the Upland Principles papers at a meeting with Natural England in Newcastle.  This was part of the stakeholder engagement process and the Moorland Association and the RSPB joined me.  Again the main bone of contention was the burning and restoration paper.

We were also given an insight into the development of the Upland Practitioner detailed guidance and a sensible approach seems to have been adopted to this.

So what are the sticking points with the process, the development of the Upland Principles guidance and the burning and restoration paper in particular?

I am not content that effective stakeholder engagement has taken place.  I have been privileged to be invited to attend several meetings and the Upland Stakeholders Forum has been briefed by Natural England.  However, I am not convinced that the feedback that has been provided from these meetings and briefings has been acted on.  There is a feeling that this process has been window dressing and box ticking, rather than meaningful engagement.  On many occasions, I have been presented with the Natural England solution to the issue in a paper a few days before a meeting and asked to comment on it.  This does not feel like a two-way, engagement process to me and appears to be more focused on obtaining external validation to the views that Natural England want to express anyway.

The burning and restoration paper has several 'red line' issues that relate to a stated objective of stopping burning on blanket bog.  I am fully supportive of the principle that burning should only take place where it is going to achieve benefit and that peatland is a sensitive area where burning may not be appropriate.  However, in my view the statements in this draft guidance go beyond the evidence, and I cannot support this as it is drafted.  I believe it to have approached the issues from the wrong direction: it has started highlighting where conflict exists whereas it would make much more sense to me to establish positions of agreement and work from these. The direction of travel set out in this paper can be supported, but the presentation and the final objective goes too far and appears to be aimed at alienating the managers of peatland.  If this is its aim, it has been effective.

I would like to finish this rather lengthy post on a positive note:

• I fully support the Upland Evidence Review process;
• Natural England have tackled a difficult job effectively;
• The 'evidence to advice' phase is a critical part of the process if it is to have long-term value;
• Much of what has been produced is very valuable; and
• People with knowledge and experience to enhance that available within Natural England stand ready to help develop the guidance.

The message to Natural England is several fold:

• Help is available but it must be harnessed into the process that develops the guidance, not kept at arms length;
• Presenting the solution is not stakeholder engagement;
• Genuine engagement with stakeholders to achieve partnership working is the only way that we can make progress;
• Any drive that exists within Natural England to influence the nature of the advice, regardless of the evidence, must be resisted; and
• All the review documents in the world will achieve nothing unless there is appropriate action on the ground; this requires support and understanding from the managers of the land.

A final thought: it has been muted that there are groups of landowners in Northern England who might on their own initiative be willing to work together to deliver multiple objectives across a large area of land.  What a revelation this could be! Such a group would be able to achieve far more overnight than the current system, with all its expensively produced guidance, could ever achieve.  If Natural England wants to provide long-term, lasting benefits for the uplands of England, ways to support such an approach should be sought.

Natural England might have to sacrifice some control but the benefit to the land, to the communities and the diversity of species could be enormous.

Maybe that is what this is all meant to be about. 

Soil samples: 10 things you may not know about peat

Photo: Paul Turner, RSPB

See the rather zany article on the BBC News website that has been written in support of the Peatland conference taking place in Caithness, this week. someone had clearly been given a task to come up with 10 bits of knowledge about peat and appears to have found the task challenging.  The list starts off well, but dips when it refers to 'Peat is sexy', which may be stretching a point!

General Licences - restrictions in Scotland

General Licences is a topic that is easily overlooked but their profile has been raised by recent events in Scotland. They are issued annually by all the devolved administrations in the UK and run from 1 January.  See the BASC website for links.

First, what are they? The BASC website contains the following definition: 'General licences are issued by government agencies to provide a legal basis for people to carry out a range of activities relating to wildlife. By definition you do not need to apply for general licences but you are required by law to abide by their terms and conditions.'

In Scotland, the significance of General Licences has been raised by changes introduced into the 2014 licences. There are 14 General Licences and the SNH Website has full details and links.  The first three licences are most relevant to the Trust's activities, and the late changes introduced into these  licences have implemented the Minister for Environment's wish to be able to remove the right to use the General Licence from people on certain areas of land. The clause that has been introduced states:
"SNH reserves the right to exclude the use of this General Licence by certain persons and/or on certain areas of land where we have reason to believe that wild birds have been taken or killed by such persons and/or on such land other than in accordance with this General Licence."

