Golden Plover Award 2016 - the winner is announced

Winner: The Hopes Estate

Adam Smith and I are delighted to announce that The Hopes Estate is the winner of the Heather Trust and GWCT Golden Plover Award 2016. 

Adam and I would like to congratulate Robbie Douglas-Miller, his Gamekeepers: Ian Elliott and Julian Bond, and the farm manager Gordon Kerr, and we look forward to presenting the award to the estate at the Scottish Game Fair on Friday.  Sadly, Robbie Douglas-Miller cannot be with us, but the estate to be well-represented by the rest of the team.

Adam and I visited all four, shortlisted estates together during June, and some details we gathered during the visits are on the Award's website.

We were delighted by the standards of management we were shown and there was strong competition for the award.  There can be only one winner, but we would like to acknowledge the high quality of the other applications.

Sponsored by:

Scottish Game Fair

The Heather Trust will be appearing in strength at the Scottish Game Fair this Friday, 1st July.  Our chairman, Antony Braithwaite, Anne, Patrick and I will be there throughout the day and the highlight of our day will be the Golden Plover Award, which takes place at 4.30pm.

We do not have a stand, but if you are going to be at the Fair and would like to meet one, or even all of us, please let me know so that we can arrange something.

Golden Plover Award - update

Adam Smith and I have reached our decision and the winner of this year's award will be announced on Monday.  Deciding on the winner has not been easy previously due to the stiff competition, and this year has not been different.  However, we think we have a worthy winner.

Details of the four shortlisted applicants are on the Award website and all of them will be represented at the presentation of the Award, which takes place at the Scottish Game Fair at 16:30 on Friday, 1st July.

We are grateful for the support from a great many people who have shown an interest in this award, and the sponsorship from Lindsays.

Bracken: Frond or foe? - 09:30-13:30, 12 July 2016, Dinnet, Aberdeenshire

This event is being organised by the Cairngorms National Park Authority and will include some short presentations followed by equipment demonstrations. I am giving one of the presentations on behalf of the Bracken Control Group and PDG will be providing a helicopter demonstration. 

See the flyer for more details about the event and how to apply. 

Priority will be given to attendance by people from within the National Park.

Golden Plover Award - Judging in progress

A scene from the GPA tour 2016 - all in a day's work!

Adam Smith (Director Scotland for GWCT) and I have started our tour of Scotland to visit the shortlisted applicants for the Golden Plover Award. We visited Candacraig Estate in Aberdeenshire last Thursday, and then two estates on Friday: Cawdor near Forres and Phoines near Dalwhinnie.  We will be visiting The Hopes Estate at Gifford in the Lammermuirs on Thursday, this week.  

The visits have served to confirm that Adam and I will be challenged when trying to choose a winner, but we will announce this in the week commencing 26 June. We look forward to seeing representatives from all the shortlisted applicants for the award ceremony which takes place at the Scottish Game Fair on Friday 1 July, starting at 16:30.

HT Board Members at the GWCT Scottish Demonstration Farm

Looking down on the farm from Dinnet Moor

Adam Smith invited fellow HT Board members to visit the Scottish Demonstration Farm at Auchnerran that he runs for GWCT. Malcolm Hay and Dick Birnie joined me for this visit on Thursday, 9 June.  The farm is located north of Dinnet and is just outside the Cairngorms National park.  Adam gave us a tour of the low ground farm and took us up the hill onto Dinnet Moor to view the farm from above.

What to do with the boggy bits?

There is much more information about the farm on the GWCT website.  We were struck by the size of the challenge that GWCT has taken on, as there is a lot of work required to get control of the farm and then develop the systems to demonstrate the GWCT management techniques.  I believe it is just the right thing for GWCT to be doing and I look forward to providing any possible support in this venture.  As I have often said, we do not use demonstration events enough; here GWCT has gone one step further and they will be able to demonstrate their own management.  

From an HT perspective, the link to the adjoining Dinnet Moor is important.  It will allow the farm systems to work across the low ground - moorland boundary which is how similar farms operate in practice, and it also reflects the way that nature and natural systems work.

I will be back at Auchnerran on 12 July, when I am helping the Cairngorms National Park Authority to run a bracken control event.  Details about this event are just being finalised and I will add a post about the event shortly.

England & Wales Wildfire Forum - appointed as Chairman

I attended the EWWF meeting that took place in Cardiff on Tuesday.  At the close of the meeting, Chief Fire Officer Alex Bennett formally stepped down from his position as EWWF Chair in preparation for his retirement from Northumberland Fire & Rescue Service, in early July 2016.

I am delighted to report that I was appointed as the new Chairman, with unanimous agreement from all those present.  Andrew Thomas, Assistant Chief Fire Officer of South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, was appointed as the Vice Chair of the EWWF.

