The Egton Estate, located within the North York Moors National Park, has been honored with the “Life on Land” award by RedList Revival, a charity organization dedicated to recognizing and promoting effective management practices that aid in the conservation of endangered species. This award is granted to properties that are reversing the declining population trends of crucial species and are among the top 1% in the UK for the abundance of a specific key species. The Egton Estate has received this prestigious recognition for their Lapwing population.
Egton Estate is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, with areas designated as Special Protection Areas and Special Areas of Conservation. The property extends for 6,000 acres where 4,900 acres are heather moorland, 500 acres of pasture and 400 acres of woodland.
POLICY RELEVANCE
In a time, where European Institutions are discussing Europe’s new Nature Restoration Law, Egton conservation example highlight the nature restoration work made for hunting and shooting estates in Europe and its impact on the future of endangered bird species.
The recovery of red listed species like Lapwing, Curlew, or Merlin are strongly connected with moorland restoration as all ecosystems strongly depend on nature and habitat restoration. Hunters and hunting estates have been working towards this goal for years and will continue their path aiming for a nature rich in wildlife and biodiversity and contributing to the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and nature restoration targets.
Egton is a shooting Estate focused on Red Grouse. The estate’s management focusing on the Red Grouse with moorland management measures also benefits a wide range of other species, such as the Lapwing, Golden Plover, Curlew, and Merlin . Those measures include measures such aspredator control, restoration burning and grazing management. In addition,restoration measures have been applied; peat dams have been installed and drainage ditches in deep peat blocked to raise water levels and improve soil’s water quantity which benefits waders and plants reducing carbon emissions and improving biodiversity.
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Photo source: https://www.egtonestate.co.uk/grouseshooting.html
A little about the Egton Estate:
Egton High Moor is approximately 4,900 acres of heather moorland and is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
It is on the North East fringe of the North York Moors National Park neighboring Rosedale Moor, Wheeldale and Danby. The moor looks across to Whitby and the coast.
The grouse moor is taken care of on a day to day basis by two full time game keepers, Andrew and Ross who manage the heather moorland habitat for the benefit of all species, particularly waders that live, migrate to and from and breed upon it. Over and above the Red grouse, other species that benefit from the work undertaken by Ross and Andrew include Golden plover, Lapwing, Curlew and Merlin amongst others. Olly and his team take a huge interest in the heather moorland and continue to manage the landscape to support such a diverse range of flora and fauna.