Robbie Kernahan, the Wildlife Operations Unit Manager for SNH, is leading on this and he was interviewed on the the Out of Doors programme on Radio Scotland on 1 March.  The interview lasts for about 5 mins and starts at 23:50 - it will be available to 'listen again' until 7 March.

Understandably the ability to remove the right to use the General Licences without a criminal conviction has raised concerns.  See the GWCT website for a commentary, but in general the concerns are that:

• The measures are not proportionate;
• Removal could have serious collateral impacts on conservation through the inability to maintain biodiversity and protect a range of vulnerable species; and
• The economic impact on businesses and communities could be considerable.

There will be an opportunity to apply for reinstatement of the General Licence on a personal basis but there are obvious concerns about how and when this could be implemented. A recent meeting to discuss how the criteria to be applied before a General Licence can be removed has highlighted these concerns. Indications are that SNH will rely on Police Scotland for guidance on proof, and this raises questions about the competence of the police in this area.

Is this an example where the need to be seen to be doing something about the illegal killing of raptors will result in collateral damage to other species that will be self-defeating?  It is certain to produce a whole raft of bureaucracy, which I fear will not provide any benefit for the birds, the innocent victims of this problem.

While I despair at the continuation of illegal activities, I would like to see emphasis placed on positive measures rather than waving the big stick.  I hope the 'Understanding Predation' project that Scotland's Moorland Forum is developing will prove to be a far more effective use of resources and achieve benefit for the birds without risking a negative impact on other conservation.

Wildfire in February 2014?

Photo: Harry Charnock

You must be joking, I hear you say, but no, it happened last week, near Aberystwyth.  See the article in The Daily Post.  This only serves to demonstrate that Mother Nature is a fickle lady, and while we may all be sploshing around in our wellies, and reeling from the wettest conditions that anyone wants to remember, things can change quickly.

If Mother Nature turns off the taps, and that yellow orb starts to do its work, conditions can change quickly.  We could easily be into dry vegetation and even dry ground conditions by the 'wildfire season' in late March / early April.  It seems unlikely, but will you be ready?

Better Outcomes for Upland Commons

The Foundation for Common Land has asked for my support with a case study on Bampton Common in Cumbria, which adjoins Haweswater. This is part of a national project that has been established with support from HRH The Prince of Wales.

The aims are stated to be to improve working relations, or interaction, between organisations to strengthen our ability to safeguard and manage the uplands.  The concept behind the project is to gather views from commoners and a range of other interests from a number of commons across England about how better relations can be established.  These will be collated and presented for discussion.  It is a similar concept to the Upland Solutions project that I ran for Scotland's Moorland Forum in 2009-2011.

The other case studies are taking place in the Yorkshire Dales, on the North York Moors, on the Long Mynd in Shropshire and on Dartmoor.  I will be conducting face to face interviews with commoners, and other people I have selected, and then bringing everyone together for a workshop.  I have a local commoner and a representative of the RSPB assisting me with the coordination of the study, and together we will be bringing all the views expressed together into a case study report that will feed into the overall report from the project.

Haweswater is a United Utilities reservoir, which forms part of the water supply for Manchester, and much of the land surrounding the reservoir is managed for United Utilities by the RSPB.  Bampton Common is on the west side of the reservoir and runs over the High Street ridge.  I expect that there will be a large range of interesting issues that influence the management of the common and local views about these issues will provide very valuable input for the project.

This is work that fits very well with the objectives of the Trust, and I am delighted to be able to have some input.  Although in sight of HT HQ, I have not had as much input into The Lake District as I would have liked, but I hope that this work will change this.

The Peatland Code

Do you want to know more about the Peatland Code?  This short presentation from the IUCN UK Peatland Programme provides a quick view of the key features of the Code.  It also provides some useful figures about how much restoration can be expected to cost as well as links to more information.

If like me, you struggle with the acronym EMTF in slide 3, it is decoded at the bottom of the slide as: Ecosystems Market Task Force.  So now you know!

Moorland Association - New Director

Welcome to Amanda Anderson in the new post as Director of The Moorland Association.  I look forward to working with her and continuing our close links to the Moorland Association.