I believe that the threat posed by wildfire is increasing and therefore this is an important time for the wildfire forum, and I look forward to working with the Scottish Wildfire Forum and similar organisations that operate in Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man.  I am pleased that Andrew Thomas  has been appointed as Vive-Chairman as it is important that good links are maintained with the Fire & Rescue Services.

I was delighted that following the recent transfer of responsibility for wildfire to their jurisdiction, The Home Office was represented for the first time at the Forum meeting.  We also welcomed the attendance from The Cabinet Office, which is an important link to maintain with regard to risk planning.

I look forward to working with the range of organisations that are represented on the Forum and I am grateful for their support.

Wildfire in Kirkcowan, Dumfries & Galloway

Photo: Scottish Fire & Rescue Service

I go away to Wales for a meeting of the England & Wales Wildfire Forum and this happens on my doorstep!  See the report in the Daily Record.

The rain that is now forecast for the second half of this week will dampen things down and it is maybe a good thing.  Not often we say that about rain, but vegetation has become very dry and although this year's growth is getting established on moorland, it has not yet greened up enough to reduce the wildfire risk.

Golden Plover Award 2016 - The Shortlist

A print of a Golden Plover by the renowned artist, Colin Woolf 

is awarded to the winner

Adam Smith and I have selected four estates to form the shortlist for the Golden Plover Award.  We will be visiting all four estates in the next 10 days to select the winner.  Full details of all the applicants will be placed on the Golden Plover Award website, after the visits have been completed, and we will announce the winner during the week commencing 27th June.

The award ceremony will take place at the Scottish Game Fair at 16:30 on Friday, 1st July.

To be eligible for the 2016 award, in addition to demonstrating innovative moorland management, applicants have been asked to demonstrate how they incorporate sheep farming into the management of moorland.

The shortlist comprises the following estates:

• Candacraig, Strathdon
• Cawdor, Nairn
• Phones, Dalwhinnie and
• The Hopes, Gifford.

Visit to College Valley, Northumberland

Invading Sitka Spruce in the shadow of The Cheviot

I was delighted to visit College Valley again, yesterday.  It was one of a series of visits as part of our Monitor Moors project that seeks to monitor the progress of a range of different moors throughout the country.

College Valley is going through a period of change with the removal of some woodland and a reduction in the grazing levels and it is facing a challenge from invading Sitka Spruce, the result of reduced grazing levels, being in competition with heather management.

What sets this estate out from others is that it is in altruistic ownership.  It is managed by a Board of Directors whose duty is to manage it in a way that increases its value as an environmental, social and economic place of excellence.  Therefore, it is managed for the benefit of all moorland interests and the estate is prepared to introduce novel management practices that other estates may not have not been able to consider.

I will be providing a longer write up in the Trust's Annual Report, this year, and there is a good chance that we will be holding the Trust's AGM in College Valley, in October this year.

Wildfire in the Peak District

The Peak District Moorland Group's Facebook page has some images, video clips and other information about the wildfire that occurred on Howden Moor, near Ladybower reservoir,  yesterday.

Anyone wanting to see the devastation to moorland caused by these incidents should have a look at this Facebook page. A click on the photos will enlarge them and give access to the comments added by the Moorland Group - they speak for themselves.

There is an interesting debate about the management of moorland developing in the comments that have been added to Facebook.  The National Trust is being criticised for the lack of heather management but it has also been pointed out that there is no fire without a source of ignition and the three main sources are men, women and children.

Some of the areas of the moor in the photos appear to have been managed recently, probably by burning, and I guess that these areas are on land that is managed for grouse shooting.  The photos show how the fire has not affected these areas.  This is a demonstration of the point that we need to plan for wildfire as part of our management of moorland.  You do not have to shoot grouse to manage moorland properly, and management should include the construction of firebreaks to provide stops for wildfire and also to allow access for firefighting.  Firebreaks will also add vegetation diversity that will increase the value of moorland to a range of plant, bird and animal species.

Firebreaks do not have to be motorways cut or burned in ugly, straight lines across moorland; they can be formed to follow the landscape and add visual diversity.

My work with the England & Wales Wildfire Forum is plagued by short-term memories.  At this time of year, while the smoke is rising, the wildfire challenge appears to be possible to address, but the solutions drift away as soon as the rain starts to fall.  

We should acknowledge the hard graft put in by all those involved in fighting these fires, and the risks that they face.  We must also understand their frustration that with more thought, and better planning, much of this effort would not be necessary.

England: Wildfire in the news

With the outbreak of summer across the country has come a rash of wildfires, and the associated images of fires lighting up the sky and Fire & Rescue Service personnel working in, what for many, are unfamiliar conditions.

