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Smoke-clouding the issue
AN ‘undue focus’ on grouse shooting is derailing debate around the management of heather moorlands, according to a new report published last week. The Future Landscapes Forum (FLF), a group of academics specialising in peat and heather-moorland management, noted that the focus on grouse shooting has led to ‘highly reductive arguments against controlled burning being presented as scientific consensus by influential individuals and organisations’. FLF members added that the current debate on moorland management, including peatlands, is not properly informed or evidence-based, ‘leading to dangerous policy decisions that ignore the positive social and ecological effects of controlled burning’.
Heather moorland and peatland have long been a battleground for environmentalists and conservationists, with discussions around best practices, especially when it comes to controlled burning, turning hostile. In recent years, peatland management has come under extra scrutiny due to the carbon captured within the substrate—proponents of burning claim that fast burning, otherwise known as ‘muirburn’, can lessen fuel loads without damaging underlying peat, whereas those against the practice claim it damages the landscape and the peat and are calling for a ban. Burning on heather moorland is conducted for a variety of reasons, which include reducing fuel load
