England - Upland ELS - Shortage of Applications

Farmers Weekly has quoted figures from the Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) about the very poor take-up of the Upland Entry Level Scheme (UELS) (see the article). This is worrying as it brings into question the continued viability of hill farms. If farmers are not willing or able to claim UELS, which is the replacement for Hill Farm Allowance (HFA) it does leave you wondering how they are going to manage to stay in the black.

The article quotes that applications have been received from 886 farmers out of the 9408 that were claiming under the HFA scheme.   the article goes on to quote the statement by TFA  flat "the government's policy for the uplands is not working". I would agree with this, but what are we going to do to improve the situation?  The uplands too important to ignore for very many reasons and we need to come up with a coherent strategy for them that is going to both maintain the landscape, the natural services and provide viable businesses for those who run enterprises and provide management in upland areas.

Grouse Count Summaries

For those wanting to know how Red Grouse have fared over the winter, the GWCT summary from David Howarth and Dave Newborn may be able to give you some reassurance.

The bottom line is "From our spring counts conducted in Scotland and England there is no evidence of stock depletion due to weather or weather induced migration."


Here's hoping that the picture obtained from the study sites is repeated across the country.


The same article paints a much bleaker picture for Black Grouse in England.

From Smith Gore's 'Landscope':

'The proportion of shoppers buying local food has doubled in the last five years (from 15% to 30%) and is expected to continue to rise. Shoppers buy it for three main reasons: freshness, to support local shops and producers and because they think it reduces food miles.'

I suggest that this is a very positive trend for those with an interest in livestock production from the uplands.  Why do we import beef from Bolivia, for example?  It cannot be for quality, welfare grounds, saving carbon, disease control ..... or any factors apart from price?  

I think it is time we were even more active in promoting the benefits of home grown produce: control of welfare issues, quality, traceability, consistency, providing income to home producers & retail outlets, conservation benefits, carbon reduction.....

Does anyone disagree?

Vacancy - Research and Knowledge Exchange Associate, Centre for Mountain Studies, UHI, Perth

Research and Knowledge Exchange Associate
Salary: £19,307 - £21,453 per annum

The Centre for Mountain Studies (CMS) is based in Perth, at Perth College UHI, an Academic Partner of the UHI Millennium Institute (the future University of the Highlands and Islands)


More details

Country Market & Sporting Sale

The Sale closed to Bids at 12 noon, today.  Thank you to all our Donors and to those who bid for the Lots. Details of the Bids we received are on the website.

We will be notifying successful bidders very shortly and putting them in touch with the Donors.  I am sorry if your Bid was not successful, but I am grateful for your everyone's support with the Sale, which provides us with an essential financial lifeline.

There are a few Lots that are waiting for successful Bids.  Those we get approval from Donors for will be displayed on the website for a bit longer.  We will aim to have details on the web next week.  Please keep looking.

Scottish Estates Business Group - 22 April

I was pleased to attend this Group's AGM and to get a better feel for the issues that face landowners in Scotland.

The phrase 'ecosystem services' (or services that we get from nature) was bandied about but it remains to be seen how this can be translated into benefit for landowners.  In my view, landowners should not be shy.  The new focus on ecosystem services does not mean a change of approach just a change of packaging.  Landowners have been the custodians and providers of ecosystem services for centuries, but it is only now that someone has woken up to the importance and value of this.

This linked well to the theme of a later presentation give by Andrew Thin (Chairman of Scottish Natural Heritage).  He suggested that landowners have an image problem that dates back to the Clearances in the eyes of many people.  Landowners need to move on from the tweed, dog & stick image and shout louder about the positive work they do.  He suggested that they also need to deal with the minority who threaten their image by acting against the public interest and he specifically mentioned raptors & access issues.  It was slightly punchy stuff but I think it is a message that landowners should take onboard.

Carbon in the Uplands Conference - 20-21 April

I was delighted with the way that this conference went and very grateful for the support of the sponsors (South Lanarkshire Council, SSE Renewables, RELU Sustainable Uplands project and Scottish Natural Heritage) and all those who gave presentations and supported the workshops. It was quite a tribe of people that were involved but the conference generated some interesting and valuable debate.  This will be summarised in a conference report that I will circulate to those who attended and all those who expressed an interest in the topic.