There are more details about Amanda and the work of the Moorland Association in the announcement on their website.

Events for Natural England

As part of Natural England's Upland Delivery Review, I have been asked to run four events, from Northumberland to Dartmoor, during March 2014.

The events will follow a talk & walk format that will include a scene-setting, indoor session followed by a visit to an area of moorland to discuss the issues in a practical setting.  The aim will be to give people a chance to hear about the thoughts emerging from the review and to provide Natural England with some feedback about the changes that are proposed in their dealings with upland stakeholders.

I am delighted to be doing this, and I will be bringing some independent, Heather Trust thinking to the events to make sure that there is a lively debate around all the issues.  The first events will be starting in March and attendance will be by invitation, but by all means let me know if you would like to be involved.

Links to Chartered Surveyors

I have been trying to establish better links to the firms of surveyors who act for many of the Trust's members. After all I am a chartered surveyor, and I would like to think that I can communicate in terms that would be of interest to my professional colleagues.

Some firms have HT members within their ranks but I suspect that many are not aware of our activities. I believe there is scope for mutual benefit from them knowing more about the Trust's activities and I have offered briefings to staff about the relevant work we are involved with and the hope is that these firms may be able to reciprocate by spreading the word about the Trust to their clients.

If this type of exchange of information would be of any interest to anyone stumbling across this blog, please let me know, by adding a comment to this post.

Scotland's Moorland Forum - action in Jan 2014

I have been active on behalf of Scotland's Moorland Forum in the first few weeks of 2014, and highlights of this activity have been recorded on the Forum's blog.

Activity includes the review of the Muirburn Code, a report for Forest Enterprise, and a meeting with Bob McIntosh, Director Environment & Forestry for the Scottish Government.

Defra Upland Stakeholder Forum

I attended a meeting of the Defra Upland Stakeholder Forum (USF) in London, on 9 January.  This was the last meeting under the current Chairman, Robin Mortimer, who established this Forum; he is leaving Defra and it remains to be seen what direction the Forum will take under his successor.

In the 18 months since its formation, the main role of the USF has been to provide input into the Upland Delivery Review carried out by Natural England.  This has been a bureaucratic process but the end is in sight, and hopefully the USF has helped Natural England deliver some notable improvements to the way they operate with 'stakeholders'.

The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, and the Trust is running four 'stakeholder engagement events' in different part of the English Uplands to test the emerging ideas in practical settings.  I will provide an update separately as this work progresses.

A start to 2014 and the Country Market & Sporting Sale

The year started slowly, as might be predicted, but this should not fool anyone. There is a lot to organise ahead of what I expect to be a busy year for the Trust on all fronts and every moment is precious if 2014 is not to get away from us.

Country Market & Sporting Sale

Our first priority from the start of the year has been, and continues to be, working up the 2014 Country Market & Sporting Sale, and this year, as ever, we are introducing some refinements.  We have found a key Lot that will be linked to a prize draw and we will be announcing details about this soon.  We will promote the Lot as part of our PR coverage for the Sale and in doing so hopefully attract some new bidders and bring some benefit to the donor's business.

We are always open for new offers of Lots, large or small, traditional or original.  We are only limited by your imagination!  The Sale website will go live on Thursday, 17 april and it will close at 12 noon on Friday, 2 May.

Land Use Strategy - Scottish Borders Pilot

There are two pilots to test the application of the Land Use Strategy and these are taking place in the Scottish Borders and in Aberdeenshire. The Moorland Forum is keeping in touch with both of them.  for details of a series of public meetings that are  being organised in January and February, see the Scottish Moorland Forum's blog.

Implementation of CAP announced

Defra has announced details of the CAP review in England and the amount of money that is to be transferred from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2. Initially, this has been restricted to 12% rather than the 15% that had been muted.

The understandable aim has been to ensure that the income to farmers from single farm payment is secure and that less depends on applications for environmental grant funding.  The shift towards to Pillar 2 will continue and with it will come the greater control over the environmental benefits that public funding will deliver.  There is a logic to this, but I am wary of it being taken to extremes that will stifle farming's entrepreneurial skills.  The ideal to my mind is knowledgeable farmers who have the enthusiasm and funds to apply their skills to the management of their land.  The old cry of 'it is difficult to be green when you are in the red' still rings very true.  Local, well-motivated people are always going to achieve more than broad brush control from a distant office.  Perhaps we need to focus more effort on explaining to our farmers and the other managers of land what is required and why.

