The article “The grouse, the gamekeepers and the ethics of the shoot” (HTSI, October 21) rightly mentions the economic and conservation value of grouse management. However, it risks giving a false impression of driven grouse shooting as an environmentally destructive practice that harms wildlife and peatlands. In reality, it is a vital conservation tool that benefits many rare and threatened species and protects our precious moorlands from wildfire.
For example, the claim from the RSPB that “land is being managed to maximise one output — red grouse — at the expense of everything else”, has no basis in science. In fact, the opposite is true. Decades of research by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust and others has shown management for driven grouse benefits rare mountain hares and a wide range of red-listed waders. Walked-up shooting has its place but would struggle to fund the land and predator management required to see these conservation gains.
Driven grouse management also funds controlled burning in winter, providing a vital defence against the increasing threat of wildfire. This is appreciated by experts, such as Bruce Farquarson, the wildfire capability lead at Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, who recently told the Scottish parliament that muirburn, as it’s called, is “absolutely the most effective way of removing the fuel, which prevents the wildfire from happening”.
Those who call for an end to driven grouse management would lose the protection of peatland and the threatened species that go with it, which seems a strange approach to nature recovery. Why not instead celebrate the rare conservation success story it represents.
Sir Jim Paice, GWCT Chairman