Jason Mayhew

BBC Wildlife has removed red grouse from an online list of “ecosystem killers” after the Moorland Association challenged its accuracy. The entry appeared on the Discover Wildlife website alongside animals portrayed as destroying habitats. Yet it acknowledged that red grouse were neither invasive nor especially destructive in their own right. It also made sweeping claims about heather moorland, biodiversity, carbon storage and erosion without distinguishing between habitats or management practices. We complained on 14 October, citing NatureScot guidance and the Scottish Government’s Werritty Review. Two days later, the editor agreed the entry could mislead, removed it and published a correction. The revised article accepts that red grouse should not be characterised as animals that destroy ecosystems. Moorland management warrants scrutiny, but claims about its effects must reflect the evidence and the differences between sites. READ MORE: moorlandassociation.org/post…

We have asked the RSPB whether its published reserve bird records are complete and comparable enough to measure changes in upland bird populations. Our analysis of available numerical records for 2014–18 and 2019–23 found mixed changes. Some species had higher recorded numbers; others had lower numbers. Missing records, unclear count definitions and possible differences in survey effort prevent firm conclusions about population trends or the effects of management. We have supplied our analysis and methods to the RSPB and requested fuller data, an explanation of the counts and details of how it measures conservation success. This work informs our response to Defra’s gamebird Call for Evidence. We believe the same standard should apply to every upland management system: evidence of what it delivers for habitats and wildlife, including the likely outcomes if grouse moor management changes or ends.

Defra’s Call for Evidence on gamebird shooting asks about effects on Red List species. Curlew has been on the UK Red List since 2015. That is why we are revisiting evidence we have shared before: a 2023 study found 1.05 fledglings per pair on keepered grouse moors, against 0.27 without predator control. Read more - link is in replies:

Nearly 90% of England's black grouse live on the fringes of keepered grouse moors. Where gamekeepers control foxes and crows year-round for red grouse, ground-nesting black grouse sit inside the same protection. Lighter sheep grazing on the moorland fringe leaves chicks the insects they depend on in their first weeks. And most estates quietly stopped shooting a legal quarry bird more than a decade ago, some fining anyone who shot one by mistake. The count tells the story. In northern England, displaying males rose from 773 in 1998 to 1,437 by 2014. Last year, birds moved from the Pennines bred on the North York Moors for the first time since the 1840s. Read more — link in replies:

We've written to the Prime Minister @andyburnham, and the warning is blunt: wildfire fuel is building up across England's uplands faster than most people realise. Our modelling puts the growth at 39% since 2005, around 1.5 million tonnes, roughly an extra tonne every seven minutes. The older it gets, the drier, deader and more flammable it becomes. The record backs it up. 2025 was the UK's worst wildfire year on record, and 2026 has already burned 2.6 times the long-term annual average. Our letter asks for two decisions. First, an independent review of the fuel load, led by the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, with interim advice by 1 October. Second, a named minister to bring the fuel down through grazing, cutting and trained prescribed burning. None of this is guesswork. It's the everyday work of the people who manage these hills, scaled to meet the risk. Done properly, it protects firefighters, upland communities, national infrastructure and the peat restoration now being paid for with public money. Read the full letter — link in replies:

Two to three times more merlin chicks fledge where gamekeepers work the moor. That is the finding of a 27-year study. Britain's smallest falcon nests on the ground in deep heather, which leaves eggs and chicks within reach of foxes and crows. At Langholm Moor in southwest Scotland, grouse moor management stopped and later restarted, and researchers recorded what changed. When the moor was keepered, merlin breeding success ran two to three times higher. Fox numbers were 65% lower and carrion crows 62% lower. The effect landed only on ground-nesting birds. Peregrine, buzzard and raven, which nest in trees and on crags, showed no change at all. The study was co-authored by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust and the RSPB, and published open-access. Read more — link in replies 👇

Recent wildfires show why prevention cannot rely on emergency response alone. Firebreaks, maintained access, practical vegetation management, water supplies, trained local responders and land-manager knowledge all need to be in place before ignition.

A rewetted moor still burns. Marsden Moor is the proof. Gullies blocked. Leaky dams in. Sphagnum planted. No controlled burning for years. Restoration done by the book. It caught fire five times in four years: 2019, 2020, 2021, and twice in 2022. The National Trust puts the cumulative damage at around £700,000 since 2019. Here's why. Rewetting raises the water table under the peat. It leaves the heather, gorse and grass on top untouched, and that canopy dries to the weather, not the water table a metre below it. On a bright, frosty spring day the fuel turns to tinder while the peat stays soaked. So a rewetted bog protects the carbon locked deep down. It does nothing about the fuel standing on the surface. Only controlled burning or cutting (where possible) clear that. Rewetting matters. On its own, it won't stop a moor burning. Read more — link in replies 👇