Trust welcomes new moorland report

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust welcomes the Moorland Association’s new report “A Guide to Upland Policy Formation: Heather Moorland”.  Management of the uplands has been run along traditional lines for generations and the combination of grazing and grouse has produced a mosaic landscape of heath and bog that supports thousands of breeding birds in summer as well as a sustainable harvest of Britain’s most prized sporting bird. This contributes significant revenue to these remote rural areas. 

GWCT Chief Executive Teresa Dent said: “The open uplands have been preserved largely because of grouse shooting. If it had not been for this sporting value many of these purple hills would now be covered in dark forbidding conifer plantations. The “right to roam” has given the general public open access to virtually all of this ground and the Moorland Association needs to be supported to help them maintain this landscape in the public interest as well as for grouse”

The report is being launched in London on 22 February and copies can be obtained from: Amanda Anderson, The Moorland Association, tel: 0845 458 9786 mob:  07979 851123 or website:  www.moorlandassociation.org 

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Notes to editors

The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust is an independent wildlife conservation charity which carries out scientific research into Britain’s game and wildlife. We advise farmers and landowners on improving wildlife habitats and we lobby for agricultural and conservation policies based on science. We employ 14 post-doctoral scientists and 50 other research staff with expertise in areas such as birds, insects, mammals, farming and statistics.  We undertake our own research as well as projects funded by contract and grant-aid from Government and private bodies.   The Trust is also responsible for a number of Government Biodiversity Action Plan species and is lead partner for grey partridge and joint lead partner for brown hare and black grouse.

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