National Parks and the National Trust in the uplands

There have been two stories recently in the media regarding the uplands and peat.

National Parks have expressed major concerns about how the changes in funding to farmers is threatening livelihoods and will have a disastrous impact on nature, tourism, water supplies and even climate. These comments follow on from a report published by Exeter University on Hill Farming Systems in South West England: economic viability and the delivery of public good commissioned by Dartmoor & Exmoor National Park Authorities.

If agricultural collapses in the uplands there is a large concern that we will be unable to manage our peatlands which are acting as massive carbon stores and sinks.

Fred Worrall, a leading peat researcher based at Durham University, said the ideal carbon moorland sink is a pristine lawn of sphagnum moss untouched by sheep or cattle or horses. But as areas like Dartmoor have been grazed for thousands of years, such landscapes are very rare.

If sheep or cattle were removed from all upland, Worrall said, perfect moss would not suddenly appear. Instead shrubby vegetation and birch woods would spring up. This has already happened in some parts of Dartmoor. Such vegetation would make the peat dry out – and lose its effectiveness as a carbon sink.

So Worrall says that the grazing of some sheep and cattle is a good thing. But the problem is nobody knows quite how many sheep or cattle would be ideal.

Secondly the National Trust have just celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the acquisition of Hafod y Llan, a 4,000 acres hill farm in Snowdonia, following a hugely successful fundraising appeal.

Iwan Huws Director in Wales for the National Trust said 'The uplands are particularly rich in natural resources and much loved by the public. But the role of hill farms in managing these assets is largely unrecognised. With the right investment, these farms could be rewarded for their important contribution to our wildlife as well as the management of the finite resources such as water and soil, which will benefit us all.'

He continued 'Ten years ago any notion that hill farmers would farm for water or for carbon would have been dismissed as fantasy. But with the pressures of a changing climate and the need to protect and value our natural capital, the future of hill farming will focus on a mixture of food production and providing wider environmental benefits for society.'