Letter to The Times from the Chairman of the Regional Moorland Groups

The following letter from Andrew Gilruth, Chairman of the Regional Moorland Groups, was published in today’s Times:

Sir,

In the north of England we value the role that livestock plays in maintaining our heather moorland — some of the rarest habitat on the planet. Before Natural England forces Dartmoor farmers out of business by banning them from grazing on common land to increase the number of moorland birds (“Dartmoor farmers harvest support against grazing ban”, Apr 19), it should visit the habitat where these birds thrive alongside grazing livestock: driven grouse moors.

An RSPB-led survey found that these moors supported between three and five times as many birds, the key factor being that someone (a gamekeeper) had to be there to protect them from being eaten by foxes and crows. On moors where these predators are not controlled the number of lapwing and golden plover drop by 81 per cent and curlew by 47 per cent in ten years. There is nothing to suggest that moors can maintain low densities of birds continuously without controlling predators. It is bizarre that Natural England feels otherwise.

Andrew Gilruth
Chairman, Regional Moorland Groups; Wass, N Yorks