A Charter for the Open Hill

In Scotland today, those seeking to significantly increase the tree cover of the country are in the ascendant. The ‘lobby’ for more trees is eclectic, including the commercial forestry industry, the larger conservation NGOs who promote ‘reforesting’, the rewilding movement, the climate change mitigation movement – and the Scottish Government whose policies promote forest planting.

But, of course, all these trees have to go somewhere and most are planted in the Scottish uplands because there are fewer agricultural and landowner constraints here. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent lobby arguing on behalf of ‘the open hill’ – that is our unforested hills and moors. This is in spite of the fact that temperate, oceanic moorland is a globally rare habitat.

Apart from the Heather Trust, the only organisations who are arguing strongly for the retention of our open hills seem to be the shooting lobby, particularly those representing grouse shooting and deer stalking. But in these political times, where shooting animals for sport is frowned upon, these organisations are not taken seriously. As a result, our moorland suffers ‘guilt by association’: the argument being that the moors are only present because of the past bad management by landowners, particularly overgrazing and burning: the landscape should, of course, be tree covered!

Politics tends to override evidence, the evidence being that tree cover has declined naturally from a postglacial maximum and acid heaths and moors have come to dominate – as would be expected in this, the oligocratic phase of postglacial succession. This succession has happened also in previous interglacials when humans were not present.

I would argue that open hills and moors of Scotland represent one of the most natural vegetation patterns remaining in Western Europe, having retained, unlike other regions, a significant population of large indigenous herbivores throughout the postglacial period. The current pattern of isolated woodland within a matrix of moorland is in fact a key biodiversity characteristic of upland Scotland.

In recent years, there have been concerns expressed by some local communities about large scale landscape change taking place around them on their cherished hills, whether tree planting or large-scale energy infrastructure, which they are powerless to stop. For example, Oxygen Conservation’s plans to plant trees around Glen Lednock in Perthshire. Associated with these changes, local people also see a loss of rural employment.

There is, in fact, no government policy which aims to protect the open hills of Scotland – a landscape which could be seen as iconic of Scotland itself. Hence the creation of ‘A Charter for the Open Hill’. The aim of this is to ask the Scottish Government to identify key areas of open hill and moorland which should be safeguarded for future generations: there is currently no such locational strategy for moorland. It should be noted in passing that most people associate the word ‘moorland’ with heather moorland. But this is only one type and the Charter covers all types: dry heath, wet heath, grass moor and peat bogs.

The Charter, full details of which can be found on its website: https://hill-charter.scot/, has been produced independently of any organisation, so as not to be accused of bias towards any particular interest group. Individuals and supporting organisations are encouraged to sign-it. The process is time-limited, ending on 31^st October 2026 and the plan is to present it to Scottish Ministers at the end of the year. By chance, I did meet the relevant Minster, Jim Fairlie, at the Scone Game Fair, and discussed it with him: so he is appraised of what is going-on.

Note that the charter is not about how moorland should be managed, but about the need tor retain it in the first place.

James Fenton

Author of the book ‘Landscape Change in the Scottish Highlands: Imagination and Reality’

Visit the Charter for the Open Hill website