Various bits of information will be posted onto a page on The Heather Trust website as it becomes available and I will note key additions in this Blog.   Many people asked us for a list of attendees, and this is now available.

With the Southern Uplands Partnership, I will be considering holding further conferences in the Southern Uplands, but also I am aiming to develop the concept to allow further conferences and events to be developed from this pattern and I would be interested in suggestions of topics to cover and areas to visit.

England - Moorland Burning Working Group - 19 April

I attended this 25th meeting of the Group and as always it produced some lively discussion.

Martyn Howat, the former uplands director for Natural England, had chaired all previous meetings, but following his retirement in December, a new chairman, Tim Hill, was introduced and this was his first meeting. It was something akin to being thrown into a cock pit!

One of the key issues for discussion at the meeting was how to select an appropriate burning rotation. The tension was highlighted between the perceived desire by conservation interests to adopt a longer term rotation compared with the pressures on moorland owners to maximise the production of their heather for grazing and grouse benefits, which moved them to favour a shorter rotation.  It was also noted that generally young heather regenerates better after burning than old heather. Young heather is able to regenerate from stems, whereas the old heather has to rely on regeneration from seed which takes longer and is less certain.

The Moorland Association will be producing a list of factors to be considered when determining the burning rotation and this will be discussed at the next meeting. Progress of the Group is slow, but reasonably certain, and there have been many achievements in the 25 meetings.

An interesting scientific comment came out of the meeting that "Pyro-diversity begets bio-diversity" and this provides weight to the argument that burning is good for many interests, not just grouse production.

 I presented the report that we have published recently "Heather And beetle: a review" (see post 14 April) and I presented the draft Guidance Note that I had prepared that is intended for theDefra website to support the Heather and Grass Burning Code.  Further revision will be needed but I hope we can get to a finished article soon.

The Group next meets in July at Bolton Abbey and the meeting will include a site visit. This is always an advantage as it allows practical issues to be considered as well as the theory.

Board Meeting - 16 April

The Board received the usual financial and activity updates but discussion of several key issues took place.  This included the impact of sheep ticks and how there might be benefit from encouraging funding to be made available through the National Rural Development Plans. If there was a contribution to the cost, land owners and managers might be more willing to establish tick mop schemes that would help to control tick numbers.  This proposal will be put to Scotland's Moorland Forum as part of the Upland Solutions project.

Another issue was the possibility of appointing ambassadors, or champions, in different parts of the country to be aware of and promote the work of the Trust within their group of contacts and areas of interest. This is something we will try to put in place in due course, but I would welcome any offers from people with an interest in our work.

The proposal to hold a series of conferences / events in different parts of the country was endorsed by the Board and the outcome of the Carbon in the Uplands conference held on 20-21 April would provide valuable experience of how these events can be run and the benefits that can accrue from them.

Initial proposals for a venue for the AGM were discussed and it is possible that this will be held in Scotland, in September / October.

A full report will be prepared for the Board in July, but the next meeting will not take place until just before the AGM.

Scotland - Community Right to Buy

A recent press release from the Scottish Government summarises the statistics about this measure. This is an extract from the press release:

"The Community right to buy in Part 2 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 provides the opportunity for community bodies representing rural areas in Scotland with less than 10,00 head of population to register an interest in and buy that registered land once it is offered for sale. It provides community Bodies with a pre-emptive right to buy the land in which they have registered a community interest.


Community bodies have so far registered an interest in land including fields, woodlands and a range of other assets such as buildings, such as churches, a school and a community interest. The right to buy requires a willing seller. A community may in fact register its community interest and that land not come up for sale. A registration continues for five years and community bodies have the opportunity to re-register that interest. The first communities to extend their interest will do so in late 2009.

Statistics on the community right to buy are:

• There have been 113 registrations of which 79 (or 70.5 per cent) have been approved by Scottish Ministers
• To date 23 applications have had the chance to go ahead and purchase land. Of these 7 have been successful and a further 2 were concluded outwith the Act. A further one is currently concluding the transfer of land
• Of the applications approved by Ministers, the right to buy has been triggered on 27 applications (24 per cent)"

This was always going to be a controversial issue and perhaps the most important point is where the money to complete the purchases has come from.  Is this unnecessary social engineering using tax payers money or a useful means to achieve change and empower local communities?

Heather Beetle: a review

I am pleased to announce the publication of this report (Heather Beetle: a review) from the School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, which I expect to be of widespread interest.

