The Golden Plover Returns!

The Golden Plover returns! (David Mason)

After four successful years, the Golden Plover Award for Moorland Management is now looking for applicants to make 2017 the biggest and best award to date. Run by The Heather Trust and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust Scotland (GWCT Scotland) with support from Lindsays solicitors, the Golden Plover Award highlights the very best of progressive, forward-thinking moorland management across the country. Open to any group, farm, estate or individual with a proven track record of balanced management, the award is becoming well established as a celebration of balanced diversity in Scotland’s uplands.

Having explored a range of themes from farming to peatland in previous years, 2017 will be geared towards the north west of Scotland; west of the Great Glen, including Argyllshire and the Isles. Anyone can apply to enter the Golden Plover Award provided they can show a dedicated level of commitment to multiple land uses. The size of landholding is immaterial; the award welcomes everyone from the smallest croft to the largest estate.

Over the past few years, the Golden Plover Award has travelled from prestigious estates on Royal Deeside to tiny apportionments in the Outer Isles, seeking out the most progressive and imaginative management. Above all other factors, the judges will be looking for passion, pride and a devotion to the best outcomes for the western Highlands and Islands. The unique blend of land uses in the north west will take the award into new and exciting terrain, embracing diverse issues such as upland fisheries, rural employment, conservation, peatland, deer and crofting.  

Speaking about the launch of the 2017 award, Heather Trust Director Simon Thorp said “there are so many exciting and progressive management projects in the north west of Scotland. Upland farms and estates are balancing traditional enterprises like deer stalking and crofting with contemporary ventures like tourism and renewables, and that kind of integration is exactly what the Golden Plover Award is all about”.

Michael Yellowlees, Partner at Lindsays and Head of Rural Services, said: “We are delighted to continue supporting the Golden Plover Award which celebrates the dedication and enthusiasm involved in the effective management of Scotland’s uplands.

“Our relationships with numerous estates and families across the north west of Scotland extend over generations and this is something we are incredibly proud to recognise.  We have an experienced team who have a sound understanding of the realities of rural life today, as well as the priorities of clients who have has stewardship of their land for hundreds of years.”

If you think you fit the bill for 2017’s award, or if you know someone who does, find out more on the Golden Plover Award’s website at www.goldenploveraward.co.uk.

Heather Beetle

The Heather Trust's heather beetle survey has been running all summer, and we've heard of several serious outbreaks of beetle across the country. Some of the worst damage has been caused in Caithness, but reports of patchy damage has been very widespread, with many little areas of damage  becoming a feature of the summer.

The survey is important because it is the only national effort to gather information on heather beetle outbreaks, and after eight years the information is starting to form patterns and trends which may help us to understand exactly why beetle damage occurs in the way it does.

Thanks to support from landowners and land managers across the country, we have amassed a huge amount of detail on heather beetle outbreaks, but it's always important to hear more and to follow stories from year to year to better understand the nature of the damage. Please fill in a survey form and return it to us if you have seen beetle damage this year.

For example, it was traditionally thought that beetle damage worked on a three or four year cycle, with the worst damage caused in years 2 and 3, but our survey has shown just how variable this can be. Unfortunately, some of the outbreaks we have recorded have been so dramatic in year 1 that the heather is unable to support subsequent beetle outbreaks, and we have just as much evidence to suggest that beetle outbreaks can rumble on at a low level for several years, particularly on wetter ground where beetle numbers might be sustained by damp breeding habitats.

For the last two or three years, concerns have been raised about the link between wet ground and increased beetle numbers, with some land managers raising concerns that moves to "re-wet" moorland for peatland conservation might have the undesired knock-on effect of increasing beetle abundance. Add to this the fact that heather may be stressed by wet conditions and there is a possibility that re-wetting could present some serious problems. We're interested to canvas opinion on this idea, so if you have seen any changes to your moorland involving beetles since re-wetting, we'd be interested to hear from you. No formal research has yet been carried out into this subject, and we would like to find out more.

More on beetle on our Heather Beetle page

Golden Plover Award 2016

The Hopes estate, Golden Plover Award winners 2016

The Heather Trust and GWCT (Scotland) are excited to announce that the Hopes Estate near Gifford has won 2016’s Golden Plover Award for moorland management, sponsored by Lindsays.

The Golden Plover Award celebrates the best of integrated, sustainable upland management, and this year’s theme was sheep farming. These are challenging times for upland farmers, and the judges were looking for businesses, individuals and properties who have been able to knit successful sheep enterprises into other land uses, including sport, conservation and renewable energy.

