Moorlands are cultural landscapes extending back thousands of years and it is their management by people that creates and maintains them as moors. Like most land in the UK, management activity is driven by individuals or groups who own and use it for social and economic purposes.
English grouse moors cover 1.3 million acres or 4% of England - no other country has extensive heather uplands equivalent to those in the UK most other heather areas being lowland or coastal, meaning that the UK is responsible for 75% of the world’s heather moorland. For this reason, the 1992 Rio Convention on Biodiversity recognised the global importance of UK heather moorland.
Historically, moorland has been less productive than other land and most grouse moors sit on land classified as Less Favoured Areas (LFAs), where agricultural production is more difficult. Its use is mainly limited to livestock grazing, commercial forestry, game management and renewable energy generation and, although they provide some income, none of these activities are sustainable without substantial public or private subsidy. Commercial or state support is also needed for other uses such as nature reserves, carbon storage, or water management. The tourism sector benefits from these open upland landscapes but makes little or no direct contribution to their maintenance costs, with most tourism income going into local businesses.
A passion for grouse
Q: Hello Nick, please tell us a bit about you got involved in grouse moor management?
A: I have been involved in grouse moors for quite some time. I started beating at a very young age then later in my teens I was given the opportunity to shoot and my love for the moors, shooting as well as working gun dogs, has grown from there.
Q: What’s your current involvement?
A: I have been involved with grouse counting which is very important for the management of the moors as this is used as an indication of how healthy the habitat is for the grouse to breed, as well as the numbers of birds that are on the particular part of the moor you’re working. This work is carried out twice a year - before the grouse breed and a few weeks before the grouse season starts (12th August - The Glorious Twelfth). This will give the keeper an idea of the numbers of birds to expect on a shoot day. As well as counting on shoot days I’m involved in beating, driving the birds towards the guns.
Q: There’s research from GWCT that indicates managing grouse moors for shooting leads to greater populations of other moorland ground nesting birds, but also research from RSPB indicating some negative environmental impacts of poor grouse moor management. What’s your view on this and are properly managed grouse moors better than rewilding?
A: The moors need to be managed, and managed well. Leaving them to re-wild would have a negative impact on how they would survive. Over time the heather would get too old to produce fresh growth, which would have an impact on the young grouse as they feed on this. One of the threats to the moors is bracken; left unchecked this would quickly take over and smother the heather and other vegetation. I have read many arguments about how moors should be managed and I feel that if the moors are not managed the way that they are by landowners, keepers and stockmen, I’m sorry to say the moors would disappear. That would be tragic as our moorland is a rare and fragile place. As we look at the environment as a whole, we should look at the bigger picture and not look at the moors as a playground for the rich. This I feel is a narrow minded and unjust view.
Q: What other birds and wildlife are present on the grouse moors?
A: There is a variety of species that rely on the moorland alongside the grouse. These include short eared owls, hen harriers, curlews, plovers, snipe, merlins, rabbits, deer, stoats, weasels along with reptiles such as adders, common lizards and slow worms. This is just a short overview of what you would find on moorland…I could go on.
Q: The two main aspects of grouse moor management that affect biodiversity are heather management and predator control. Can you tell me a little more about both of these?
A: Heather management involves burning of the old heather, which is around 4-5 years old or so. This encourages new growth which is quite vigorous and gives the grouse their food source. Not all the old heather is burnt, some is left to allow ground nesting birds protection from the elements and from predators to bring up their young. Although the moors are beautiful , they can be a harsh environment to live in. An alternative to burning is cutting like you would mow your lawn. Having a good relationship with shepherds is also another way to manage the moorland. This involves moving the sheep around on a daily basis so they can graze a particular area keeping the grasses down. Microclimate and conditions also control the heather - some areas will thrive and others will struggle due to the individual area or weather and climate conditions.
When it comes to predators, managing them is the job of the Head Keeper and the Beat Keepers. Foxes are one of the main predators - they can cover a lot of ground and hoover up young birds and unhatched eggs. I have been told by a keeper I know that it took him several weeks to track down a particular fox that had been moving across part of the moor. He is responsible for not an easy task, even with modern rifles and scopes. You will never remove all of them and equally there is balance in nature that I feel we have to understand, the circle of life on a moor. It’s the same with stoats and weasels, humane traps are set to at least keep the numbers down, as they can do a lot of harm over time if not controlled, impacting the ground nesting birds. It’s a fine balancing act, but one that can be achieved and I have seen it for myself.
