Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) Regulations 2021

Earl of Shrewsbury Excerpts

Thursday 18th March 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Shrewsbury (Con)]

My Lords, I refer noble Lords to my entry in the register. I am also a member of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust and the APPG.

Burning benefits many rare species. The mosaic of high and low vegetation that it creates, with mosses, grasses, rushes and flowers thriving alongside heather, is a much richer habitat than wall-to-wall heather. Curlew and golden plover benefit especially from this form of habitat management. So do red grouse, Britain’s most unique bird and a huge conservation success story in only those areas where grouse shooting occurs.

The Eurasian curlew is the bird of greatest conservation concern in the United Kingdom because its international stronghold is the British Isles. One-quarter of all the world’s population breeds in this country. Its stronghold in the British Isles is grouse-moors. It has become very scarce in the meadows and pastures of southern England, and in the hills of Wales, Devon and the English Lake District. Despite heroic efforts, the number of pairs of breeding curlews in the RSPB’s reserve at Lake Vyrnwy in Wales went from three in 2003 to—guess what?—three in 2015. In other parts of Wales, after management for grouse ceased, golden plover numbers fell by 90%; curlew, by 79%; black grouse, by 78%; and lapwing, by 100%. These are scientific facts.

Curlew, redshank, lapwing and golden plover live at five times the density on managed grouse-moors as on unmanaged moorland, and have three times the breeding success. Over the past 20 years, merlin numbers have doubled on grouse-moors, while halving elsewhere. In 2020, there were 19 successful hen harrier nests in England, 12 of which were on managed grouse-moors. Some 60 chicks fledged—a number not seen for at least a century. I welcome these regulations; they are a sensible compromise.