Applicants came from across Scotland, and the judges narrowed down the field to four properties with a strong farming interest. In the North, Cawdor Estate and Phoines both demonstrated the benefits of sheep to grouse production by means of mopping up ticks and fostering close relationships between farmers and gamekeepers. On Donside, Candacraig Estate introduced sheep to assist with heather management and now run a flock of blackface and cheviots as part of a progressive and successful agricultural enterprise.

Site visits were carried out over the last few weeks, and The Hopes was ultimately announced as the winner of the award after the judges were impressed by the breadth and variety of management on the Lammermuirs estate. Grouse bags have steadily increased over recent years, and sheep have been successfully introduced to compliment existing aims and provide a profitable enterprise in their own right. This can be a difficult balance, but The Hopes has worked carefully to achieve it. As a result, there have also been opportunities to control tick numbers on an area where louping ill is present.

At the same time, significant investment has gone into restoring blanket bog, and the estate’s management strategy also takes into account the needs of a biomass boiler, planting 28,000 trees on the moorland margins to provide fuel and biodiversity.

The Award was presented to the Hopes along with a specially commissioned print by the artist Colin Woolf at a special ceremony held at the Scottish Game Fair on Friday 1^st July. This is now the fourth year of the Golden Plover Award, last year’s winner being Mar Estate near Braemar for their pioneering work into peatland conservation.

Speaking at the presentation ceremony, Heather Trust chairman Antony Braithwaite explained that “the good management that is taking place in Scotland is easily lost nowadays in the barrage of negative press that surrounds moorland management, and the purpose of this award is to highlight some of the very best work that is taking place across the country”.

Heather Beetle 2016

Heather beetle damage from 2015's outbreak on Brownsea Island (photo C. Hartley)

It has been an oddly quiet start to the year for beetle records. We usually hear stories of beetle dispersal across the U.K. during late March and early April, but the only evidence we have picked up on has been of the damage caused by 2015's major outbreak around Poole and Brownsea Island on the South Coast. Brownsea Island is a National Trust property consisting of around 500 acres of dry heath and woodland, and mass dispersals of heather beetle were noted in April 2015. Judging by recent photographs taken of the property, the beetles have done their worst and much of the heather is now in a very sorry state. It will be interesting to follow this up with the site managers to find out their plans for restoring the damage over the coming months.

As always, we are keen to hear from members and supporters as the beetle season begins, and our Survey Form is still available to download and return with information relating to beetle outbreaks across the U.K. It will be interesting to see how this long, dry period of weather will effect beetle numbers in 2016, since past trends and history suggest that successful "boom" years for beetle reproduction depend on damp, moist conditions during May and June.

In some cases, heather beetles have directly contributed to a startling loss of heather coverage in the Uplands, and without management, it is easy to lose heather to other more competitive and invasive species. The Heather Trust is leading the way in research into heather beetle, and our research projects at Langholm Moor and the Derbyshire Peak District are shedding new light on the best treatments and management options in the aftermath of an outbreak. For more information on heather beetle or our work, why not visit our Heather Beetle page.

Asphodel Worries

Flowering bog asphodel

Farmers and land managers have been in touch with the Heather Trust over the past few months to express their concerns about the links between sheep disease and wet ground. 

Yellowses has a number of regional names like saut and plochteach, but it is widely known for causing painful symptoms resembling extreme sunburn, as well as the complete loss of sensitive extremities like ears. In extreme cases, sheep are blinded and lambs are killed. Research suggests that the disease is caused when sheep ingest toxins which attack the liver and cause dangerous chemical build-ups in the body, and the culprit responsible for these toxins is widely believed to be bog asphodel.

Asphodel is a native plant found on wet hill ground with a pretty yellow flower which shows mainly after midsummer. Sheep feeding on asphodel during the early summer months are most likely to show symptoms, and the only treatment is currently to restrict grazing where possible. Seriously affected animals can be brought into the shade where their sunburn-like symptoms are less of a problem, but this is seldom practical in the summer months on hill farms where sheep should be getting the benefit of the grass and indoor housing may be unsuitable or non-existent.

