Explore every episode of the podcast SideCountry Podcast

Do Britain’s uplands need more management, less management, or simply a different kind?

Recorded at The Game Fair 2026, Richard Negus and George Browne are joined by Dr Nick Hesford and Dr Felix Meister of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust to examine the red grouse and the much larger argument surrounding its habitat.

The conversation ranges across heather moorland, muirburn, wildfire, legal predator control, grouse disease and GWCT’s long-running research into falling breeding productivity. Nick and Felix set out the Trust’s interpretation of the evidence and explain why they see red grouse management as a driver of benefits for curlew, lapwing, golden plover, black grouse and rural communities.

They also confront the politics around grouse shooting, the idea that management is inherently bad, and the difficulty of getting competing camps to look at the same landscape together. Rewilding, ecosystem services and changing Scottish policy all enter the discussion, along with the deceptively simple question beneath it: if nobody manages the moor, what happens next?

In this episode

• Why heather moorland is rare, valuable and politically contested
• What GWCT’s long-term red grouse monitoring is beginning to reveal
• Muirburn, peat, carbon and the distinction between prescribed fire and wildfire
• Predator control, the Otterburn experiment and ground-nesting birds
• Louping ill, strongyle worms, ticks and grouse breeding productivity
• The class politics surrounding grouse shooting and conservation
• Rewilding, ecosystem services and the reality that every land use creates winners and losers
• How joint monitoring can bring gamekeepers and raptor workers onto common ground

Links

• GWCT guide to conservation and grouse moors
• The Moorland Balance — GWCT’s detailed guide to grouse and moorland management
• GWCT’s 2026 red grouse research update
• Predator control and moorland birds — the Otterburn experiment
• GWCT Scotland team — Nick Hesford and Felix Meister
• GWCT Scotland Moor Walks 2026
• Future Moors and changing upland policy
• NatureScot guidance on muirburn licensing
• Scottish Government independent review of grouse moor management — the Werritty Report

Presented by Richard Negus and George Browne

Edited and Produced for SideCountry by Amy Green.

DISCLAIMER

Views are those of individual speakers and do not necessarily represent SideCountry, its presenters, contributors, partners or sponsors. For general information and entertainment only. Laws, seasons, access and guidance change; check official sources, obtain permission and act within your competence.

What makes a wildfire wild? In the first SideCountry episode, Richard Prideaux, George Browne and Amy Green follow that deceptively simple question into the increasingly urgent problem of fire in the British countryside.
The conversation begins with a peregrine hitting George’s window and Australia’s alleged fire-spreading raptors, before turning to the fires that have affected moorland, woodland, farmland and communities across Britain.

They discuss human ignition, disposable barbecues and campfires; the appeal of ‘voluntary outlawdom’ outdoors; and the difficult balance between greater access, personal freedom and responsibility.

There are no neat answers. Rewetting, prescribed burning, cutting, grazing and changes in land management all enter the argument, along with climate change, fuel load, deep-burning peat and the tribal politics surrounding rewilding and grouse-moor management. The result is a wide-ranging discussion about risk, blame and what a more fire-resilient countryside might actually require — with a flaming buzzard, cultural burning and the Theft Act taking the occasional supporting role.


In this episode

• Firehawks, peregrines and opportunistic wildlife
• What British agencies and the public mean by ‘wildfire’
• Human ignition, disposable barbecues, lanterns and campfires
• Climate change, dry weather and increasingly unpredictable conditions
• Rewetting, prescribed burning, cutting, grazing and fuel management
• Cool burns, deep peat fires and ecological damage
• Access, freedom, responsibility and enforcement
• Why the wildfire debate so quickly becomes ecopolitical

Links


Presented by Richard Prideaux, George Browne and Amy Green

Edited and Produced for SideCountry by Amy Green.

DISCLAIMER

Views are those of individual speakers and do not necessarily represent SideCountry, its presenters, contributors, partners or sponsors. For general information and entertainment only. Laws, seasons, access and guidance change; check official sources, obtain permission and act within your competence.