Thank you for contacting me about the management of moorland in the Calder Valley.
This is a complex issue with many more aspects to it than is sometimes appreciated.
There is no policy of slash and burn as is sometimes implied. Instead those managing the land in question engage in cool burning which is designed to encourage new and healthy growth and typically involves limited patches of ground at any one time. A small per centage per year of the Walshaw Estate is treated in this way. The estate works in partnership with Natural England, Yorkshire Water and many other agencies. Everything it does is done under licence and is strictly controlled and plotted by GPS, and mapped, so that no area is burnt out of cycle, which, for active peat, is over 25 years, and, for other areas, is over 20 and 15 years.
Those who argue, sometimes on the basis of methodologically flawed studies, that the burning has an impact on water flows need to take into consideration a number of factors that some of the research does not, for example, the issues created by instances of wildfires burning outside the Walshaw Estate. There have been substantial numbers of wildfires which have caused serious damage.
Some of the research assumes that all channels on the moorland are unimpeded and allow the free flow of water; the existence of grips, ditches and drains is ignored.
In fact, we know that water does not have an unimpeded flow. There are thousands of acres around the Calder Valley that have thousands of natural traps and bungs. On top of that, our reservoirs are not always storage neutral. Indeed, managing the level of reservoirs could have a significant impact upon mitigating the risk of flooding. Owing to the significant proportion of water on the moorlands that runs through the six reservoirs on and around the Estate, if the levels of the reservoirs were to be proactively managed, the scale of the destruction caused to the communities in the valley bottom might have been reduced.
Moreover, the Walshaw Estate has practised grip blocking over the last several years. That practice blocks grips that were paid for by the Government in the 1970s to encourage more intensive farming.
It is worth drawing attention to the very substantial cost to the Walshaw Estate and the partner agencies of the restoration work and moorland maintenance programme. The seven full-time gamekeepers who carry out the vast amount of restoration work are on constant lookout in the summer for wildfires, which can totally destroy the peat. Were they not there and were the estate not to have grouse shooting, there would be no capacity to prevent the wildfires.
From the national perspective, it is important to recognise that healthy, active peatland provides numerous environmental benefits and ecosystem services including natural cover for grouse. I am pleased that the Government is working with moor owners to further improve management practices and peat condition, such as through Blanket Bog Restoration Projects.
In addition to all of this, after my persistent lobbying and public comments on the initially slow official response to the latest floods, we now have extra funding for flood defences in the Calder Valley which means that the Government has committed over £110 million to strengthening the Valley’s protection against floods.
Thank you again for contacting me.
Craig Whittaker MP