BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Should the plan to license grouse shooting in Scotland go ahead? We look at both sides of the argument.

Central to the licensing system is better environmental management. This focuses mainly on the impact of muirburn, or burning moorland.

The proposed new law will require a licence from NatureScot (Scotland’s nature agency) to burn heather, while peatland burning will be banned outright. Controlled and limited heather burning is a recognised and uncontroversial conservation tool: it drives variety in vegetation structure while birds, insects and reptiles can also benefit. The Wildlife Trusts says without some degree of grazing and/or burning, moorland generally reverts to woodland. Grouse-moor managers burn areas of older heather to reduce vegetation cover and encourage new growth of green shoots to feed grouse.

But the Wildlife Trusts says where burning is too intensive, heather is lost and moorland is converted to species-poor rush- and grass-dominated habitats. The risk of fire getting into deep peat is real and this can burn uncontrollably. This leads to the depletion of peat as an important carbon sink. SWT’s Dougie Peedle says: “In a time of climate emergency, it’s hard to fathom why we would damage our peatlands; 70% of Scottish peatlands are in a poor state, which means they now emit carbon.”

Flooding is another concern. In 2015, the Climate Change Committee, which gives statutory advice on flood prevention, warned that burning heather reduced moorland’s ability to retain water and also reduced areas of peat. “Peatlands play an important role in flood prevention,” says Peedle. The Moorland Association says there is no link between burning heather and flooding, and that overgrazing and lack of tree cover are greater contributors.