north Yorks Moors do have muir burn but not to the same extent as the central Highlands, read my post about moorland manicures, Grouse and other moorland creatures have been quite happy to live and thrive on these moors for Millenia, before man could use more than a hawk to get a grouse, even when early firearms were around , flintlocks had a flash before the actual explosion this gave a warning of sorts to the birds and other animals,so grouse lived happily with out mans interference,don't try and blow smoke and make me think that grouse couldn't survive with out mans intervention, at my age I'm not so gullible, we lost harriers and merlins here because of the increase in sheepstock and the Idea that burning off would benefit the sheep, burning so much that about 12 years ago it went into the peat and burned for 7 or 8weeks
this was done by crofters, our club lost a boat ,due to this burning, not for grouse but for sheep, if , as you said the £4mill. was a farming subsidy then it was not made clear on the news only that it was a payment to the estates, after living working and observing for over 50years in the highlands, I don't just accept all I see or hear,an example was when I worked in a hatchery, and we were told of the thousands of jobs in the salmon farming industry, as the job I had took me to most of the fish farms through out the north, where , if there was 20 people employed , after multilplying this by the no. of sites came to less than 2,500, and there were sites with a lot less than 20, some times only 5 or 6, I use this as an example of misinformation around, and I know it works both ways, I have been away from fishing because of an injury , but I am hoping to get back to it very very soon, like this weekend given the weather,
Derek Roxborough