Vast areas within Britain’s national parks are being damaged by the grouse shooting industry, according to a survey by a conservation charity.
Some 852,000 acres, an area more than twice the size of Greater London, inside the parks are used by shoots that employ beaters to flush out grouse and drive them towards waiting guns, Rewilding Britain found. It said that intensive management of grouse moors depleted wildlife and contributed to greenhouse gas emissions.
The Cairngorms National Park is the most affected, with 44 per cent of its area covered by driven grouse moors, followed by the North York Moors with 28 per cent, Yorkshire Dales (25 per cent), Peak District (21 per cent), Northumberland National Park (15 per cent) and Lake District with (2 per cent).
The charity said that the shooting industry was contributing to climate change through the regular burning of heather to produce new growth on which young grouse feed. This releases carbon stored in peat.
It said that the burning also prevented the recovery of wildlife by suppressing the natural regeneration of trees and other vegetation and killing large numbers of insects.
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Illegal killing of goshawks, hen harriers, eagles and other birds of prey has also taken place on grouse moors to stop them preying on grouse. Stoats, foxes and mountain hares are trapped to maximise grouse numbers, the charity said.
Rewilding Britain said it opposed intensive management of driven grouse moors wherever it took place. It is calling for 10 per cent of national parks to be devoted to rewilding.
Guy Shrubsole, Rewilding Britain’s policy and campaigns co-ordinator, said: “The prime minister’s pledge to protect 30 per cent of Britain’s land for nature — and count national parks towards this total — rings hollow when you realise that vast areas of our national parks are dominated by these nature-impoverished and heavily managed areas.
“We’re urging ministers to show real leadership by creating wilder national parks and setting up core rewilding areas in each of them, in which driven grouse shoots are phased out and our precious moors brought back to health.”
Amanda Anderson, director of the Moorland Association, which represents grouse moor owners, said that controlled burning “in the right place for the right reason can be actually helpful to the diversification of vegetation and helps prevent catastrophic wildfires — the biggest threat to moorland”.
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She added: “Many moors in northern England are hotspots of rare and special diversity. Light touch land management has left room for and even boosted wildlife such as moorland endangered birds, particularly the curlew and lapwing, along with all sorts of specialist plant life.
“Grouse moor managers are wholly committed to their considerable conservation efforts which help protect and enhance the natural world.
“There is not a binary choice of grouse shooting or not. Any report that claims land is solely given over to driven grouse shooting must be scrutinised as moorland has multiple uses and land tenure.”
The association said that 19 hen harrier nests had produced chicks on moors managed for red grouse this year. The annual grouse shooting season traditionally begins on August 12.
