28/08/2026
It looks wild in the picture, the vegetation featured is largely bracken so it isn’t actually much use for wildlife. It is pretty much useless for productive livestock grazing too as it is covered in bracken. If the bracken were controlled then it could be grazed by hill sheep. Hill breeds are kept purely to produce “draft” breeding ewes for farms at lower levels, an outdated system designed to fit around grouse shooting and use upland estates for a farming income. This estate isn’t used for grouse shooting so the land needs rehabilitation as a wildlife refuge. Traditional hill sheep farming is no longer profitable as the farmers have lost the EU subsidies that kept them going. Indeed, this farming system is no longer necessary as improved breeding techniques like genomics will revolutionise the industry.
Rewilding this huge area will have no impact on agricultural production in the UK. Accordingly this is it’s best use with the added benefit that income from wildlife tourism and outdoor pursuits massively outweighs any community income or benefit from grouse shooting. A significant proportion should be growing trees or scrub.
The first priority is bracken control and re-wetting. Re-wetting moors properly takes many years. The sooner the project starts the better.
Giant former grouse moor near Sheffield to be rewilded to stop fires
