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I can't speak for the upland moors
They shoot grouse, plant heather for the grouse to eat, then burn it regularly. They cut drainage channels to get rid of water.
Peat moorland should be like Kinder. A wet, green blanket of Sphagnum moss with thigh sucking peat bogs beneath.
Not fun to walk in admittedly. However, the UK has 15% of the world's peat bogs and it's our biggest carbon trap.
Grouse shooting has changed the landscape over many generations (as has sheep farming) and we think it's normal.
Just glad that some of the major landowners aren't renewing the leases now and allowing the Moors to be rewilded by blocking the drainage channels.
Still. Peat accumulates at 1mm a year so the sooner we start the better.
Mr_Sworld-
They shoot grouse, plant heather for the grouse to eat, then burn it regularly.
Because the new green shoots are grouses' favourite part of the heather plant, and the abundance of new growth sustains a larger grouse population. They also persecute hen harriers, who like to eat young grouse, shooting and poisoning one of Britain's rarest raptors.
They cut drainage channels to get rid of water.
Which means the water drains much faster, causing problems down stream when there is heavy rain. The flooding of Hebden Bridge in 2021 (and 2015 and 2019) is a direct consequence of it being down stream from moors turned over to grouse shooting.
andyp
I can't speak for the upland moors, there isn't one within 100s of miles from Sussex. The commercial shooting estates have a fair bit to answer for as they are the ones which have a monoculture of pheasants and are the ones with massive fees for shooting them. A high percentage of the shoots around here are run by the local farmers and the cost of an entire season is under £1k, or half a pair of posh carbon wheels. They are all crossed by footpaths giving the same access as any other farmland. I know at least two local shoots where it is expressly against the rules to shoot foxes. It is against the law to shoot or persecute raptors. Luckily wild birds can't read the pheasants only signs and do pretty well on pheasant food.