It remains my view that the threat to heather posed by this beetle is under-estimated.  The Trust commissioned this review to bring together the existing knowledge about this pest of heather.

We need to plug the gaps in our knowledge about the drivers of the heather beetle population and what are the causes of the large scale population blooms.  Next, we need to know how to manage heather to reduce the risk of a heather beetle outbreak in the first place, and then how to best manage the heather to regenerate it after a large scale attack.

There is no doubt that the beetle is present on virtually all heather moorland, but it is when the population blooms to cause a large scale outbreak that it starts to cause significant damage and economic loss that can be so devastating to all interests in heather moorland. We do not know what causes this.

I am grateful to the author Angus Rosenburgh, and to our President, Prof Rob Marrs, who supervised the work, for producing such a useful report.  It serves to provide a useful summary of our knowledge but it also highlights the gaps, which I will continue to campaign to fill.

Heather beetle is seen as a low grade threat to heather moorland in many quarters, but with the uncertainties surrounding the effects that climate change will have on moorland ecosystems, can we afford this complacency?  Looking over a moor that has suffered a large scale attack, such as Langholm Moor in 2009, the risk to heather, and all the species that depend on it, seems to be much greater.

Land Use Futures: Making the most of land in the 21st century

The final report from the Foresight Land Use futures Project has been published.  It is a meaty read but covers a lot of ground that is relevant to the debate about future land use that includes moorland and upland areas of the UK.

Phytophthora Ramorum / Kernoviae

You will be forgiven if your eyes glaze over at the title of this post. (For pronunciation try 'fytoffthora').   However, potentially this disease, also called Sudden Oak Death, could be a major threat to heathland habitats.  Fera ( The Food and Environment Research Agency)  provides more information about the disease and a Fact sheet on its website.

A Review Paper has just been published which provides a summary of the activity in England and Wales since the disease was first identified in Cornwall in 2002. Principally, the disease outbreaks have been confined to woodlands, nurseries and ornamental gardens, such as run by the National Trust, but there have also been some worrying outbreaks in the wild (261 cases out of 904 reported), and it appears likely that   Bilberry Vaccinium myrtillis can act as a host for the disease.    For obvious reasons, it is this latter issue that is focusing my attention.

The other main host is Rhododendron and control has involved the eradication of Rhododendron from the disease site and the surrounding area.  This in itself can have some benefits, but the large areas of wild Rhododendron, particularly on the west coast of Scotland, could prove to be a major harbour for this disease, if it cuts loose.

There is not much to be done at the moment, but this is an issue to monitor.

Tick Prevention Week: 12-18 April 2010

This event is organised by Borreliosis and Associated Diseases Awareness UK (BADA-UK) and more details can be found on their website.


The lack of awareness about tick borne diseases is a major threat to human health.  Will it take a 'celebrity' to go down with Lyme disease before funds are allocated to promote this health risk?

England's Peatlands: Carbon storage and greenhouse gases

Natural England has published a report (NE257) England's Peatlands: Carbon storage and greenhouse gases - a copy can be downloaded from the Natural England website.

The Report provides useful information & background, it is rather one sided, amongst other things:

• it makes no reference to the benefits for other species of grouse moor management
• it appears to discredit the Heather & Grass Burning Regulations and Code
• management input appears to be viewed as completely negative
• it does not address wildfire issues, the risks associated with rank vegetation or the risk reduction benefits offered by prescribed burning
• there is no reference to the need to work with land owners and managers, apart from the still rather confusing message about the potential of carbon trading to provide income
• it does not address the economic importance of the uplands & the support they provide for communities

There is scope to use this Report as a basis for discussion and I am hoping that the heather burning issues can be discussed at the next meeting of the Moorland Burning Working Group that takes place later this month.

Country Market & Sporting Sale

With thanks to all our donors, supporters and promoters, I am delighted to report that the Catalogue for this year's Sale has now been published. As always, we have a vast range of lots to suit every budget and interest and I hope that those who receive a catalogue will enjoy reading it.  If you have not received one but would like to see it, please contact us and I will be delighted to send you a copy, but alternatively it is available on the website as a download.

We are happy to receive Bids by any means and the closing date is 12 noon on Friday, 7 May.

