Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

More moor burning

As soon as the weather improves so the heather burning resumes. The left-hand plume is, I think, on Cold Moor, the right, on Snilesworth. A further one, behind me to the east is Gisborough Moor.

Six weeks to go before the season ends for this winter, on 15th April.

If you want some good news, Defra is looking at introducing legislation to phase out burning.

In a written statement Rebecca Pow MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at Defra, said on the 24th February 2020:

“The Government has always been clear on the need to phase out burning of protected blanket bog to conserve these vulnerable habitats, and we are looking at how legislation could achieve this.”

But don’t get your hopes up. The bad news is that our North York Moors is substantially classified as “Upland Heathland” not “Blanket Bog”. I may be wrong on this but take a look at Defra’s Magic online map. Upland Heathland is in green, Blanket Bog is in a dull yellow and the area on the NYM is so small it’s easy to miss, the biggest area is around Bloworth Crossing (you will need to zoom in on the map).

In anticipation of any legislation, landowners have already begun to make soundings for money:

• Payments for cutting
• Capital for machinery purchase
• Payments for moss inoculation
• R and D grants for moss cultivation and inoculation techniques
• Payments for gate widening to accommodate duel/triple wheeled tractors
• Payments for preventing loss of carbon
• Payments for carbon stored
• Payments for carbon sequestered/peat built.
• Training in bog ecology and basic monitoring
• Payments for detailed monitoring
• Tractor training

What, no mention of loss of profit and compensation? That’ll come for sure.

“Take my soul just gimme gimme gimme money”




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