EAST CAIRNGORMS MOOR­LAND PARTNERSHIP

Towards more sus­tain­able moor­land management

Dr. Jos Mil­ner Feb­ru­ary 2024

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Jos Mil­ner

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EAST CAIRNGORMS MOOR­LAND PART­NER­SHIP Partners

• Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority
• Abergel­die Estate
• Bal­mor­al Estates
• Glenavon Estate
• Glen­liv­et — Crown Estate Scotland
• Mar Estate
• Mar Lodge – Nation­al Trust Scotland

c. 1,000 km² (22% of CNP)

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Nation­al Park bound­ary ECM PestatesJul23 High: 1300m Alti­tude Low: 100m Mar Lodge Glen­liv­et Glenavon Del­nadamph Abergel­die Bal­mor­al Mar

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EAST CAIRNGORMS MOOR­LAND PART­NER­SHIP Pur­pose: Land­scape-scale col­lab­or­a­tion to demon­strate deliv­ery of a viable mix of pub­lic bene­fits and private interests

Estab­lished: 2015 Resourced: 2018 (0.6 FTE)

Will Boyd-Wal­lis

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EAST CAIRNGORMS MOOR­LAND PART­NER­SHIP Objectives

1. Restore moor­land, upland wood­land & fresh­wa­ter habitats
2. Improve con­ser­va­tion status of threatened or declin­ing species
3. Deliv­er private interests through sus­tain­able moor­land management
4. Cre­ate evid­ence base by mon­it­or­ing & research
5. Improve aware­ness & under­stand­ing of moor­land man­age­ment & its benefits

Pub­lic engagement

Caper­cailie / Ripari­an cor­ridors Black grouse Hab­it­at Moor­land Aspen Peat­land res­tor­a­tion Spe­cies rap­tors Con­ser­va­tion Waders Wood­land Red grouse M. hares Scrub Estate Har­ri­ers Private employ­ment Muir­burn interests Pred­at­or Moor­land con­trol Management

Mon­it­or­ing

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* HAB­IT­AT RES­TOR­A­TION Peat­lands Peat­lands most import­ant ter­restri­al C store Degraded peat­lands net CO2 emit­ters 80% peat­lands are degraded

Veget­a­tion

Oth­er soils

Peat­lands

Scotland’s ter­restri­al car­bon stores

Jos Mil­ner

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HAB­IT­AT RES­TOR­A­TION Peat­lands Pub­lic bene­fits Act­ive / restored peatlands:

• Store car­bon
• Biod­iversity
• Nat­ur­al flood management
• Improve water quality
• Reduce wild­fire sever­ity Landown­er benefits
• Peat­land ACTION funding
• Private fin­ance
• Peat­land Code
• Less erosion
• More grouse?

Jos Mil­ner

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HAB­IT­AT RES­TOR­A­TION Peat­lands Peat­land Res­tor­a­tion Plan­ning Tool https://​storymaps​.arc​gis​.com/​s​t​o​r​i​e​s​/​24bba 98fd4294dbc9828abc0928186f0

Sever­ity of erosion

Extent of drainage

Ness

Cairngorms Nation­al Park – degraded peat­lands Loch Con River Spey SIRNGOR DS 309 m River Deve. 939 11 – 5‑m 721 m River Loch Garmin, FAO, USGS, NGA | CNPA con­tains pub­lic sec­tor inform­a­tion licensed under the Open Gov­ern­ment Licence

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ECMP Peat­lands Eroded peat: 4.5k– 10.2k ha Affected by drain­age: 1.4k ha Total degraded = 5.7k – 11.5k ha Ha mid Ha min Ha max Notes Ha erosion by alti­tude band and erosion class (middle estim­ate) Click on bars to fil­ter map data, click on chart area to remove fil­ter Ha in class 4k 2k 0 300 600 لاک 1 IGH­LANDS 2 Loch Insh 3 900 4 Alti­tude band (m) Ha estim­ated affected by drain­age by alti­tude and drain­age class Click on bars to fil­ter map data, click on chart area to remove fil­ter Ha in class 1k 500 1 3 0 4 300 400 500 600 700 2 10 km 5 mi Alti­tude band (m)

River Dultan

Aviemore River Fesh­ie CAIRNGORM/SPEYSIDE Hiver Avon CAIRNGORM MOUN­TAINS 13 Ger­mgena Nation­al Park 1197 m EAST GRAMPI­AN 5 Upper Deeside River-Dee 4 River Tilt Perth and Kin­cess LUC­CIC­AL­CUDA 4155 EAST GRAMPI­AN 2 Deeside Roera­sensb gus Gairn

