What has happened since 2023?

Many congratulations Paul! Very well deserved.

There seems to be one study at least that suggests that tick abundance on wet blanket bog is very low (doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.12141). I wonder if the part of the answer is to re-wet drained and damaged blanket bog? Have you considered tick surveys in your experimental plots?

Out of interest, who is the expert?

Has the expert published their research on ticks and burning? I am sure you can see my concern. You make strong statements based on a conversation with someone in the field. And you tag @naturalengland.bsky.social presumably in an attempt to influence policy, but where is the science?

Thanks for this.

Andreas, what is your "most likely" and "huge" assessment based on? I can only find apparently anecdotal information on the problem from the Moorland Association's website. Can you direct me to any papers on burning and ticks? There seem to be several possible causes of rises in tick numbers.

Andreas, what species of Sphagnum are you recording? Also, why aren't there any error bars for 2025?

It’s quite a stretch to say Heather (Calluna) 'thrives' in wet conditions. It doesn’t, and is usually outcompeted by other mire plant species. That has given rise to the concept of the ‘Calluna Limit’. If a site is wet enough and the ‘wetter’ mire species return, burning isn’t needed.

I quote: "In parts this will definitely be the case. But not in general, that is what peat cores tell us." So, in general, we can't say anything *yet* from peat cores because the analysis has not been done. I think we need to be clear on that, and should avoid drawing conclusions from a few cores.

Andreas: have you done a systematic review/analysis of the peat core evidence? If so, I'd be very interested in seeing it. I'm thinking multiple studies and many 10s or even 100s of cores across large areas. Also, what does heather dominance look like in a peat core?

Neither do I. 10 years is too neat a number anyway. Why not go back 8 years, 12, 17? Would it not make more sense to look first at the pattern of publishing on peatland restoration - how has the number of papers and reports on restoration varied over the last few decades?

First or second, not the third!