The precise relationship between asphodel and yellowses is not totally clear, and many sheep are grazed happily on wet, asphodel-covered hill ground all summer without any ill-effect at all. At the same time, some of the worst areas in Norway can see up to 50% of lambs killed during sunny summers, and the disease can be a real problem for many upland farmers. The picture is confusing, but asphodel has been linked to other diseases in sheep and cattle over the years, and the plant’s latin name (Narthecium ossifragum) reflects the traditional belief that eating it would give sheep brittle bones, although modern thinking tends to relate this symptom with a general shortage of Calcium in the kind of environment where asphodel thrives.

As land managers are encouraged to engage with important peatland conservation and restoration work, the likelihood is that wetter moors will increase the amount of asphodel available for sheep, and research is underway to learn more about how the disease impacts on livestock. At the same time, wetter moors might also be linked to increased challenges to heather coverage, including the prospect of heather beetle outbreaks which are sometimes linked to moisture content. If we are aiming for a wetter future in the uplands, now is the time to find out what the knock-on effects may be for other land uses.

More information on yellowses is available in an article written by the SRUC’s Davy McCracken in the Heather Trust’s annual report from 2016.

The Finzean Macnab

Plenty to look forward to in April!

We've been working hard on 2016's Country Market and Sporting Sale over the past few weeks, but we can't resist announcing early that we have an amazing headline lot to offer for sale in just over a month's time.

Thanks to Finzean Estate and the Banchory Lodge Hotel, 2016 will be "the year of the Macnab" for the Heather Trust, and we are offering the chance to catch a salmon, shoot a brace of grouse and stalk a stag in a single day against the glorious setting of Aberdeenshire this autumn. To top off this fantastic chance of a lifetime, the Banchory Lodge will also provide Bed and Breakfast in the luxurious setting of Royal Deeside. 

More details will be made available as the Sale approaches, but there are some excellent shooting, fishing and stalking Lots already donated for this spring, including red deer in Sutherland, trout in Dartmoor and grouse on Speyside. Alongside other sporting Lots, we're also offering unique days out, exclusive tickets and special treats for foodies!

All proceeds raised by the sale go to support the work of the Heather Trust, promoting the very best of integrated moorland management across the UK.

The Sale will be held live online from Friday 22nd April to Sunday 8th May 2016, and Lots will be available to view at auction.heathertrust.co.uk.

If you'd like to donate a Lot to support the work of the Heather Trust, please let us know at info@heathertrust.co.uk or call us on 01387 723201

The Golden Plover Award 2016

The Golden Plover Award is seeking the best upland sheep farmers in 2016!

The Heather Trust and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (Scotland) have announced applications are open for the 2016 Golden Plover Award for Moorland Management and Lindsays are proud sponsors of this coveted award.

Now in its fourth year, the Golden Plover recognises progressive, practical and sustainable moorland management in Scotland.  This year the Award's theme reflects sheep farming's role as a major upland land use. 

Adam Smith, Director (Scotland) of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust said “The judges will be looking to identify the best integration of farming enterprises with conservation, sport and other business interests. The award is open to farms, estates, individuals and syndicates, or any other individual or group who can demonstrate their interest in sheep grazing contributing to high quality moorland management. Striking such a balance isn’t easy, needing attention to habitat quality, parasite control, lambing, and a collaborative work strategy with neighbours and local keepers, so we are very keen to applaud those who have managed to pull it off!”

Michael Yellowlees, Head of Rural Services at Lindsays, said: “Our rural team understands the realities of modern rural life and we are delighted to support this award which celebrates the enthusiasm and commitment required to manage Scotland’s uplands. 

“We are extremely proud that we have worked with generations of the same family on numerous Scottish estates and farms, many with a strong sheep enterprise. Our enduring relationship with rural clients reflects our in-depth knowledge and genuine expertise in specialised areas such as agricultural law, crofting law, renewable energy, telecommunications, forestry, minerals, sportings and feudal dignities.”

Previous winners have included Edinglassie Estate on Donside for their support for scientific research into grouse management and Finzean near Banchory for their dedication to community and  conservation. 

Simon Thorp, Director of the Heather Trust, said: “We hope 2016 will build on the success of the last three years of the Golden Plover Award, which has really helped to highlight the hard work and dedication involved in managing Scotland’s uplands. This year, we aim to demonstrate the really positive impact that shepherds and farmers can make on our hills and moorlands, complementing a range of different interests, from sport and conversation to peatland and renewables.”

Applicants are invited to submit their entry by 12 noon on 23 March 2016 and winners will be presented at the Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace on Friday 1 July.  You can download an application form from the Golden Plover Award website