UKH

Environmental campaigners are calling on the Government to enact a comprehensive ban on all burning of upland peat in England, citing evidence that suggests protection measures introduced in 2021 are being flouted on a large scale.

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This still happens regularly in Spring on Burley Moor (next to Ilkley Moor). Annoyingly, a good section where curlews nest & WHILE they are nesting. The keepers claim as it is a 'cold burn' it is not harmful.

Killing off curlews and the number of small animal traps up there make it a very unnatural environment made solely for grouse and sheep.

Banning or drastically reducing grouse moor management and hill sheep farming would greatly improve natures recovery in our uplands . 

I still don’t understand how moorland owners claim curlew to benefit from their management. I live on the very doorstep of a large area of managed moorland in West Yorks, and on my regular jaunts on to the tops I see and hear so little bird life of any sort. The sub-moorland grazed fields surrounding my house however are teeming with curlew and lapwing. In spring there was a flock of 30 curlew in just the few hundred metres of field between the local primary school and myself. Haven’t ever seen that many even on a good day on the tops.
As a fair comparison on relatively unknown terrain, I spent an entire day up on Rylstone the other week, saw and heard absolutely nothing beyond one kestrel and a handful of LBJs. On the car ride back towards Skipton I could hear curlews incessantly in the road side fields. Same story.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t good numbers on the tops, but they’re minuscule in comparison to even a few dozen feet below the last heather.

I can't help imagining the increased tree/scrub cover that would be gained by removing the sheep from certain areas . Surely this would benefit all forms of wildlife .

I'm sure the benefit to the grouse industry of the subsidised sheep preventing this by grazing is not by accident.