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HAB­IT­AT RES­TOR­A­TION ECMP Peatlands

• Res­tor­a­tion work on > 1,000 ha to date
• Pro­jects spread across partnership
• 5 y tar­get: > 1,350 ha
• ²²⁄₂₃: 464 ha = 8,800 t CO2 equiv. saved / y
• Tri­al­ling vari­ety of techniques
• Increas­ing con­tract­or capa­city by train­ing new operators
• Pilot­ing new fin­ance mod­els M.A.M Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Her­it­age Dual­chas Nadair na h‑Alba Peat­land ACTION

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HAB­IT­AT RES­TOR­A­TION Peat­lands Tech­niques include:

• Re-pro­fil­ing hags
• Trans­plant­ing turf
• Using geo­tex­tile
• Build­ing bunds with peat, coir or stone
• Cre­at­ing bog pools

ID DOU­GALL PLANT LTD 150х на

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SUS­TAIN­ABLE MOOR­LAND MAN­AGE­MENT Muir­burn Con­trolled burn­ing to cre­ate mosa­ic of young & old heath­er to provide food & shel­ter Main­tains open moor­land land­scape Good for moun­tain hares as well as grouse Con­trols fuel load If car­ried out badly can cause envir­on­ment­al dam­age Muir­burn licen­cing com­ing in

Will Boyd-Wal­lis

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SUS­TAIN­ABLE MOOR­LAND MAN­AGE­MENT Muir­burn With­in ECMP:

• Fol­low Muir­burn Code
• Demon­strate good practice
• Using new techniques
• Con­trib­ut­ing to Muir­burn Code Work­ing Group

Pete May­hew

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SUS­TAIN­ABLE MOOR­LAND MAN­AGE­MENT Muir­burn With­in ECMP:

• Fol­low Muir­burn Code
• Demon­strate good practice
• Using new techniques
• Con­trib­ut­ing to Muir­burn Code Work­ing Group

Michael Ben­nett

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SUS­TAIN­ABLE MOOR­LAND MAN­AGE­MENT Muir­burn With­in ECMP:

• Map­ping Muir­burn Code to identi­fy areas unsuit­able for burning
• Steep slopes & deep peat are no burn areas
• Rota­tion­al muir­burn is car­ried out on ~18,000 ha of moor­land in ECMP (31%)
• Defin­i­tion of deep peat likely to change to 40 cm – map will need to be revised

ECMP Muir­burn map DRAFT 2022 A9 more A95 go Burn régime Cut­ting Muir­burn No burn Out­with plan A N 0 2.5 5 10 km Con­tains OS data Crown Copy­right and data­base right 2025 Con­tains data from OS Zoom­stack Ballat

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SUS­TAIN­ABLE MOOR­LAND MAN­AGE­MENT Muir­burn With­in ECMP:

• Muir­burn Code requires some * areas to be unburnt Large areas of moor­land unburnt in ECMP
• Allows hab­it­at like wil­low scrub to develop *
• A rare eco­tone at wood­land / moor­land edge Oppor­tun­ity to improve hab­it­at for hen harriers

Will Boyd-Wal­lis

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Moor­land Rap­tors Rap­tor — grouse conflict

• Rap­tor per­se­cu­tion going on for centuries
• Wide­spread pop­u­la­tion recov­er­ies since leg­al pro­tec­tion & ban­ning of pesticides
• Issues remain around some grouse moors
• Includ­ing with­in CNP
• Spe­cies most affected: golden eagle, hen har­ri­er & peregrine
• Key rationale behind ECMP

©NERSG

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Moor­land Rap­tors ECMP raptors

• Mon­it­or­ing of golden eagles, hen har­ri­er, per­eg­rine & merlin
• Car­ried out by NERSG, estate staff & inde­pend­ent consultants
• All ECMP estates have ≥1 pair golden eagle
• To date con­firmed har­ri­er breed­ing only on Mar Lodge
• First breed­ing of white-tailed eagle on Deeside for 200 y on Mar Estate in 2020
• Cre­ation of eagle nests

Min. no. breed­ing pairs Con­firmed breed­ing of moor­land rap­tors on ECMP estates 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Cov­id-19 rules pre­ven­ted full mon­it­or­ing ‑Golden eagle •Hen har­ri­er Per­eg­rine 2023

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Breed­ing Waders Waders in decline

