Trust says hillsides turning from purple to brown after loss of 75% of plant on some slopes

Hillsides across Britain have turned from glorious purple to muddy brown because of a worrying loss of heather, conservationists have warned.

The National Trust has flagged up that 75% of the plant has been lost or is struggling on some slopes that it manages in the west of England and blames the climate emergency for the problem.

Experts from the Heather Trust, which is based in Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland, said it was seeing similar problems across moorland in Scotland, northern England and Wales.

According to the National Trust, the hills at Long Mynd in Shropshire and Holnicote in Somerset are typically awash with a haze of purple through August and into early September.

But this year the National Trust, which cares for both landscapes, has seen up to 75% of the heather in poor health due to a combination of last year’s drought and damage from the heather beetle.

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Peter Carty, its countryside parkland and gardens manager in Shropshire, said: “Last year’s high temperatures, and subsequent lack of rain, damaged a large area of heather and it is clear from the orangey-brown coloration this year that the plants are seriously stressed and unlikely to flower.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Heather blooming on the Long Mynd during August 2017. Photograph: PJ Howsam/National Trust

“The milder winter also led to an increase in the heather beetle numbers, which are a natural element of the heather ecosystem, as it wasn’t cold enough to kill off their larvae. The beetle affects heather by damaging the outer layers of the leaf, making it more susceptible to drought stress.

“In places where heather was sheltered from the extreme or where damp conditions were present, the heather has survived. However, there will be no mass flowering this year.”

Carty, who has worked in the area for 20 years, said the slopes were the dullest in living memory and blames the climate emergency.

The state of the heather on the Shropshire hills had improved over the decades with conservationists working with the “commoners” who have the rights to graze animals on the slopes to limit the damage sheep can cause.

The lack of blooming heather has serious impacts on other wildlife, such as the red grouse and emperor moth, which in its caterpillar stage relies on the plant for food.

Carty said: “At this time of year the slopes should be purple and stunningly beautiful. The sight of the heather is one of the highlights of the year. It’s really sad. It brings it home to me that no matter how much work landowners and conservationists do, climate change is the much wider problem we have to address.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest There is much less Heather on the Long Mynd in Shropshire this year. Photograph: P.J. Howsam/National Trust

Keith Jones, a climate change specialist at the National Trust, added: “We are seeing first-hand the impacts of climate change on at least two of these special landscapes within our care.

“Last year’s prolonged hot summer vastly restricted the supply of water to the plants. This, together with the lack of rain over the winter and first half of the year, has not been enough to replenish the plants.”

The team at Holnicote on the edge of Exmoor is working on a solution to help with the land drying out by planting more trees to help slow the flow of water further up the valley as part of its Riverlands project. It is also restoring wet habitats such as blanket bogs and mire which hold water after high rainfall and release it slowly in times of drought.

Basil Stow, an area ranger for the National Trust in Exmoor, added: “We are seeing damage across hundreds of acres of heather and on our neighbouring land. One of the unfortunate consequences of the heather suffering is that tougher plants such as molinia [moor grass] have chance to take hold.

“Heather is a resilient plant and capable of regenerating from the rootstock or from seed – so we will need to watch and wait to see what happens next year but we are hopeful that it will recover with careful management.”

Anne Gray, the director of the Heather Trust, echoed the concerns. She said: “One of our trustees told me just yesterday that he has been out on moorland in the north of England quite extensively in the last couple of weeks and had never seen beetle damage as bad as it is this year. It is worrying.”

But she added the heather could recover. She said: “Though plants can look dead, they are often not and will recover if they get decent growing conditions in following years and are also not too severely attacked by beetles during those recovery years. Being careful to ensure they are not grazed too heavily during recovery will also help.”