As champions for conservation of the uplands we share one goal: to create wild moors.
Be that moors which host a full range of wildlife, where habitats thrive or moors where the challenges of climate change and flooding are addressed, this is what drives us to do the work that we do.
So we are delighted today to announce our new organisation name: Wild Moors.
For over seven years we’ve been known as Ban Bloodsports on Yorkshire’s Moors, a name which was chosen to push forward a change on the moorlands in our home county. We have united with communities, celebrities, politicians, landowners and businesses to send an urgent wake-up call about the biggest threats our uplands face—wildlife crime, biodiversity loss and habitat damage—and their link to the way our uplands are intensively managed.
From ending grouse shooting on Ilkley Moor to pioneering a phase-out of the practice on Yorkshire Water’s land, we have already influenced change in many areas of the uplands in our county for the better. For the first time in living memory, entire valleys are now being reconceptualised as living landscapes, where wildlife conservation, habitat restoration and climate solutions are replacing grouse shooting as the prevailing land use.
But as part of our success we have established new partnerships with landowners in the uplands of Derbyshire, Lancashire and Scotland. This expansion has taken us beyond our beginnings in Yorkshire to other parts of the UK where our influence is also desperately needed.
Now, more than ever before, there is a need for positive change and the time has come to move the concept forward beyond Yorkshire. What could be more positive than creating Wild Moors everywhere?