TWO leading conservation organisations have united to deliver a series of messages to MPs following claims about grouse moors and flooding.

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation and the Moorland Association distributed their briefing note as a major upland hydrology conference got under way on Tuesday.

They say that claims in the press and Parliament that grouse moor management had contributed to flooding in northern England were erroneous.

Director of the Moorland Association, Amanda Anderson, said it was important to set the record straight, adding good moorland management could in fact prevent flooding.

She said: “Grouse moor managers are working hard across vast tracts of land in northern England. They are rewetting peat by blocking up thousands of kilometres of historic, ill-advised, agricultural drains, slowing and cleaning water, revegetating hundreds of hectares of bare peat and reintroducing the king of bog plants, Sphagnum moss.

“Understanding the importance of healthy peat, informed by science, has led to a step-change in attitude and progress.”

Moorland Association members, who manage a million acres of uplands in England and Wales, have helped spearhead a new approach on areas of deep peat, focused on outcomes set to benefit everyone.

Mrs Anderson, who lives in Austwick, added: “The gains are widespread and, apart from slowing and cleaning water, include carbon capture and storage, better biodiversity, wildfire mitigation and economic stock grazing - while safeguarding and improving the wild red grouse population.

“We are determined that MPs, journalists and the public at large understand what is happening on the ground and are not influenced by flawed and damaging claims which have increasingly been levelled at grouse moor management.”

The briefing note – Grouse Moors and Flooding - covers peatland restoration, the role of peatland in flood mitigation and explains why ‘wetter is better’. It can be viewed at moorlandassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Briefing-Note-Grouse-Moors-and-Flooding.pdf