Amendments by highland MSP Kate Forbes (below), which will make training mandatory in order to obtain a muirburn licence, were unanimously passed.
The SGA was integral to development of the recent muirburn training, along with NatureScot, SFRS and other land management groups. As a body advocating and supporting high professional standards, the SGA is comfortable with the new training requirement.
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Members will be fully updated in due course as to when these new arrangements will come into effect.
The muirburn season is also set to change following 2 further amendments (101 and 102) in the name of Kate Forbes, which passed virtually un-opposed.
Effectively, the season will open two weeks earlier than present, but will also end two weeks earlier.
The suggested rationale for the move to end the season early, on 31st March, was to avoid any overlap with the nesting times of ground-nesting birds.
However, the evidence for this is scant.
A 2021 BTO report (above) stated there was very little overlap between muirburn and the nesting times of upland birds likely to be affected by muirburn. The same report said that, even with climate changes, the times when birds likely to be impacted by muirburn would be nesting is likely only to creep marginally every 8-10 years.
It would appear these amendments leant themselves more to political compromise than a step which practitioners, who carry out muirburn in a highly considered way, will welcome.
Unsurprisingly, the SGA did not support this and will look to engage with members and the Minister further at Stage 3.
A very positive step for practitioners was amendment 97 tabled by Alasdair Allan MSP, which passed unanimously.
Mr Allan’s amendment corrected a section of the Bill which failed to acknowledge the most up-to-date UK science on the comparative merits of different methods of vegetation control.
Without the amendment, those utilising a muirburn licence to carry out muirburn on peatlands would only have been able to do so if other options such as cutting were ‘not available’.
In its submission to the Committee on this point, the SGA said:
“The best long-term science we have on the merits, or otherwise, of different methods of managing peatlands habitats, by York University, Peatland-ES-UK, states that, comparing prescribed burning with mowing or no management, burning can take up twice the carbon, per year, compared to mowing or no management.
In many cases, prescribed burning will be the best option, of all the options, for managing peatlands.
Therefore, it is very short sighted to say muirburn can only take place when no other method is available. ‘Practicable’ is a better word.”
Thankfully, Mr Allan’s amendment adopts the use of the word ‘practicable’ into the legislation, which gives land managers and NatureScot much more flexibility on whether muirburn is appropriate on a given piece of ground, on a case by case basis.
The Bill will now move into Stage 3, with the SGA, as ever, ready to work diligently on behalf of members to achieve positive changes to the final wording.
