CENTURIES of upland management is in jeopardy, according to the Tenant Farmers’ Association (TFA).

Ken Lumley, North-East regional chairman of the TFA, said the marginalisation of farming was damaging the landscape and biodiversity of the uplands.

He said many people mistakenly believed the uplands had just happened and were best left to nature.

“In fact, they have been managed carefully by land managers for centuries,” he said.

“Not only are farmers responsible for the stone walls, field barns, hedgerows and field patterns displayed in the uplands, it is through grazing that the heather and grass moorlands and the fragile ecosystems thrive.”

Mr Lumley said farming’s importance in the uplands had been downgraded over recent years – agri-environment schemes often required farmers to remove livestock from the hills, but this had contributed to the problem.

One obvious result of reduced stocking had been the “massive explosion” of bracken, something which had also been a major contributory factor in recent wildfires which had broken out.

“The mass of dry vegetation allowed those fires to become quickly out of control,” he said.

“We need again to value and nurture stockmanship for the future of our upland areas. Livestock farming provides the most reliable and coherent basis upon which the management of these most beautiful, yet fragile, landscapes and ecology will be sustained.”

Mr Lumley said one reason uplands were special was their remoteness.

While not advocating that they should be closed, he said: “We should look to more managed access in consultation with those who live on, and work, the land and rely less on open access by the public without involvement of the farming community.”