The Defra website has no shortage of additional information.

Farmland birds need YOU to show they count

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust is urging all farmers and gamekeepers to take part in the first annual Big Farmland Bird Count. 

The organisation wants to determine how the UK’s farmland bird species are faring and to highlight the success of the conservation practices that farmers and gamekeepers putting in place.

The GWCT website has more detail.

Scotland’s Soils website launched

See the article on the SG website, and the Soils Website.

I believe that we do not take enough account of what is under our feet and the effect it has on drainage, surface vegetation and productive capacity.  

If you are like me, a knowledge of soils will not have been included in your education and I hope that this site will provide us with a useful resource.

With the increasing interest in peatland, we are getting better at thinking about some of the issues, but we need to transfer this interest to all the other soil types.

Bog restoration in Wales

Photo: Wales online

The National Trust, with funding from Natural Resources Wales, is working to restore the large Migneint upland bog on the Gwynedd-Conwy border.

For more details see the WalesOnline article.

Back to the Blog

This Blog has once again been going through a quiet phase but I am going to try to boost the output for the benefit of Heather Trust supporters.  This reduced output is not the result of lack of activity within the Trust - just the opposite.  When the pressure is on, it becomes harder to justify the time taken to keep the Blog up to date.

I am going to link at least some of these blog articles to the Trust's newsletters - see the latest edition here.  On a monthly or more frequent basis, the newsletters will contain a thumbnail view of our activities and other issues, and these thumbnails will link to articles on this Blog, and elsewhere, to provide more detail for those who want it.

As ever, the aim is to provide filtered information that will be of interest to Heather Trust supporters.  I will be aiming to avoid regurgitating a vast quantity of information that might give the illusion of activity, but in reality is only adding to the amount of bumph that is in circulation.

Read on and feel free to comment.

Biodiversity Offsetting

Biodiversity Offsetting is a term that requires some clarification.  In my simple understanding, if biodiversity is to be lost or damaged by development, then the developers can enter into an agreement to achieve similar biodiversity gains on another block of land.

The Environment Bank is very active in this area and their latest newsletter provides some case studies that explain the principle rather better.

Wildfire Developments

There have been several developments relating to wildfire in recent months that I have been involved with.

Housing & Moorland

The Wildfire 2013 conference was held in Cardiff in October and this followed a familiar pattern. There was a wide range of presentations covering research everything from research through equipment to best practice. The South Wales Fire & Rescue Service hosted the meeting and organised the site visit. My memory of the site visit was the proximity of open hill ground to housing estates in the Welsh valleys to the north of Cardiff. It is no wonder that they have a significant wildfire problem.


The Wildfire Operational Guidance was launched by ACO Robert Scott the Chairman of the Scottish Wildfire Forum.  This was the culmination of an enormous amount of heard work Northumberland FRS who produced the guidance for the Scottish FRS.  The guidance is primarily aimed at the Fire & Rescue Services, but there is much good information in it for everyone.  It is likely to be adopted throughout the UK and it marks a significant step forward in raising our ability to manage wildfire and it is available to download from the Scottish Government website.

The Scottish wildfire Forum has been in the doldrums for a while, but the formation of the single Scottish Fire & Rescue Service on 1 April, this year has provided the catalyst to review the work of the Forum.  As a result of this, the Forum was relaunched on 21st September and is now building momentum.

Uppermost in many minds in Scotland will be the events of April 2013 and the spate of wildfires that affected the north-west of Scotland.  Discussions are being held about how the warning system can be improved so that periods of high fire risk can be identified in advance.  Such a system would have a double benefit: it would allow warnings to be issued to the owners and managers of land in advance, and it would also allow the FRS to make preparations by moving manpower and equipment into high risk areas.  A Fire Danger Rating (FDR) system is envisaged and the Met Office is involved in developing proposals.

As Vice-Chairman of the England & Wales Wildfire Forum I have been involved in the discussions of the FDR and also developing stronger links to government in England and Wales so that they have a better understanding of the risk posed by wildfire and the capability of the wildfire forum to assist in raising awareness and developing the best techniques for reducing the risk of damage from wildfire.