Impacts need to compare apples with apples (not oranges; i.e., unmanaged locations elsewhere are different for different reasons!), over long enough time (ecological impacts rather than disturbance) and large enough scale (at several sites and landscape-scale as impacts differ and get diluted).

The @ect-uk.bsky.social support came to the rescue many times. Thanks 🤗
It is so difficult to find long-term funding for such studies, although it is such long-term studies which best inform @naturalengland.bsky.social evidence on which to base sound policy. 📖

Hi Mike (and co-authors). This is an absolutely brilliant paper. Read it quickly once, so need to read again, but it is so spot on and so much needed! Wonderful. Confirms a lot of my observations and modelling 😀.
Happy Peaty Christmas!

I also note that the @moorlandassoc.bsky.social actually acknowledges complexity:
"Impacts are mixed, site-specific & scale-dependent", which I think correctly reflects our conclusions, statements a the evidence base.

Key is this:
"There is certainly no evidence to allow a generalisation of overall negative impacts, even on Sphagnum moss (Ref); the same review also points out that often reported negative impacts are short-lived and need to be seen as part of a patchwork across larger scales (catchment/landscape)"

Hi, yes, there are varied responses, but it is important to consider space and time as well as the generic aspect.
Overall, the summary table statement is:
"Ill-defined, confounding factors, unclear and/or not enough data to support such generic statement, scale (time and space) dependent".

Good old home town in Germany, overdue!

Maybe send me an email...but I might have to point you to David who did the analyses. Btw, I will be away now for two weeks...

Wonderful! Coming over to Alfeld (my home town) next week. Shall wave 👋 hope you got my email (easy to find...)

I don't think I talked about burning and ticks but rather tall heather and brash layers as perfect habitat. But a good point to think about consequences of burning too.

The key issue for many claims seems to be to consider the potential to rewet upland peatland areas (a lot of different types). Rewetting is (mostly) good, but many sites just cannot be rewetted to become like those wet Border Mires (e.g., valley bogs). Complex interactions also with grazing ...

I did not talk about very wet blanket bog. The meeting was in the North York Moors. Large areas of upland bog (even blanket bog) are naturally drier or dry and perfect for ticks for many reasons. Numbers are increasing rapidly for many reasons.

Apparently not published but to be part of a book. We need to wait and see ...

Andy, I seem to be very unsuccessful in influencing policy. This was just a statement raising a valid concern, which should be considered by Natural England. It was raised at the meeting.

Not only do I love Tubingen but also peatlands! Shame to have missed this! Would love to see the talk, if this is possible :)