IUCN Peatland Programme

I was delighted to be invited to join the Advisory Group for this important Programme and  I attended the Scottish Launch in Edinburgh  on 24 March, which was attended by Richard Lochhead, the Cabinet Secretary.  A similar event took place in London on 31 March.
The Programme's website describes its purpose:
The IUCN UK Peatland Program was established in 2009 to promote peatland restoration in the UK.   A three-year programme of work has been developed to provide a "conservation quartet" consisting of partnerships, strong science, sound policy and effective practice. An overarching theme for this work is the promotion of the multiple benefits of peatlands to society.
The programme will:

• Provide a focus for the wide range of expertise and work in peat and research  and management to provide credible, relevant and consistent messages for decision-makers
•  facilitate consensus building and knowledge exchange in the UK, with links to international work
•  highlight the benefits and values of peatland ecosystem services to help encourage sound policy and funding for peatlands
•  demonstrate and promote best practice in peatland management

 (IUCN is the International Union for Conservation of Nature and it helps the world to find pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges)

Scotland: Snaring legislation

The changes to the snaring legislation came into effect in Scotland on 11 March.  All involved directly or indirectly with snaring should make themselves aware of the changes to the law which cover such issues as:

• the requirement for all snares to be fitted with stops
• all snares to be checked every 24 hrs
• all snares to be free running and this is to be confirmed at the 24hr check
• snares must be properly fixed to prevent them being dragged
• snares should not be set near features that could lead to animals being fully or partially suspended or drowned.

For further guidance see the practitioners guide that can be downloaded from the Scottish Government's website.  This guide was produced by the industry and we had some input to it.

BASC Scotland, the Scottish Gamekeepers Association and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust have collaborated to produce and provide training in the use of snares in Scotland.  Each of the organisations will be conducting a half-day training course, costing £45, that will include theoretical and practical assessments. For more information and to book contact the BASC Scotland Office on 01350 723226.

I hope that everyone involved with snaring will embrace the guidance to make sure that they stay within the law.  There is little doubt that snaring will remain under the political microscope and if the industry cannot be seen to be carrying out snaring within the law there is every chance that our ability to use snaring as a valid management tool will be under threat.

Snaring is an essential part of best practice moorland management and the Trust supports its use fully.  This legislative change comes hard on the heels of the Waders on the fringe report, which emphasises the need to be able to control ground predators such as foxes, stoats & weasels.

'Waders on the fringe'

This is the final report from the nine years of work at Otterburn that everyone with an interest in upland management should read.  GWCT are to be applauded for this work and this report.

The report and the facts speak for themselves - the negative impact that predators have on upland breeding bird populations is very clear.

I suppose this leaves us with a choice.  What do we want for our upland areas?  Are we content to leave nature to itself when the evidence from this report is that this will lead to the decline or loss of upland birds species from vast tracts of the uplands?  Or do we want to apply some management, that is funded from private sources, to allow control of predator populations and let the other species survive.  No-one is talking about extermination of predators, management of their numbers is being recommended to give other species a chance.

One of the Trust's former Chairman was quoted as saying "In the world of conservation, it is necessary to manage the successes as well as the failures."  This still holds true.  To bury our heads in the sand and let nature run its own course in the uplands will result in a very different balance of habitat, bird and other species?  I do not believe that we are ready to accept the changes in our uplands and decline of important species and therefore I believe completely that predator management is an integral part of best practice upland management.

What do you think?

'Carbon in the Uplands: Threats & Opportunities' Conference

We have joined forces with the Southern Uplands Partnership and the Crichton Carbon Centre, Dumfries to stage this conference that is aimed at demystifying the issues that surround carbon in the uplands for the benefit of landowners and land managers.

The conference will start at lunchtime on 20 April and finish at tea time on 21 April and it is based on the Moffat House Hotel in the centre of Moffat.

Full details are contained in the flyer that can be downloaded here.  The first session, on 20 April, will be a workshop run by the Sustainable Uplands project team, that forms part of the Rural Economy & Land Use (RELU) programme run by Defra.  I have been part of this project from the beginning and the report of its work has now been published (see the earlier Blog article - 3 March).  The second day of the conference will see several presentations followed by some targeted workshops that we hope will provide some light in the darkness that surrounds carbon issues.

Our recent experience with Scotland's Moorland Forum and the Upland Solutions project has shown that there is a lack of awareness and understanding about carbon within the land management community and I hope that this conference will help to alleviate this.