It is a great concern that a lot of the fire fighting effort comes as a result of acts of stupidity.  A fire near Ladybower Reservoir was started by a disposable barbecue.  See the Derbyshire Times report.  A member of the firefighting team had to be evacuated by helicopter after their all-terrain vehicle overturned.

Near Darwen, in Lancashire, it is believed that a large wildfire was started by arsonists.  See the report in the Daily Star.

Ilkley Moor also suffered a wildfire, and this was on a steep bank that made it difficult to tackle.  BBC News has a report of this incident.

These incidents prove that wildfire is a real risk, particularly at this time of year. Efforts to raise awareness of the dangers associated with wildfire tend to fall on deaf ears at other times of the year, but we need to learn the lessons about wildfire and make better efforts to plan for them so that we can minimise their impact when they do occur.  It is a certainty that while there are people on our moorland and open spaces, wildfires will continue to occur.

The previous post about wildfire situation in Scotland states that, "We have a forecast of settled dry, warm and at times windy conditions over the next week. We therefore ask people to be vigilant and act responsibly while this period of weather affects the country".  This applies equally to England.

Wildfire Warning across Scotland, this week

The Scottish Wildfire Forum (SWF) is raising awareness about the increased risk of wildfire across most parts of Scotland over the next few days as weather forecasters predict very dry conditions.

Vice Chairman of the Scottish Wildfire Forum, Michael Bruce, monitors the European Commission’s European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) which provides information, which can be used to inform the public about the risk of wildfire.

He said: “At the start of spring there is often a lot of dead vegetation leftover from last year. This fuel can dry out quickly when there are bright sunny days with high temperatures and low humidity levels. We have a high pressure weather system dominating Scotland creating these conditions at the moment.”

We are now well into that time of year when the risk of wildfire is at its highest and The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is already working closely with land managers and appealing to tourists and communities to help reduce the number fires in a bid to protect the countryside and its residents.

On Saturday, SFRS crews tackled a wildfire which involved a large area of heathland a mile long being fanned by strong winds near the village of Carsphairn in rural Dumfries and Galloway.

SFRS Deputy Assistant Chief Officer, Andy Coueslant, the chairman of the Scottish Wildfire Forum, said raising awareness is key to reducing the risk.

He explained: “We have a forecast of settled dry, warm and at times windy conditions over the next week. We therefore ask people to be vigilant and act responsibly, while this period of weather affects the country.

“Many rural and remote communities are hugely impacted by wildfires, which can cause significant environmental and economic damage.

“Livestock, farmland, wildlife, protected woodland and sites of special scientific interest can all be devastated by these fires, as can the lives of people living and working in rural communities.

“Human behaviour can significantly lower the chance of a wildfire starting so it’s crucial people act safely and responsibly in rural environments and follow the countryside code.”

The public can help prevent wildfires by making sure they dispose of litter and smoking materials carefully while in rural areas. Land managers are reminded that the legal period for Muirburn ended on 30 April.

For further advice and information about wildfires and what we can all do to prevent them visit our website www.firescotland.gov.uk

The Graze the Moor Project - Molland Moor, Exmoor

Allan Butler, Richard Langdon (farmer), Dave Barrow (Moorkeeper)
and Janet Dwyer at Luckworthy Farm

I had an away-day to Exmoor, yesterday.  It is a bit of a challenge from Dumfries but with trains and the sleeper running sweetly, it is not a problem.

The Graze the Moor project is a partnership project with the main players being The Molland Estate, the Exmoor National Park Authority, and Natural England. As Project Manager I am responsible for the delivery of the project plan and the inevitable bureaucracy that surrounds such a project.  funding is being provided by Exmoor NPA, through their Partnership Fund with contributions from the other partners included The Heather Trust.  The project is running for five years and the second year was completed at the end of March.

A new recruit - 'Juggernaut'
a former native of Dumfries-shire

The purpose of yesterday's visit was to introduce Prof Janet Dwyer, from the University of Gloucestershire and Dr Allan Butler from the Royal Agricultural University to the project as I have invited them to provide some input to the economic comparison that is part of the project and to consider how to carry out the external evaluation of the project in its final year.  

The economic comparison seeks to identify the difference in income and expenditure between farms that graze the moor with hill livestock and those that have different breeds but keep them on in-bye land or in buildings. It is not a straightforward exercise and I am hoping that the challenge will be accepted.

Country Market & Sporting Sale - ready for the final fling?

The Country Market & Sporting Sale is poised for the final flurry of activity. We have a large range of exciting Lots on offer that have been attracting bids since the launch of the Sale on 22 April.  There has been some furious bidding for some Lots and we are expecting a large amount of activity between now and the end of the Sale at 7.00pm on Sunday 8 May.

