The Looming Tick Crisis: Why Active Management is Crucial for Upland Health

Our uplands face a growing and often unseen threat: a surging population of ticks that poses serious health risks to both people and wildlife. This invisible danger underscores why active, traditional moorland management is not just beneficial, but crucial for the long-term health of our uplands and everyone who enjoys them.

Understanding the Persistent Tick Threat

Tick numbers are on the rise across the UK, especially the sheep tick (Ixodes ricinus), which is most prevalent in upland areas. These tiny arachnids feed on a variety of animals, including sheep, deer, rabbits, hares, birds, lizards, and rodents, and can transmit a host of dangerous diseases.

The most well-known of these is Lyme disease, a serious concern for human health, with confirmed cases in England increasing significantly in recent years. However, ticks also spread other severe illnesses to both humans and animals, such as louping ill, tick-borne fever, babesiosis, and tick pyaemia.

For our vulnerable ground-nesting birds, like the iconic curlew, golden plover, and lapwing, tick infestations can cause illness and even death to their young.

Traditional Moorland Management: A Vital Defense

The good news is that tried-and-tested land management practices offer a powerful defense against this burgeoning tick crisis. Integrated moorland management, a holistic approach that includes activities like driven grouse shooting, actively works to reduce tick numbers and create healthier habitats. This approach involves several key strategies:

Controlled Grazing

Historically, sheep were used as "tick mops," driven across moorland to collect parasites, after which they were dipped to kill the ticks. Light, seasonal grazing by sheep and cattle remains beneficial for heather moorland, helping to control vegetation length and, consequently, tick populations. In contrast, while overgrazing can harm the habitat, under-grazing can also lead to an increase in tick numbers.

Bracken Management

Dense bracken, a fast-spreading plant in the UK, is a significant problem because it harbours a large majority of ticks - up to 70% of a moor's tick load. Effective bracken control is crucial.

Moorland managers employ various active methods to combat its spread, including spraying herbicides, crushing it with heavy rollers pulled by tractors, baling, and using cattle to tread down young fronds. This is in stark contrast to passive strategies like solely relying on tree planting, which is an untested and long-term method that often fails to control bracken effectively in the short to medium term.

Moreover, bracken's spread reduces overall conservation value and can cost the agricultural economy millions due to reduced grazing and increased veterinary bills.

Disease Monitoring and Control

Gamekeepers on grouse moors routinely monitor for various animal diseases and parasites, including those spread by ticks, allowing for prompt intervention. This proactive approach helps to maintain the health of both wild and domestic animals on the moor.

The Risky "Laissez-Faire" Approach: Lessons from Lake Vyrnwy

The consequences of neglecting active tick management are clearly illustrated by the situation at the Lake Vyrnwy reserve in Wales, managed by the RSPB. Despite considerable taxpayer funding, the reserve appears to have no deliberate tick management strategy.

This lack of intervention, combined with reduced grazing and limited vegetation cutting, has led to increased bracken spread and rising tick numbers. Unsurprisingly, target red-listed bird species like curlews and black grouse have seen declines at Lake Vyrnwy, raising questions about the effectiveness of their management approach.

For instance, in 2024, only one pair of curlews nested at Lake Vyrnwy, while a golden plover was observed for the first time in over 40 years, highlighting the challenges faced in the absence of active management measures.

This stands in stark contrast to commercial grouse moors, which actively manage ticks as a standard practice to support healthy gamebird populations. Gamekeepers on these moors report a remarkably low incidence of tick-borne illnesses among themselves, demonstrating the effectiveness of their control methods.

Grouse Moors: A Sanctuary for Upland Health

Grouse moors are one of the last remaining strongholds for many vulnerable species, including the curlew, which has seen its population halve in the UK in the last 25 years. Approximately 53% of the UK’s curlew population and 42% of its lapwing population are found on English grouse moors associated with Regional Moorland Groups.

This success is a direct result of the integrated moorland management practices, including active tick and bracken control, habitat improvement, and predator management, carried out by gamekeepers.

Beyond conservation, these management practices provide significant economic and social benefits to rural communities. Grouse shooting itself is a high-value form of tourism, generating substantial income for local businesses and supporting numerous jobs, much of it outside the main tourist season.

The total annual expenditure of the 140 moors that are members of the Regional Moorland Groups is estimated to be as much as £121 million in years when grouse numbers are sufficient for shooting, with no other leisure activity generating a comparable economic impact.

The continued management of these moors by gamekeepers ensures public access to attractive and diverse landscapes for walking, cycling, and birdwatching, providing immeasurable health and well-being benefits to millions of people each year.

A Call for Evidence-Based Management

The alarming rise in tick populations and the diseases they carry highlight the urgent need for evidence-based, integrated land management in our uplands. Policies must prioritize and support traditional moorland management practices that have a proven track record of controlling tick numbers, enhancing biodiversity, and sustaining rural livelihoods.

The expertise and commitment of those who live and work in the uplands, such as gamekeepers and farmers, are invaluable. By supporting their crucial work, we can ensure that the UK's moorlands remain healthy, vibrant ecosystems for generations to come, their evocative calls echoing across the landscape without the silent threat of a growing tick crisis.

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