IS BURNING land on Exmoor doing more damage than good to the national park's environment?

Exmoor groups are fighting back after a leading environmental campaigner and journalist said that the National Park's landscape has become "sheepwrecked".

Guardian journalist George Monbiot has appeared on BBC's Inside West and has written an article entitled: "Meet the conservationists who believe that burning is good for wildlife" in which he criticises the authorities for carrying out the age-old practice of swaling.

Swaling is the controlled practice of burning the land, which Exmoor National Park says "maintains the character of the landscape by rejuvenating moorland plants, which in turns provides grazing for livestock and habitats for wildlife."

But Mr Monbiot argues that swaling damages soil and hydrology, incinerates wildlife and simplifies ecosystems, and he describes the practice as being "about as environmentally friendly as tipping bleach into a river".

Mr Monbiot writes: "'Grazing livestock': well that's the nub of it. This burning has sod all to do with protecting the natural world and everything to do with extracting as much grazing from the land as possible...I understand that in some places there is a difficult balance to be struck between the demands of tenants and commoners who graze their animals on the moor and the conservation of wildlife. I happen to believe that too much weight is given to sheep farming, and too little to wildlife."

But chairman of Exmoor Hill Farming Network Dave Knight said sheep farming is an important part of Exmoor's history and heritage.

"While swaling might look extreme, in reality a good burn only burns the plant cover and not the soil, this releases nutrients to feed the fresh plants that emerge after a burn, grass, flowers and other small plants first, then heather, followed by gorse etc.

Mr Knight said that Exmoor is one of the major sheep production areas of the country, as well as beef production adding that sheep and cattle shape Exmoor with much of the local economy is built on livestock farming as well as the related businesses including livestock markets and a sheep tag and equipment manufacturer.

"Hill farmers are hard workers, they are "doers", we, probably like much of the population, are sick of the liberal elite like George Monbiot trying to lord it over us while seemingly contributing little themselves," Mr Knight said.

"George makes his living by choosing a subject, causing controversy and running with it as long as it sells column space & books, he throws stones from the side lines to push his agenda. He's a talker and talk is cheap.

"If he wants any sort of credibility why doesn't he rent a farm or block of moorland and practice his opinions? Or is that too much like hard work?"