"The land set aside for sheep is twice the size of all built-up areas combined, and yet constant grazing strips areas of natural foliage."
Interesting to see the pro building lobby now going after sheeps - not sure how that's going to play out ... 😊
www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...
ICYMI ... just a few reasons why fully investing in the restoration of nature in places like Dartmoor is a really good idea. Yes, a lot of cash is needed, but it's absolutely NOT a cost - it's a huge SAVING - for you, me and everything else.
www.itv.com/news/2026-02...
Well done, Duchy of Cornwall, Natural England, Moor Trees, Woodland Trust. Dartmoor needs more rainforest!
duchyofcornwall.org/article/volu...
A wonderful “Dartmoor-y” day.
As a geographer by training I do a love a map - just looking at the 1960s Land Utilistion Survey maps for the Dartmoor Commons, probably the earliest mapped vegetation survey on the moor (C is Calluna, M Molinia, E Trichophorum, F Festuca/Agrostis).
From small acorns ... good news from the ever-wonderful Moor Trees - putting back native woodland on Dartmoor.
moortrees.org/major-milest...
But this one has not. Natural England has tried to turn it round - but got a lot of push back ... read more here
www.dartmoornature.org.uk/post/why-win...
There are many schemes around the country like this, and many of them are good and deliver for nature, as they should. Lots of farmers doing really good things - in my patch, the cirl bunting's fortunes have been completely turned around by schemes like these. These justify taxpayer's cash IMO.
Whatever happens next, we cannot have new schemes that lock Dartmoor into another two decades of failure.
It has delivered nothing for the condition of Dartmoor's protected sites. In fact, in many cases things have got worse. See www.dartmoornature.org.uk/post/sssicon...
Gov's Magic map now shows the total cost of the Forest of Dartmoor HLS agreement, including all the "roll-overs" following the end of the initial ten-year agreement in 2022.
This scheme was launched in May 2012 at a cost to the taxpayer of £13M. That cost has now risen to £17.5M.
Here ...
That's interesting - any Titles? Links? I'm thinking of writing something longer about all this. Vancouver mentions "Purple Melick" grass in his 1808 survey of agriculture.
Oh, and there's a good example of the "undergrazing" argument here. What I would say is that Molinia has probably expanded a little around the very edges over the past 20 years. But not in the central high moor.
dartmoorsociety.com/dartmoor-soc...
Funnily enough, alongside this report, I also found in the same box a bunch of Exmoor reports from the late 70s, early 80s.
Yes, on wet heaths and around the very edges, it can creep into drier heaths.
(NB - Natural England was, of course, English Nature for much of the 2000s)
More to come on all this.
And even with this dominance - remember that it is preventing exposure of the peat, possibly slowing surface flow and maybe even laying down future peat (as it possibly has in the past)
Instead probably the only way we will reduce Molinia dominance is through peat restoration and raising the water table. All the while remembering that Molinia is a natural component of Dartmoor’s bogs…
This is important today because it suggests that no matter how many cattle you throw at Dartmoor’s molinia - it won’t make a significant difference. Because it didn’t in the 80s when cattle numbers were astronomical and out year round.
But, because of its unpalatability for most of the year - even in the 80s this was concentring stock around the peripheral heaths leading to the well documented decline of heather.
This adds weight to the argument that the Molinia dominance, on the high moor at least, was NOT linked to “undergrazing”. Most likely it was a symptom of peat degradation.
As you can see here a large area of land is labeleled as Molinia dominated blanket bog.
The report was prepped for MoD via the Dartmoor Steering Group. It included much on military damage, but also a comparative study of the vegetation around Tavy Head.
Molinia is Purple Moor Grass, the tussocky stuff well known to anyone who walks on the high moor.
An argument has long been made that “forced” reductions in grazing by Natural England in the 2000s led to “undrgrazing” and the rise in dominance of Molinia on Dartmoor Commons.
Pic here from a report I’ve found from 1985 showing Molinia dominance around Tavy Head at the height of overstocking.
well, it is if you have a thing about blanket bogs
