A Scandal on the Moors
Emma Fordham | 15.08.2012 15:51 | Climate Chaos | Ecology
A campaign recently launched - Ban the Burn! - highlights the degradation of peat bogs due to draining and burning on moors used for grouse shooting. As peat is burnt, a carbon sink becomes a carbon source. As mosses dry out and die, the moors stop acting as a sponge in heavy rainfall and localised flooding occurs. Taxpayers' money is being used to fund large estates who claim to be stewarding the land but are actually damaging it.
A story is emerging involving a millionaire landowner, a government minister, environmental breaches at a site of special scientific interest (SSSI), a mysteriously dropped court case, the profitability of shooting grouse, and the spending of taxpayers' cash. The setting: the wuthering heights above Hebden Bridge, famed moors of the Brontës.
On Sunday August 12th, flood-hit residents of Hebden Bridge and campaigners from across the country set out from the town centre on a protest walk to the Walshaw Moor grouse-shooting estate. Following the walk, the Ban the Burn! national campaign launch, timed to coincide with 'The Glorious Twelfth' (the opening of the grouse-shooting season), took place at Hebden Bridge Trades Club. Ban the Burn! campaigners are demanding a ban on the draining of peat-rich blanket bogs and the burning of moorland heather, activities carried out by landowners to maximise grouse-shooting potential.
The effects of draining and burning of blanket bogs, which are supposed to be protected under EU and UK conservation regulations, include: increased flood risk downstream; very significant carbon emissions; adverse impacts on water quality; and the destruction of rare, ecologically significant habitat. Damaged UK peatlands currently release almost 3.7 million tonnes of CO2 a year – more than all the households in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Leeds combined.
Natural England, a public body tasked with improving and protecting England’s natural environment, attempted to prosecute Walshaw Moor Estate Ltd for 43 environmental breaches but the case was abruptly dropped before scientific evidence could be presented. Natural England subsequently entered into an Environmental Stewardship agreement with the Estate, whereby £2.5 million of taxpayers’ money will be paid to it over the next ten years while “controlled” burning will still be allowed. Campaigners describe this as scandalous.
According to Dongria Kondh of climate action group Treesponsibility, “Here in Hebden Bridge we know the real hardship of flooding – shops and businesses in our town are still shut, and many of us have suffered irreplaceable loss. We need to manage the upland catchment to promote healthy blanket bog, with sphagnum moss to act as a sponge during heavy rainfall. It seems grotesque that the taxpayer is paying for the exact opposite - £2.5 million is about five times as much as we have in the Calder Valley flood recovery fund!”
At the end of a “brilliant”, “eye-opening” and “exhausting” day, a Hebden Bridge resident explained why he joined the Ban the Burn! walk: “I think it’s a travesty that Walshaw Moor Estate has been given public money. They’ve got friends in Whitehall, and the Minister for Wildlife’s a grouse shooter – basically, a bunch of aristos up here... are making life worse for hard-working folk in the valley by increasing the risk of flooding.”
When it comes to environmental degradation by a politically untouchable elite of large landowners, the Hebden Bridge story may be just the tip of an iceberg.
By Emma Fordham (first published, in a longer form, at: www.theoccupiedtimes.co.uk)
On Sunday August 12th, flood-hit residents of Hebden Bridge and campaigners from across the country set out from the town centre on a protest walk to the Walshaw Moor grouse-shooting estate. Following the walk, the Ban the Burn! national campaign launch, timed to coincide with 'The Glorious Twelfth' (the opening of the grouse-shooting season), took place at Hebden Bridge Trades Club. Ban the Burn! campaigners are demanding a ban on the draining of peat-rich blanket bogs and the burning of moorland heather, activities carried out by landowners to maximise grouse-shooting potential.
The effects of draining and burning of blanket bogs, which are supposed to be protected under EU and UK conservation regulations, include: increased flood risk downstream; very significant carbon emissions; adverse impacts on water quality; and the destruction of rare, ecologically significant habitat. Damaged UK peatlands currently release almost 3.7 million tonnes of CO2 a year – more than all the households in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Leeds combined.
Natural England, a public body tasked with improving and protecting England’s natural environment, attempted to prosecute Walshaw Moor Estate Ltd for 43 environmental breaches but the case was abruptly dropped before scientific evidence could be presented. Natural England subsequently entered into an Environmental Stewardship agreement with the Estate, whereby £2.5 million of taxpayers’ money will be paid to it over the next ten years while “controlled” burning will still be allowed. Campaigners describe this as scandalous.
According to Dongria Kondh of climate action group Treesponsibility, “Here in Hebden Bridge we know the real hardship of flooding – shops and businesses in our town are still shut, and many of us have suffered irreplaceable loss. We need to manage the upland catchment to promote healthy blanket bog, with sphagnum moss to act as a sponge during heavy rainfall. It seems grotesque that the taxpayer is paying for the exact opposite - £2.5 million is about five times as much as we have in the Calder Valley flood recovery fund!”
At the end of a “brilliant”, “eye-opening” and “exhausting” day, a Hebden Bridge resident explained why he joined the Ban the Burn! walk: “I think it’s a travesty that Walshaw Moor Estate has been given public money. They’ve got friends in Whitehall, and the Minister for Wildlife’s a grouse shooter – basically, a bunch of aristos up here... are making life worse for hard-working folk in the valley by increasing the risk of flooding.”
When it comes to environmental degradation by a politically untouchable elite of large landowners, the Hebden Bridge story may be just the tip of an iceberg.
By Emma Fordham (first published, in a longer form, at: www.theoccupiedtimes.co.uk)
Emma Fordham