18th January 2016
TWO leading conservation organisations have united to deliver a series of messages to MPs following flawed and damaging claims about grouse moors and flooding.
The British Association for Shooting and Conservation and the Moorland Association are distributing their Briefing Note as a major upland hydrology conference gets underway tomorrow (January 18).
Erroneous claims in the press and parliament that grouse moor management has deliberately contributed to flooding in northern England are addressed in the publication aimed at setting out facts and dispelling myths.
Director of the Moorland Association, Amanda Anderson, explained it was important to set the record straight, adding good moorland management could in fact prevent flooding.
She said: “Grouse moor managers are working hard across vast tracts of land in northern England.
“They are rewetting peat by blocking up thousands of kilometres of historic, ill-advised, agricultural drains, slowing and cleaning water, revegetating hundreds of hectares of bare peat and reintroducing the king of bog plants, Sphagnum moss.
“Understanding the importance of healthy peat, informed by science, has led to a step-change in attitude and progress.”
Moorland Association members, who manage a million acres of uplands in England and Wales, have helped spearhead a new approach on areas of deep peat, focused on outcomes set to benefit everyone.
Mrs Anderson added: “The gains are widespread and apart from slowing and cleaning water include carbon capture and storage, better biodiversity, wildfire mitigation and economic stock grazing – while safeguarding and improving the wild red grouse population.
“We are determined that MPs, journalists and the public at large understand what is happening on the ground and are not influenced by flawed and damaging claims which have increasingly been levelled at grouse moor management.”
Briefing Note – Grouse Moors and Flooding covers peatland restoration, explains why ‘wetter is better’ and the role of peatland in flood mitigation: Briefing Note – Grouse Moors and Flooding
Peatland restoration’s roll in natural flood defence, climate change mitigation and the provision of clean drinking water will be discussed by renowned scientists and industry leaders at the major Upland Hydrology Conference in Leeds at which Mrs Anderson is a lead contributor.