• Large declines in breed­ing pop­u­la­tions of red & amber lis­ted waders
• East Cairngorms likely to hold nation­ally sig­ni­fic­ant numbers
• Man­aged moor­land iden­ti­fied as strongholds
• Pred­at­or con­trol & good hab­it­at are key

ECMP/BТО

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Breed­ing Waders Waders in decline Work in East Cairngorms:

• Wader pro­ductiv­ity mon­it­or­ing with BTO
• Wader tran­sects to count breed­ing pairs
• Hab­it­at improve­ment work Game­keep­ers & estate staff are key to car­ry­ing out mon­it­or­ing & hab­it­at man­age­ment Camel Wader Tran­sects © Ed Smith

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Wader Tran­sects 2 – 3 sur­veys of tran­sects in April – June, recording:

• loc­a­tion of waders seen
• observed beha­viour * pres­ence of chicks

Game­keep­er Wader Tran­sects Sur­vey Vis­it Cov­er Sheet Observ­er name: AP Date (dd/​mm/​yy): ²¹⁄₆ Cloud: Tran­sect name: White Bridge Start time (24-hr): 15:15 Vis­it no.: 3 Wind: Tran­sect ref: End time (24-hr): 16:05 Rain: 1‑None Vis­ib­il­ity: 1‑Good 1‑Calm 2‑Drizzle 2‑Moderate 1‑Mainly clear (0−335) 3‑Poor 2‑Partly cloudy (34 – 66%) 2‑Light 3‑Showers 3‑Mainly cloudy (67 – 100%) 3‑Breezy Hab­it­at: (only needed once per year) [ ]% Heath­er (Recent burns) [ ]% Tus­socky white ground [ ]% Improved grass­land Waders observed (name of spe­cies) Total Adult Count Adults Dis­play­ing Adult Alarm-Call­ing/With Young [ ]% Wood­land Chicks [ ]% Oth­er ( Notes: Spe­cies 1 (OC ) 0 Spe­cies 2 (SN ) 3 Spe­cies 3 ( ) 2 Spe­cies 4 (5 ) 4 0 2 4(2) Heary rain­at times, post­poned until passed bo Thr Spe­cies 5 ( ) Spe­cies 6 ( Wader two-let­ter codes and sym­bols: CU — Cur­lew OC — Oyster­catch­er 0 DN — Dun­lin RK — Red­shank GP- Golden Plover SN — Snipe L. — Lap­wing CS-Com­mon Sand­piper Note: CU (Cur­lew) used as examples below, but sym­bols apply to all spe­cies above CU Cur­lew recor­ded not dis­play­ing, repeatedly alarm- call­ing or with young CU Displaying/’singing’ Cur­lew CU Repeatedly alarm-call­ing (agit­ated) and/​or ​‘mob- bing’ Cur­lew CU + juv(3) Adult with three chicks (juven­iles) If mul­tiple adults are observed in one loc­a­tion, write the num­ber before the two-let­ter code (e.g. 7L. — 7 Lap­wing in a field) — this can be used with any of the sym­bols noted above (e.g. 3RK — 3 Red­shank repeatedly alarm-call­ing) Draw the route walked with a dashed line and arrows to indic­ate dir­ec­tion ) YORK­SHIRE DALES Don’t for­get to attach your sur­vey map with the date and your name on it The Moor­land Asso­ci­ation MOOR­LAND GROUP YORK­SHIRE DALES Cairngorms BOLTON ESTATE NATION­AL PARK Nation­al Park Author­ity BTO

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Wader Tran­sects Cairn 573 Carn hith­ir Data com­piled at end of 550 sea­son to give num­ber of breed­ing pairs of:

• Com­mon sandpiper
• Cur­lew
• Golden plover
• Lap­wing
• Oyster­catch­er
• Red­shank
• Snipe 500 064- A 0/0 The Colonel’s Bed Auche 450 28 Allt a Chuirn Dheirs 500 600- 004- Gen 425 n leach Com­mon Sand­piper (1) Cur­lew (6) Golden Plover (1) MUG Lap­wing (4) Oyster­catch­er (8) Carn Dearg Coire an Fheidh S 720 706- Carn Mór 87 Grouse Butts Allan Tuin Bhain Cha 86 655 85 550 $20 00-

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Wader Tran­sects 2.0

• Data com­piled across estates since 2018
• 73 – 167 breed­ing pairs recor­ded / y
• Trends broadly stable with increase in some sp. where hab­it­at man­age­ment occurring
• Com­bined dens­ity of cur­lew, lap­wing, oyster­catch­er, red­shank & snipe c. 0.23 breed­ing pairs / ha No. breed­ing pairs / km 1.5 1.0 0.5 ECMP no. breed­ing wader pairs 0.0 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Annu­al counts of wad­ing birds recor­ded on mon­it­or­ing tran­sects across ECMP estates, expressed as breed­ing pairs per km of tran­sect. CS – com­mon sand­piper; CU – cur­lew;

  GP – golden plover; L – lap­wing; OC – oyster­catch­er; RK – red­shank; SN – snipe.

