Tag: grouse moor management
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Toad in the Hole
How thoughtful the keepers appear to be, fashioning what looks like a charming wildlife pond in the middle of the grouse moor. A touching gesture, if one overlooks the small detail that this idyllic pool is also a shooting butt where folk crouch, lie in wait, and unleash a storm of shot at birds driven…
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Purple Heather, Brown Truth
The ling, or common heather, has reached its peak bloom just days before the start of the grouse shooting season â the annual spectacle in which profit and sport take precedence over the land itself. This year, the display is patchy. Whole swathes have turned a brittle reddish-brown, appearing dead but showing faint signs of…
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The Governmentâs Proposals to Curb Heather Burning
Gisborough Moor, from across Sleddale, is marked by neat, rectangular patches of scorched heather. These are âswiddens,â the product of controlled burning, a practice designed to create the perfect environment for grouse. The idea is simple: burn the old heather, let fresh shoots grow, and produce an abundance of birds ready to be shot in…
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Scorched Earth: A Cool Burn on Hasty Bank
Ah yes, the wonders of the so-called âcool burnââa delightful little exercise in setting fire to the heather in supposedly small, controlled patches. The idea, we are told, is to clear out the old heather without charring the peat or moss underneath, thereby avoiding carbon loss and allowing for quick regrowth. The fire, they assure…
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Sinister Relics at Penrod Spring
Two years ago, during one of my habitual wanderings, I stumbled upon a peculiar structure concealed within a 19th-century walled enclosure at the so-called Penrod Spring. I say âso-calledâ because there was no trace of water. Buried in its crumbling remains was a sinister wooden contraption, shaped like a âTââreminiscent of some oversized bird perchâadorned…
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Smoke Signals from Baysdale
I am always saddened when I see those great plumes of smoke drifting across the skyline. It’s a stark reminder, according to the State of Nature Report 2023, that the UK has earned itself a reputation as “one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth“, with biodiversity taking a significant hit. A good three-quarters of…
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Hutton Moor â Biodiversity vs. Profit
This is Hutton Moor at the northern end of the Percy Cross Rigg track. I see that the self-seeded birch and spruce that have sprouted on the heather moorland have been unceremoniously cut down. The rationale is clear; if left unchecked, the moorland will eventually transform into a birch woodland. However, this does come at…
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Three Howes â Heritage in flames
I felt a deep sadness upon coming across this recent burning on a bowl barrow on Gisborough Moor. These bowl barrows are historical landmarks, and government regulations explicitly state that burning âmust not ⊠damage important monumentsâ. I suppose those responsible might argue that the burning was a âcool burnâ, not reaching the peat underneath.…
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Ah, the joys of heather burning season
It’s the delightful season of heather burning, and I found myself on Hasty Bank, the perfect vantage point to witness the breathtaking spectacle of over a dozen smoke columns gracefully dancing across a vast 180° panorama of the North York Moors, stretching from Gisborough Moor to the majestic Black Hambleton. In the photo above, these…
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All my life I have loved being out and about …
… in the fresh air, in the hills and mountains. Never a day goes by without my daily fix. But the sight of blackened, smelly swiddens saddens me; just as much as the large plumes of smoke that waft across the moors. This melancholy is worsened by an increasing anxiety of the climate emergency and…