There has been a great deal of discussion across the media recently concerning grouse shooting and its financial, environmental and social impact. This is a first of a series of blogs in which we will consider some of the arguments that are made for and against the continuation of the driven grouse shooting industry.

Many of the arguments against the industry have been raised by birders and people concerned about the illegal persecution of raptors which, for many years has had a marked association with land managed for grouse shooting. Discovering and detecting raptor crime in remote areas is extremely difficult and it often only comes to light when a visitor stumbles across the corpse of a bird or when one of the few birds that are satellite tagged as part of a scientific study is targeted. In many of these cases it is impossible to say who may have been involved but it is certainly the case that over 2/3rds of those convicted of crimes against raptors since 1990 have been gamekeepers and there are currently a considerable number of cases in which gamekeepers are being investigated.

Raptor persecution is well documented on our sister site Raptor Persecution UK but we want to concentrate on the often neglected effect of grouse moor management on wild mammals. Inevitably there will be some overlap.

Because grouse moors are heather moorland we will start by looking at what heather moorland actually is and how much of it the UK has.

According to the Hutton Institute heather moorland incorporates a range of heathland dwarf shrubs, principally common heather (Calluna vulgaris), bell heathers (Erica spp.) and, in certain localities, blaeberry (Vaccinium myrtillus). Both dry and wet heather moor have been identified, the latter being most common in western and northern hill areas where soil conditions tend to be wetter than those characteristic of the former grouping.

It is frequently stated that the UK has 75% of the world’s heather moorland. Numerous organisations such as The British Association for Shooting and Conservation, The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, The Countryside Alliance, The National Gamekeeper’s Organisation and The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds use this figure. The Moorland Association goes for the UK having 75% of Europe’s heather moorland and the Scottish Gamekeeper’s Association doesn’t commit to a percentage but says that “Heather moorland is restricted to the uplands of Britain and Ireland and is found in a few areas of mainland Europe…” The Land Ethics blog here has a fairly exhaustive look at the statistics and says “The only conclusion we can draw at this point is that the claim that “75% of the world’s heather moorland is found in the UK” is both inaccurate and misleading and is in fact likely to be much lower. How much lower we can’t say exactly … but it is probably less than 50%.”

Even with a figure of under 50% of the world total the UK’s share of heather moorland is considerable and much of it is managed for driven grouse shooting. Advocates of the industry frequently argue that without their management efforts much of this would be lost. In a series of blogs over the next few weeks will we will discuss this claim and look at the management practices used by the driven grouse industry to try to assess their benefits and detriments to the natural environment and especially wild mammals.