Don’t miss out!  Have a look at the Lots on the Sale’s website and get bidding. There is something for every interest and every budget.

Asulam for Bracken Control 2016

The weather may be unseasonal, but I can confirm that should bracken decide to brave the conditions  this year, it will be possible to control it using asulam.

The Chemicals Regulation Directorate has issued an Emergency Authorisation that will allow asulam to be sold and transferred from 16 May 2016, and applied in the period 1 July - 12 September 2016.  There will be a use-up period until 31 October 2016, which will allow stocks to be applied or returned (if in unopened containers).  From 1 November 2016, it will once again be illegal to hold any stocks of asulam.

As the coordinator of the Bracken Control Group, I submit the application for the Emergency Authorisation for the UK and full details of the application are available on the BCG Website.

I urge anyone planning to purchase or apply asulam this year to read the conditions in the Emergency Authorisation, as it is important that the conditions are complied with.

Key Dates Summary 2016 

 

16 May 2016	Effective date for the Notice of Authorisation issued by CRD Start of the Emergency Authorisation period of 120 days. Storage, promotion, sales, and transfer authorised.
1 July 2016	Application of Asulam can commence.
12 September 2016	First expiry date: for sale & distribution of stocks. Storage and use of stocks can continue.
31 October 2016	Final expiry date: for disposal, storage and use of stocks. It will be illegal to apply or store Asulam after this date.

Scottish Land & Estates - Spring Conference - 25 May 2016

Scottish Land & Estates has announced details of their Spring Conference, which will be held in The Assembly Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh on 25 May 2016.

This conference offers delegates a unique opportunity to engage with Scottish landowners, representatives of land based business, rural professionals, politicians, policy decision makers and academics. The conference is designed to stimulate debate, introduce new ideas and approaches, explore challenges and identify potential solutions.

For more details about the conference and how to apply for a place, see the SL&E website.

Country Market & Sporting Sale 2016 - going live!

Starts: Midnight, tonight.

Closes: 7.00pm on Sunday, 8th May.

See the Website for details

We have a wide variety of great Lots and thanks go to all the donors for making the Sale so attractive once again.  Patrick and Samantha have done a great job putting it all together, and Patrick's artwork has added a unique quality to the promotion material.  We are all available to help answer any questions. 

Previously we have closed the Sale at 12 noon on the final Friday, but to accommodate those who can only bid at weekends, we have extended the Sale through until 7.00pm on the Sunday evening.  

You will hear much more about the Sale between now and 8th May so there will be no excuses for not bidding!  Please spread the word around the people you are in contact with.

Graze the Moor project - Molland Moor, Exmoor

Landowner, Christina Williams, in full flow

I had a good day yesterday on Exmoor, where I am project manager for the Graze the Moor project that amongst other work, is seeking to establish the impact of re-introducing winter grazing, principally by hill cattle, onto Molland Moor.

After a meeting in the estate office, it was a pleasure to get out onto the moor and see the benefits of the work that is being carried out by the project. Conditions were benign as the photo shows.

I am pleased that the University of Gloucester has shown a keen interest in this project and I am looking forward to introducing Prof Janet Dwyer and Dr Allan Butler from the Royal Agricultural University at Cirencester to the work of the project when they visit Molland next month.

Molinia starting to grow

One of the management challenges on Molland Moor is Purple moor-grass Molinia caerulea. In this photo you can see that the Molinia is already putting up green shoots after being burnt this spring.  Even in the Devon climate, heather cannot compete with this rate of recovery.  The project is considering how the dominance of Molinia on parts of the moor can be challenged.  We are thinking or raking out some of the mat of dead vegetation under the Molinia.  A dragged chain harrow has not been effective (and caused as much damage to the harrow as to the tussocks).  Has anyone had any success with this sort of approach?

To add an extra connection to the work, the cattle on the moor are mainly Galloway, and the farmer is seeking to upgrade them.  He bought the champion Galloway bull, and the runner up, at the bull sale in Castle Douglas, last year. These bulls came from Troloss Farm, which is owned by the landlord of the Heather Trust's office.  I drive through the farm every time I head north from the office.  

Golden Plover Award 2016 - applications

The application window for this year's Golden Plover Award is closing.  We have received a good range of applications but would welcome more.  If you have been wondering whether to apply or not, today would be a good day to come off the fence and make the decision to make an application. It is a simple process - a phone call would do to start with.

This year we are encouraging applications from those who have integrated sheep into the management of their moorland and this has raised some interest from the farming sector. 

There is more information about the Award, and its development over the last three years, on the dedicated website: www.goldenploveraward.co.uk