The Principles of Moorland Management Project - update

The Principles of Moorland Management (PoMM) project is producing guidance for practitioners to cover a range of moorland management activity.  Small guidance groups have been established to draft the guidance, which will then be passed to members of the project steering group for comment. When approved by the Steering Group, Forum members will be invited to comment before the guidance is published on the Forum's website.  

The guidance will provide links to other related information, and it will be updated on a regular basis to take account of changes to techniques, regulations or other factors.

Further details about the project are available from the project page on the Moorland Forum's website.

Guidance in Production

Three Guidance Groups have been formed, and have been making progress. The topics covered are: Worm Control in Grouse, Heather Cutting and Mountain Hare.

I expect to have draft versions of the guidance for all three groups by mid-November.

Next Steps

The guidance will cover a wide range of topics and it is likely that the process to be followed before the guidance is published will vary between the different topics.  The starting point will be the following process:

• The guidance will be circulated to the PoMM Steering Group (see below).
• Feedback will be collated and passed to the Guidance Group for comment and/or amendment of the draft.
• When approved by the Steering Group, the guidance will be passed to all Forum members for comment.
• The guidance will then be published on the Forum’s website.

The next stages for the three topics in progress will provide a demonstration of this process in action.

Purpose of the Guidance

The guidance aims to provide a source of information that practitioners can turn to when deciding how they should carry out an approved management activity. Some guidance may also include issues that practitioners should take into account when deciding whether or not a management activity is appropriate in their circumstances.

The aim is to provide a one-stop-shop for the latest guidance on different moorland management activity; the guidance will link to other information and will not repeat details that are already available elsewhere. It will be important that once published it is kept up to date.

Next Topics

With the three guidance groups about to publish their drafts, it is time to consider the next topics that PoMM should address.

In earlier discussion, the Steering Group considered three options:

• Bracken Control,
• Snaring, and
• Sphagnum Moss regeneration (as part of peatland restoration).

Other suggestions will be welcome, and the options will be raised for discussion at the Forum meeting, on 4 November. The Steering Group will then be asked for their views on all the options so that a decision can be made about forming more Guidance Groups.

Steering Group members

Tim Baynes - Scottish Land & Estates

John Bruce - British Deer Society

Ronnie Kippen - Scottish Gamekeepers Association

Alastair MacGugan - SNH

Duncan Orr-Ewing - RSPB Scotland

Colin Shedden - BASC

Adam Smith - GWCT

Julia Stoddart - SACS

Dr. Tony Waterhouse - SRUC

Malcolm Younger - RICS

Principles of Moorland Management (PoMM) - an update

The PoMM project has developed in the shadow of the Understanding Predation project and members of the Forum, and others alike, will be forgiven if they have lost sight of the plan for this work.

The aim is to develop a series of guidance covering a range of moorland management issues. This guidance will be aimed primarily to give practitioners an overview of the information they need before applying different management techniques, and directions to where to find more detailed information.

The project is now gathering momentum and with this briefing, I aim to bring everyone up to date on the stage that this project has reached, the work in progress and the work that is planned.

This project has always been a 'slow burner' but nonetheless it provides the Forum with an opportunity to produce guidance that will be of value to practitioners.

It is deliberate that a some of the details of the project have been left to evolve as the work of the project develops, and it is recognised that each topic will to some extent require a different approach. 

A key feature of the project is that it will rely on cross-sector support for the guidance. Some may think that it will not be possible to achieve this for some of the more controversial topics, but this is the challenge that the project lays down. To produce the guidance may require some compromises but if these can be accepted the benefits from being able to provide a positive influence on the management activities carried out by practitioners will justify this approach. 

Project Governance 

A Project Plan has been agreed and approved by the Forum; this is available on the PoMM page of the Forum's website. 

A provisional Steering Group has been formed from the Planning Group that developed the Project Plan:

Tim	Baynes	Scottish Land & Estates Moorland Group
John	Bruce	British Deer Society
Alastair	MacGugan	SNH Wildlife Management Manager
Adam	Smith	Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust
Tony	Waterhouse	Scotland's Rural College (SRUC)
Malcolm	Younger	Representing RICS

The Project Plan makes it clear that the Steering Group can be extended to embrace other interest groups, and volunteers to join the Steering Group will be welcome. It may be possible for someone to contribute to the work of the Steering Group in arelation to one particular topic of interest, but this will need to be considered by the Group.

When guidance has been approved by the Steering Group, it will be referred to all members of the Forum for any comment, before final publication.

Guidance Groups

Guidance Groups are being formed to consider topics agreed by the Steering Group and the Groups will be given a brief to work to and develop, in liaison with the Steering Group.

The Chairman of the Guidance Group will be a member of the Forum.

Guidance Groups will be kept small (4-6 members) and will be formed from people with current experience of the topic, from within but also, where appropriate, from outside the Forum.

Form of the Guidance

The aim is for the output from each Guidance Group to be a summary of the knowledge practitioners, who are seeking to apply the moorland management technique, should have together with directions about how to find more information.

The guidance will be web-based and at least initially, this information will be added to the Moorland Forum’s website.

The format of the published guidance has not yet been agreed and the first piece of guidance will be used to develop a style that will be used for other information, although it is likely that variations in the style will be required for different topics. 

The aim is to publish the best guidance available at the time of publication. This may be a ‘moving target’ but a feature of being online is that it will be easy to update the guidance to reflect increasing knowledge or other changes.

Review

It will be important to keep the guidance up to date, and a feature of the project will be an annual review of all published guidacen, although guidance can be updated at any time in response to changes.

Progress

Guidance Groups have been established to consider: Worm Control in Grouse and Heather Cutting. Briefs for both these topics are available on the PoMM webpage.

A group is forming to consider Sustainable Management Mountain Hare and to produce interim guidance, ahead of more formal guidance that is due to be published in 2017. A need for the interim guidance has been identified and this topic is being given a high priority. 

Conclusions

This is a valuable opportunity for the Forum to apply is broad based, specialist knowledge. It will take time to develop the planned suite of information but this will become a valuable source of information for practitioners and others.

Please caontact me if you have any questions about the way the project is developing, if you want to propose topics to address, or if you want to offer support for the work in progress or planned.

The Principles of Moorland Management gathers pace

Progress on this project has suffered from being in the shadow of the Understanding Predation project, but we are making progress.

The latest version of the plan for this project is on the project page of the Forum's website and this provides the detail of what this project aims to achieve. In summary:

1. The project aims to identify the best practice techniques to be used for a variety of moorland management practices;
2. The project will publish short summaries of the key issues on the Forum’s website and will link to other guidance, where this is available;
3. If guidance gaps are identified, the project may commission the production of appropriate detailed guidance; and
4. The guidance published by the project will be reviewed at least annually and updated when necessary.

It has been agreed that initially the project will focus on guidance that covers four topics:

Title	Lead Organisation
Worm Control in Grouse	GWCT
Predator control & Snaring	BASC
Sheep Ticks & Mountain Hare	GWCT
Heather Cutting	Heather Trust

A Guidance Group will be established for each topic and the Group will operate in accordance with a brief agreed by the Steering Group.  The first brief, for Worm Control in Grouse, has been drafted and currently this is under review - it can be viewed on the webpage.  When finalised, the Guidance Group will start work.

I will publish more information about this important project as it gathers momentum, but please use the Comment facility below, if you would like more information.