Moorland Association

08/09/2026

The best Curlew growth rate comes from farmland next to a grouse moor.

A new BTO research report modelled that scenario on Baines et al.'s 2023 study of land bordering ground used for grouse shooting, under intensive predator control.

It returned 18.3% population growth a year, the strongest figure anywhere in the report. Reduce the predator control, or plant trees on it, and growth falls to 8%.

Calladine and colleagues put 36% of Britain's breeding Curlews on ground that overlaps grouse moors.

The report also asked 28 recovery projects across the UK and western Europe what their work had achieved. Fencing and predator control increased nest success, often by a very large margin. Chick survival barely changed. As many projects recorded more chick predation after intervention as recorded less.

So the best Curlew ground in the model is ground where the predator control is already being paid for by local farmers or shoots.

Read more — link in replies:

07/09/2026

Lord Botham: "If you actually like birds, let gamekeepers manage them"

Black grouse are up 61% on keepered moors. On RSPB-managed land they have fallen 38%, alongside declines in grey partridge, golden plover, snipe, curlew and lapwing.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Lord Botham asks why Defra is preparing to hand itself the power to shut down shooting estates while the organisation lobbying hardest for it is losing birds.

Read the article - link in comments:

07/09/2026

Our letter on conservation policies and wildfire risk in the latest issue of Country Life:

06/09/2026

Government Policy is Increasing Upland Wildfire Danger - Our Letter to The Times:

Sir, Melissa Harrison explained how vegetation management, including firebreaks, helped contain the lowland wildfire at the RSPB’s Dunwich Heath (Nature Notebook, Aug 29). The lesson for Defra is simple: wildfire fuels need managing. However, government policy in the uplands has reduced grazing and increasingly restricted controlled winter burning.

Modelling by the Moorland Association estimates that this has contributed to a 39 per cent increase in upland vegetation since 2005, with highly flammable dead material up 74 per cent - an additional tonne of vegetation every seven minutes.

This month we sent our calculations to the Prime Minister and asked Defra to check them. The matter is urgent because fire chiefs have already warned that restrictions on upland management could increase the danger to firefighters and the public.

If our figures are wrong, Defra should say so. If they are right, ministers should change course before the next wildfire.

Andrew Gilruth
Chief Executive
Moorland Association

06/09/2026

Rural Businesses Provided £6.4 Million of Kit at the Glenmore-Strathnethy Wildfire

- More than 40 rural businesses and organisations assisted or stood by during the 3,300-hectare Glenmore-Strathnethy wildfire.
- A Scottish Land & Estates survey recorded 266 person-days, 38 person-nights and equipment with a stated value near £6.4 million.
- Capable operators and machinery were stood down, left waiting or sent home for want of tasking arrangements.
- Much of the kit that fought the fire is bought and maintained by estates for planned muirburn.

Read the full article on our website.

05/09/2026

Burnham Has to Stand Up to the Rewilding Zealots Now: Lord Botham on the Wildfire Crisis:

05/09/2026

Gamebird Licensing: Defra's Call for Evidence Is Now Open

- Defra's Call for Evidence on gamebird release, shooting and welfare opened on 4 September and closes 1 November.
- It does not propose licensing; Defra says no decision has been taken on changing policy.
- Practical and operational evidence counts, not just peer-reviewed research, so moorland managers can submit directly.
- The MA is pressing for grouse to be assessed separately and for a transparent evidence trail.

Read the full article on our website.

04/09/2026

Defra's Call for Evidence on gamebird release, shooting and welfare has now opened and closes on 1 November. Peer reviewed papers are important but so are monitoring data, reports, unpublished material and well documented practical evidence from the people who manage the ground.

Greater weight goes to evidence where the method, the context and the limits of it can be shown. Pair counts kept year on year, predator control logs, what an estate spent on conservation last season, what happened on a hillside after a consent was refused.

The Moorland Association is preparing a full response and will come to members where we need specific evidence to support it, including monitoring data, expenditure and experience of existing licences and consents. Guidance for anyone submitting on their own account will follow.

Read the full article — link in the comments:

04/09/2026

Government Policy is Increasing Upland Wildfire Danger: Our Letter to The Times

Sir, Melissa Harrison explained how vegetation management, including firebreaks, helped contain the lowland wildfire at the RSPB’s Dunwich Heath (Nature Notebook, Aug 29). The lesson for Defra is simple: wildfire fuels need managing. However, government policy in the uplands has reduced grazing and increasingly restricted controlled winter burning.

Modelling by the Moorland Association estimates that this has contributed to a 39 per cent increase in upland vegetation since 2005, with highly flammable dead material up 74 per cent - an additional tonne of vegetation every seven minutes.

This month we sent our calculations to the Prime Minister and asked Defra to check them. The matter is urgent because fire chiefs have already warned that restrictions on upland management could increase the danger to firefighters and the public.

If our figures are wrong, Defra should say so. If they are right, ministers should change course before the next wildfire.

Andrew Gilruth
Chief Executive
Moorland Association

03/09/2026

Possible Gamebird Licensing - Why the MA Is Engaging Now:

Defra is weighing gamebird shooting licensing. Why the Moorland Association is engaging now, what it has asked Defra, and what members should expect.