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Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Simon Hart writes: The Moorlands Association this week released an Uplands Manifesto, which makes a number of important recommendations to the next Government about safeguarding our precious moorlands. Unsurprisingly it identifies shooting and related moorland management as the beating heart of English and Welsh uplands.

Conservationists, landowners and managers face a continuing challenge in ensuring that endangered bird species remain a key part England’s uplands. Whilst the positive stories for some of those species is excellent news, there is understandable concern for those that are doing less well.
As an integral feature of the uplands, grouse moors and their management have played a large part in producing a landscape that is both rich in wildlife and biodiversity. Home to the red grouse, this is a species that is only found in those areas that are dominated by heather moorland, and it is unique to the United Kingdom. Many people do not realise that grouse are truly wild, and that unlike pheasant and partridge its population is not maintained or increased by the release of birds which have been hatched or reared in captivity. Living on the moor all year round, red grouse travel very little during their lives, and their particular vulnerability to predation, disease, weather and loss of suitable habitat makes the preservation of this species both demanding and important.

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Simon Hart looks at the start of the shooting season: This week, to mark the Glorious 12th, we released a new piece of research about the benefits of grouse shooting and its role in protecting England’s remote upland communities (as featured in the Daily Telegraph last Saturday.)

With the grouse shooting season beginning on 12th August, new research* published today highlights a growing public awareness of the benefits of grouse shooting and its role in protecting England’s remote upland communities.