Moorland Loss
The continued loss of Moorland has been a major issue on Exmoor since the designation of the National Park in 1954. It was therefore appropriate that during the Park's 50th anniversary year, these landscapes were the focus of a major study, Moorlands at a Crossroads (PDF, 3MB), commissioned by the Exmoor Society. To address the issues raised, the Authority launched the Exmoor Moorland Initiative.
Threats
The main threat to moors and heaths has been reclamation. This has been taking place almost since farming started in the area about 4000 years ago. It was common to cultivate small areas of heathland, which would produce crops for a year or two before being abandoned to return to heath. Over a third of Exmoor's present heathland has been cultivated in past centuries. Since the 19th century, however, it has been possible to plough deep enough to change the structure of the soil and reclamation has been more widespread and permanent. 64% of the moor and heath that remains on Exmoor is readily improvable in farming terms and Exmoor lost over 20% of it in the 30 years following the introduction of grants for reclamation in the late 1940s. England and Wales as a whole have lost a similar amount and Scotland 26% since that time, largely to grassland and forestry.
Moorland reclamation has now been stopped by the withdrawal of reclamation grants and introduction of conservation grants and legislation to strengthen SSSI status protection. The remaining moors and heaths in England and Wales are still threatened with further decline from past drainage and drying out. Overgrazing is no longer a major problem but its legacy from the days of stock headage payments lingers on. Over stocking reduced shrubby plants such as heather and whortleberry and replaced them with grasses, rushes and bracken. This is due to the increased grazing pressure, including both numbers and types of stock and winter grazing. The more palatable species were constantly eaten down, allowing less palatable ones to take over, which is bad for both farming and wildlife.
Introduced species are also a threat in some parts of Exmoor, particularly rhododendron on the coastal heaths. These plants support little native wildlife and due to their highly invasive nature they are beginning to take over the natural vegetation.
Many European and all English heaths and moors are threatened by pollution from nitrates in the air. The effect is for heather species to be replaced by Molinia on moors and wavy hair grass and similar grasses on heaths. There is a similar effect from acid rain. Although heath and moorland soils are naturally acid, further acidification means fewer available nutrients and decrease in vigour of heathers. Global warming will also have its effects, particularly on moorlands, increasing grass cover, changing them to heathlands and releasing more greenhouse gasses in the process. As bracken prefers drier conditions, it is likely to spread to higher altitudes.
Protection
The creation of Exmoor as a National Park in 1954 did not automatically lead to protection of its moors and heaths. National Park Authorities have no legal powers to prevent moorland reclamation. Rapid loss of moorland and heathland on Exmoor led to a Government inquiry in 1977. The result of this was to provide the National Park Authority with extra funding to allow it to compensate farmers who wished to reclaim such areas for not doing so. The Authority became the first in Britain to enter into such voluntary management agreements with landowners. It also developed its own Farm Conservation Scheme which included such agreements in schemes covering the whole farm environment. Since then Exmoor has been declared an Environmentally Sensitive Area, allowing many more farmers to enter voluntary agreements through the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (now Natural England).
A greater legal protection has been given to Exmoor's moors and heaths by English Nature in designating them as Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
Exmoor is also fortunate in having a large proportion of its moors and heaths in ownership of the National Park Authority and National Trust.
The future
Every moor and heath is different and requires detailed experimentation to work out the best way of managing it. For instance, we do not fully understand the requirements of some moorland birds and the area and type of moorland they require. The reintroduction of grouse on Exmoor has been attempted without success. There is a need for more information, such as how grazing and recreation disturbs ground-nesting birds, and more careful management, including tighter control of shooting and burning.
The current situation of agricultural uncertainty in the uplands, particularly the problems of continued cattle grazing, means that some degree of re-wilding may have to be considered. If we were to attempt this it would certainly encourage more woodland on the moorland fringes. These can often be the most diverse parts of moors and heaths ecologically. The replacement of heaths on some recently reclaimed areas may also be possible, and further experimentation on how to do this is required. Putting back heathland is much more difficult than destroying it, but heather seed buried in peat may remain viable for up to 150 years and it is hoped that there may be some areas where regeneration is possible.