News

GLORIOUS 12TH ‘VITAL’ FOR UPLANDS ECONOMY

23rd July 2001

The advent of the grouse shooting season on 12th August heralds the direct injection of over £12.5 million into the English rural upland economy alone, the Moorland Association announced today (23rd July) following a survey amongst its members*.

By way of comparison, this investment is more than Central Government’s total National Park Grants this year for the management of the Northumberland, The North York Moors, The Peak District and Lake District National Parks. Furthermore, income from grouse shooting related tourism is crucial to the prosperity of thousands of local businesses, ranging from catering companies to game dealers, from hotels and pubs to agricultural contractors and small farms.

Grouse shooting in England and Wales supports 279 full time equivalent keepering jobs as well as an estimated 32,500 additional casual labour days during the season which runs from 12th August to10th December. This provides vital employment in some of Britain’s most isolated areas.

Following representation by The Moorland Association, CLA, Countryside Alliance and other interested parties, DEFRA’s Animal Health Division has announced that it is going to put in place a licensing provision to amend Article 29 of the Foot and Mouth Order 1983. Under that law, with at least 60% of heather moorland in England and Wales falling within Infected Areas, driven grouse shooting would have been prohibited on the great majority of grouse moors in the north of England and the Scottish Borders (only moors within The Peak District National Park have really been left untouched by Foot and Mouth). However, the licensing provision will now allow driven grouse shooting to take place outside a 3km radius of an Infected Premises provided that 30 days have elapsed since the Infected Premises had its preliminary cleansing and disinfection.

Commented the Moorland Association’s Chairman, Air Cdre. Simon Bostock: “Government has listened to the case that the Moorland Association and others have advanced for carrying on with grouse shooting wherever sensible, practical and with negligible risk of spreading Foot and Mouth disease. Our members would be the last to risk further spread of this dreadful epidemic, and we are delighted, therefore, that DEFRA have adopted in their entirety the very stringent biosecurity measures we proposed.”

“The important point for the heather uplands and those whose livelihoods depend upon them, is that grouse moors will now be able to generate the income so vital for continued investment in moor management. Crucially, that investment maintains internationally important habitats for a wide range of wildlife, at little cost, and in some cases no cost, to the public purse. There is also the enormous benefit to the rural economy, even more vital this year when the countryside has been devastated by Foot and Mouth disease”

Shoot managers will be responsible for ensuring that the strict biosecurity precautions are carried out, and it is in the nature of organised shooting that a disciplined approach will be taken by all those involved

Tim Bennett, Deputy President of the NFU, stressed the importance of grouse shooting to the upland sheep farming industry: “ The partnership between sheep grazing and heather management for grouse is an historic one that needs to be nurtured for the benefit of the farming industry and the ecology of the uplands. I welcome the Moorland Association’s initiative in satisfying DEFRA’s strict rules with regard to biosecurity. Some of our members will be relying on part time work on the moors during the shooting season to boost their earnings from a crippled farming industry.”