SIR – In their recent letter (T&A, August 10), Animal Aid have been wilfully ignorant in their criticism of grouse moor owners and their contribution to the conservation of the UK’s uplands.
With its acidic peat soil, heather moorland has little agricultural value, and, left unmanaged, would revert to bracken and scrub.
Management for the red grouse, however, helps provide employment in remote rural areas, as well as delivering a range of conservation benefits.
Vegetation on moorland is burned in a controlled manner on a rotational basis, at specific times of year under licence from Natural England, following best practice laid out in the Defra Heather and Grass Burning Code.
Moorland owners and managers really do try and put something back and take very seriously their responsibility for preserving peat bog and the carbon dioxide it locks up.
It is a shame that Animal Aid choose to couch their criticism of grouse moor management in the divisive language of class war.
Moreover, they fail to offer any credible alternative model for sustainable moorland management. One can only guess that they think that you, the taxpayer, would have to dip deeper still into your pockets to pay for the conservation benefits that are currently provided at little cost to the public, by private landowners.
Robert Benson, chairman, The Moorland Association Celleron House, Tirrill, Penrith, Cumbria
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