THE North Yorkshire moors are to benefit from nearly £3m from Brussels and Westminster to safeguard the future of the heather landscape and its native sheep.

Controlling bracken on the moors removes a key threat to moorland habitats, says Michael Graham, the North York Moors National Park Authority's estates and moorland officer.

Writing in Voice of the Moors, the magazine of the North Yorkshire Moors Association, Mr Graham says a five-year regeneration programme has enabled funding of nearly £3m to be made through the British Government, European Union, the park authority and private businesses.

Nearly 50pc of the grant aid was targeted to improvement in moorland through heather burning and that, said Mr Graham, had improved the heather for grouse and reduced the risk of summer wild fires, as well as controlling bracken.

Some 14,500 hectares of bracken had been cleared through spraying. "Follow up to ensure eradication has been shown to be vital for a period of up to eight years after primary treatment" he added.

At the turn of the Millennium the moors were grazed by some 55,000 sheep but the figure has since been reduced by 2,000.

"There is concern that reductions in flocks will increase under-grazing still further with resulting tree regeneration," warns Mr Graham, who says that a major problem is the relatively low profitability of heep on the moors compared with Northern areas, associated with poor soils, nutrition and tick-borne disease.

Sheep ticks are endemic on the moors, he says. "They have a three- to five-year life cycle and, needing a blood meal, they transmit a number of diseases of which the most notable is louping ill, which is fatal in 80pc of infected grouse chicks or lambs."

Funding has been given to reduce the tick population through external treatment of sheep says Mr Graham. The regeneration scheme has seen the losses from lambs reduced - down from 17pc in 1995 to less than 10pc in 2000. That, he says, is equivalent to about 2,000 more lambs surviving each year.

Grouse too have benefited from the tick-reduction campaign. Failure to control infestations of ticks or worms in game birds such as grouse will have a major negative impact on the viability of the moors.

Mr Graham says the park is working with farmers and landowners to maintain and enhance the moors. The new Environmental Stewardship Schemes being introduced by Defra will provide financial support to them.

More than 70 moor graziers have new five-year sheep wildlife enhancement schemes but Mr Graham questions whether the annual budget will be adequate to meet the demand. "We expect the NPA to have a leading role in the introduction of the scheme," he adds.