{"id":234726,"date":"2025-10-30T21:18:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/234726\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T21:18:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:18:16","slug":"scottish-govt-fiddles-while-grouse-moors-burn-raptor-persecution-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/234726\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish Govt fiddles while grouse moors burn \u2013 Raptor Persecution UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month the Scottish Government announced a delay, for the second time, of the implementation of muirburn licensing after caving in to pressure from aggressive lobbying by the grouse shooting industry (see here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The very same day this announcement was made, prescribed muirburn, started (legally) by gamekeepers on a grouse moor in the Cairngorms National Park, got out of control and developed in to a wildfire, causing damage to the neighbouring Muir of Dinnet National Nature Reserve (see here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

A blog reader has sent in this photo of the aftermath of that fire, showing part of the torched moorland and an \u2018information\u2019 board that stands nearby, apparently produced by the Grampian Moorland Group (gamekeepers) and endorsed with the logos of a number of shooting industry organisations, as well as the Cairngorms National Park Authority. I doubt it\u2019s meant to be ironic, but it is.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The text on that \u2018information\u2019 board deserves close attention, so here\u2019s a zoomed-in version for your amusement:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many other grouse moors have also been torched this month \u2013 standard practice at this time of year and set to continue for the next six months until the muirburn season ends on 31 March 2026. <\/p>\n

Imagine that! Six months of setting fire to one of the most sensitive and important habitats for carbon sequestration, in the middle of a climate emergency, with the blessing of a Government that is ignoring the will and intent of the Scottish Parliament by delaying the implementation of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024. And all because it doesn\u2019t want to upset wealthy landowners. It\u2019s astonishing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Grouse moor set alight on Invercauld Estate, Cairngorms National Park, Oct 2025 (photo from blog reader)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Grouse moor set alight in the Monadhliaths, Oct 2025 (photo from another blog reader)<\/p>\n

Had the Scottish Government adhered to the will of Parliament, the torching of grouse moors, carried out to increase the number of Red Grouse available for shooting, would not be happening. <\/p>\n

Muirburn licensing, which would only permit the fires under very limited circumstances (and not for the purpose of increasing Red Grouse stocks for shooting), was supposed to have been in place by the start of the 2025\/2026 muirburn season on 15 September 2025, following the Scottish Parliament voting in favour of it 18 months previously. <\/p>\n

However, in June 2025 the Scottish Government announced it was delaying implementation until 1 January 2026 because the grouse shooting industry had laughably argued that it wasn\u2019t practical or fair for the licences to begin in September 2025 (see\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Since then, the grouse shooting industry has continued its lobbying and now wants the licences dropped altogether because of what it calls the \u2018need\u2019 for muirburn to \u2018control the fuel load\u2019 \u2013 the amount of combustible vegetation which could influence the intensity and spread of wildfires. The lobbying was successful, leading to Minister Jim Fairlie\u2019s announcement earlier this month that licensing would now be delayed until the start of next year\u2019s muirburn season in autumn 2026.<\/p>\n

But as Scottish Greens MSP Ariane Burgess pointed out<\/a>, <\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the scrutiny of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn Act we took detailed evidence on the role of muirburn in wildfire risk. There is very little credible evidence to support the hunting and shooting lobby\u2019s ridiculous claim that these practices have any role in preventing wildfires\u201c.<\/p>\n

This theme continues today in another excellent blog written by Professor Douglas MacMillan and posted on the Parkswatchscotland website. Professor MacMillan shows compelling evidence that \u2018the practice of muirburn actually made no difference to the extent of the Dava mega-fire\u2018.<\/p>\n

Well worth a read \u2013 here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this month the Scottish Government announced a delay, for the second time, of the implementation of muirburn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-234726","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}