Q: Aside from the nature conservation value, managing a grouse moor for shooting can help support local communities economically, socially and culturally. For example, according to the Moorland Association, grouse moor owners in England spend over £50 million every year on moorland management and support 1,520 Full Time Equivalent jobs. What’s your experience of this?
A: Hotels and B&B’s all rely not just on the summer holidays, but on shooting and hunting during the autumn and winter months. These activities bring in much needed revenue also to the local pubs and restaurants, as well as local gunsmiths and country clothing shops, all providing a service for those who might have forgotten a vital piece of equipment or attire.
Q: There are two types of grouse shooting - driven and walked up. Can you tell us a little bit more about them?
A: Walked up grouse shooting is an amazing experience and sight to witness, the use of Hunt, Point, Retrieve dogs (HPR) or pointers followed by the guns. The dogs will hunt the grouse by scenting and where possible you will hunt them into the wind. This allows the dogs to pinpoint where the grouse are and start to move towards them, scenting the air. As they get closer they will slowly move forward with caution so as to not put the birds under pressure too soon. Once the HPRs or pointers have established where the birds are, they will change their behaviour and go into a point, identifying the location of the birds. The handler will then get the guns into position, before sending the dog in to flush the birds, with the birds going away from the guns. A well trained pointer or HPR will stop to the flush as the birds are shot. HPRs will retrieve the birds once instructed to by their handler. If you’re using pointers, you will have spaniels or labradors to pick up the shot game.
Driven shooting is very different; the guns will be positioned in butts and the birds will be coming towards them as the beaters and dogs move in a line across the moor – again this is quite something to experience. Flushed grouse look very powerful on take-off but they can’t maintain this, so they glide once they have got up to speed (around 20-35 mph, sometimes more with the wind behind them). They also change direction quite quickly, making it a challenge even for the most experienced gun as they do not gain much height and tend to fly at low level.
Q: Red grouse are the main species shot on driven grouse moors, often regarded as the ultimate sporting challenge due to their speed and agility. What else can you tell us about them and the other grouse species?
A: The red grouse is a medium sized member of the grouse family which are found on heather moors in the UK and Ireland. They are a subspecies of willow ptarmigan. Individuals retain their reddish-brown plumage all year round and the males are territorial during winter, during which time they form pairs with females. Eggs are laid in a vegetation-lined scrape, and from April chicks develop fast and are capable of flight within a few weeks of hatching. A related species, the capercaillie, is a very large bird, now confined to the pine forests of northern Scotland, although it once had a wider distribution. Male capercaillie, with their red eye surround, bone-coloured beak and beautiful dark plumage, are about a third larger than the more conservatively coloured hen. Often occurring at low density within extensive areas of pine forest, capercaillie numbers and their range have experienced significant decline since the 70s, driven by a number of factors from changes in forest habitat to increased levels of predation and disturbance. They are now protected due to the very low numbers of birds, and there is sadly a possibility these birds could disappear over the coming years.
Q: You’re involved with grouse counting on the moors in spring and summer. What exactly is it and how does it work?
A: The counts are to understand how the breeding has gone, to give an indication on how the birds have fared over winter and the numbers that have survived the elements and predators, and to determine if there are enough grouse to allow a shooting season. It’s vital for a minimum number to remain so the moor’s grouse population doesn’t dwindle to extinction.
Q: Finally, please tell us a little bit more about your dogs?
A: I have 4 working dogs, but only use 3 of them on the moors. Merlin is a 12 year old Cocker Spaniel, Griffon is a 8 year old wire haired Vizsla, and Duke is a 1 year old Cocker Spaniel. I also have Woody, a 7 year old Bavarian Mountain Hound, which we use for tracking deer or wild boar. I trained them all myself when they were puppies and it’s an amazing experience to watch them working. Nothing beats a day out with the dogs!