  CS Cu GP L OC RK SN

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Wader monitoring

• Some nests have been mon­itored to meas­ure productivity
• 183 nests mon­itored with tem­per­at­ure log­gers * .. nests also mon­itored with wild­life trail cameras
• 115 nests hatched successfully
• Of those that failed, 45% due to pred­a­tion B Bush­nell 20 51°F10 °C 05-05-2018 07:26:55

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Wader monitoring

• Some nests have been mon­itored to meas­ure productivity
• 183 nests mon­itored with tem­per­at­ure log­gers * … nests also mon­itored with wild­life trail cameras
• 115 nests hatched successfully
• Of those that failed, 45% due to pred­a­tion B Bush­nell 110 39°F3 °C 05-23-2019 23:37:37

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Wader monitoring

• Some nests have been mon­itored to meas­ure productivity
• 183 nests mon­itored with tem­per­at­ure loggers
• ~50 nests also mon­itored with wild­life trail cameras
• 115 nests hatched successfully
• Of those that failed, 45% due to pred­a­tion B Bush­nell 28 M 53 °F11 °C 06-09-2019 12:04:06

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Work­ing for Waders Work­ing Wader Map Map Don’t see your wader pro­ject? Enter a New Pro­ject here Enter loc­a­tion or post­code. Q Search Skye Work­ing for Waders BTO Mull Loch Sunart to the Sound of Jura Mar­ine Pro­tec­ted oto​.org/​w​a​d​e​r​-​m​a​p​/​i​n​d​e​x.jsp Loch Lomond and The Trossachs Inverness Cairngorms Nationa Park Aber­deen Perth Dun­dee https://​app​.bto​.org/​w​a​d​e​r​-map/ Map­ping Lay­ers: Road Map Satel­lite Map Wader Sens­it­iv­ity Maps Wader Pro­jects Stake­hold­ers Volunteer(s) Farmer(s) ✔Gamekeeper(s)/Estate Staff ■Scientist(s) Ringer(s) ■ Non-gov­ern­ment­al Organisation(s) (NGO) Pro­tec­ted Area Author­ity ■Gov­ern­ment Organisation(s) ■Other(s) Firth of FO> Organisations

Wader Spe­cies Mon­it­or­ing Meth­ods Examined Hab­it­ats Man­age­ment Meth­ods Assessed Out­comes i

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Wader Hab­it­at Improvement

• Wader scrape creation
• Veget­a­tion management

Neil Shear­er

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Wader Hab­it­at Improve­ment Wader scrape cre­ation & ditch-block­ing Funding

• BCF2
• Estates
• ECMP
• AECS No. scrapes 21 20+ 12

  12

  65+

NatureScot NadarAl­ba HITA­CHI Glyn Jones

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Wader Hab­it­at Improve­ment Veget­a­tion man­age­ment (Rush-cut­ting) Fund­ing Area / y

• AECS 12 ha
• BCF2/ 52 ha

  Estates

  64 ha

NatureScot NadarAl­ba Michael Bennett

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Wader Hab­it­at Improve­ment Veget­a­tion management

• Issue main­tain­ing rush con­trol espe­cially close to scrapes
• Sus­tain­ab­il­ity of methods

© Ed Smith

Shaila Roa

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SPE­CIES CON­SER­VA­TION Wader Hab­it­at Improve­ment Veget­a­tion management

• Issue main­tain­ing rush con­trol espe­cially close to scrapes
• 15 NoFence col­lars at Mar Lodge 2023 Nofence Graz­ing tech­no­logy © Jos Milner

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EAST CAIRNGORMS MOOR­LAND PART­NER­SHIP Summary

• Hab­it­at res­tor­a­tion is underway
• Recov­ery takes time
• Mon­it­or­ing is import­ant to assess pro­gress & demon­strate benefits
• More action needed to improve biod­iversity & spe­cies con­ser­va­tion status
• This will help sus­tain­ab­il­ity & resi­li­ence of moorland

Will Boyd-Wal­lis