Welsh Wildlife Crisis: Why Active Management Beats Rewilding

A new report from Natural Resources Wales reveals a shocking truth: hundreds of Welsh species face extinction, and "doing nothing" is making it worse.

The Hidden Killer: Vegetation Succession

The Natural Resources Wales report identifies vegetation succession as a threat to 455 species. What does this mean in practice?

When moorland is left unmanaged, it becomes overgrown with scrub and bracken. Open landscapes transform into dense thickets, suffocating the specialist plants and animals that need exposed ground and varied vegetation heights to survive.

This isn't rewilding. It's habitat loss.

NRW's own evidence proves the point. Their successful conservation projects used goat grazing and tree-thinning to reverse vegetation overgrowth and save rare mosses and lichens from being choked out.

What Happens When We Do Nothing?

Recent research by Heinemeyer (2023) tracked unmanaged heather moorland over ten years. The results were devastating:

• Water tables dropped, drying out vital peat soils

• Biodiversity declined as specialist species lost their habitat

• Wildfire risk skyrocketed due to accumulated flammable vegetation

The "leave it alone" approach isn't passive - it's an active choice to let one habitat type dominate at the expense of dozens of others.

The Solution: Integrated Moorland Management

Grouse moors use a time-tested system that directly counteracts the threats identified in the NRW report:

Habitat Management 

Controlled grazing and careful heather management (cutting and controlled burning) create a mosaic of vegetation at different heights and ages. This prevents vegetation succession and maintains the open heathland that specialist species need.

Predator Control 

Legal, targeted control of abundant generalist predators like foxes and crows protects vulnerable ground-nesting birds. The results speak for themselves: the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust documented how predator control reversed a 17% annual population decline in Curlew into a 14% annual increase.

Species on the Brink

Black Grouse

Listed as "Species in Peril" by NRW, now found at just five or fewer Welsh sites. This bird needs exactly what moorland management creates: a complex mix of heather, grassland, and scrub.

Golden Plover and Dunlin

Breeding populations restricted to a handful of Welsh sites. Both species are entirely dependent on open heather moorland - the first habitat lost when land is abandoned.

Hundreds of Peatland Specialists

The NRW report reveals that hundreds of species associated with peatland and heathland are in peril. Active management preserves the entire ecosystem these species depend on.

The Proof: A Welsh Tragedy vs. English Success

Berwyn Special Protection Area, North Wales

After grouse moor management declined, a 2012 GWCT report comparing bird surveys from 1983-85 and 2002 found:

• Lapwing: Locally extinct

• Golden Plover: Down 90%

• Curlew: Down 79%

• Black Grouse: Down 78%

• Carrion crows and ravens: Up 500% and 300%

English Grouse Moors, 2024

A comprehensive survey of 58 managed English grouse moors revealed remarkable success. Since 2021, these moors have fledged young equivalent to:

• 12% of the entire UK Curlew population

• 10%+ of the UK's Golden Plover population

The contrast couldn't be clearer: where integrated management is practiced, species thrive. Where it stops, they collapse toward extinction.

Time to Act

The Natural Resources Wales report has delivered an urgent warning. "Doing nothing" - allowing vegetation succession to overwhelm our uplands - is driving species loss at an alarming rate.

The evidence is overwhelming. Integrated moorland management creates the diverse habitats specialist species need and provides refuge from unsustainable predation. The Berwyn's devastation versus thriving managed moors tells us everything we need to know.

Grouse moor managers aren't the problem - they're delivering the solution. It's time we recognized them as the conservation experts they are.

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