Goodness me, the pony misinformation continues, this time from Luke Pollard MP. In an op-ed for the Moorlander today he says that Gov accepted the Fursdon Review recommendation that Ponies & cattle should not be linked for the calculation of AES agreement stocking rates This is simply not true 🧵

The tragedy of the Dartmoor Pony Cull Conspiracy is that misinformation can lead to scientific advice being ignored, & environmental watchdogs like Natural England having their powers curtailed - exactly what the Tories & rightwing press have always wanted. I spoke to @mrjamesob.bsky.social:

@westcountryvoices.bsky.social totally on the money with this ... westcountryvoices.co.uk/dartmoor-pon...

Fake news is putting Dartmoor’s ponies at risk. New deep dive by me into the current furore around Dartmoor's ponies. www.dartmoornature.org.uk/post/ponies-...

The Great Dartmoor Pony Cull Conspiracy of 2026 is such horseshit. Nobody is proposing a cull, FFS! Currently being whipped up on Musk's hellsite by the Leader of the Opposition, who clearly has nothing better to do. Reality: www.dartmoornature.org.uk/post/ponies-...

Yet more rubbish - can I just say, again, neither Defra nor Natural England is proposing a cull! www.standard.co.uk/news/politic...

This is good news for a Friday.

This Dartmoor pony campaign is currently collapsing under the weight of it's own nonsense :) www.gbnews.com/news/labour-...

Good to read a much more sensible, accurate and informed view on the Dartmoor pony issue from Dartmoor Pony Heritage Trust this morning as opposed to the misinformation from others.

Great Dartmoor pony "mythbuster" from Natural England. And super clear As I've said previously, there's been SO much misinformation about all this ... naturalengland.blog.gov.uk/2026/06/09/d...

Here's Dartmoor Nature Alliance's view on Dartmoor's hill ponies. In summary, we completely support Natural England and Defra's position that ponies should be included within stocking calculations. www.dartmoornature.org.uk/post/ponies-...

There is an awful lot of misinformation currently surrounding the issue of ponies on Dartmoor, so please treat headlines about "culls" and the animals being "at risk" from "eco-rules" with a lot of caution. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06...

Happy #worldpeatlandsday ... who doesn't love a good Dartmoor mire, especially in winter. (Pic, Raybarrow Pool, Winter 2020)

🌿 Great to read this in the Guardian today. And wonderful to hear The Duchy Of Cornwall commit to doubling the extent of duchy-managed Atlantic rainforest on Dartmoor by early 2040s, including, crucially, the commitment to the expansion of Black-a-Tor Copse. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

🌳😊🙏Great to have support for our new campaign, including from our friends at Devon Wildlife Trust and Moor Trees - thank you. Here we are at Black-a-Tor Copse yesterday. For more details of the campaign, visit: www.dartmoornature.org.uk/rainforests (📷 🙏Fern Leigh Albert)

🌿 Dartmoor’s rainforests are disappearing. We’re launching a campaign to help bring them back — with a bold aim to DOUBLE rainforest on Dartmoor’s commons. More trees. More wildlife. A wilder future. Read more here www.dartmoornature.org.uk/rainforests

A few curlew songs/calls picked up on the Biophones out on NE Dartmoor. Not many but there is at least one, poss two birds around - maybe others in other areas. They can be elusive when they want to be. Here's a nice spectrogram of some calls picked up in the middle of the night.

Lovely early morning RSPB Dartmoor moorland bird survey up at Warren House/Headland Warren … one of the better places on Dartmoor for birds. Great to see and hear lots of Whinchat.

Going through the first batch of sounds collected last week by the Biophones ... both were located on mires on N Dartmoor, and this is a lovely example of what these places sound like at first light at the moment - the spectrogram shows a grasshopper warbler "reeling" and a "drumming" snipe.

‘Wild Flowers of Spring and Early Summer’ Artist: Maurice de Sausmarez (for Odhams)

Gave a talk about Dartmoor Nature Alliance to a very positive and upbeat West Devon Green Party today. Could it be that Greens are in with a chance at the next election in this super rural constituency with a Tory majority of just 61?

I am doing some remote acoustic monitoring on North Dartmoor to help pick up Curlew from the Duchy-led Headstarting Project. These great little bits of kit are supplied by the Wild Connect - read more here www.wild-connect.com/the-biophone/

Welcome to Dartmoor National Park Authority's new chief exec, Tom Surrey. www.themoorlander.co.uk/news/local-n...

Good to read the Duchy of Cornwall's new "Nature Rich Plan" mentioning both improving SSSIs on Dartmoor from "unfavourable no-change" and increasing the resilience of the moor's fragmentary rainforests. Is this place on the cusp of real change for nature? duchyofcornwall.org/article/a-na...

Great to be part of this weekend's Dartmoor Tors Festival. Well done to the organisers, and thanks to Gillian from www.dartmoorwalkingtours.co.uk for helping me lead a wonderful dawn chorus walk on Saturday morning.

My feature from last year on “swaling” on Dartmoor - in summary it does at lot more harm than good! (And please don’t go on about “fuel load” without reading the article or at least having a basic understanding of the ecology of moorland vegetation) www.dartmoornature.org.uk/post/swaling

“Bit by bit, every little helps. If we keep this up, year on year, we will be over the next valley, then over the next valley." Lovely piece in the Guardian this weekend about the heroic work to restore Dartmoor's peatlands. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

"By 2030, our landscapes will include a mix of different land uses, but some less productive landscapes will be making more space for nature and capturing carbon." Land Use Framework published today Browns in this map, also in the report, are less productive landscapes. #justsaying 😊

Great news. Dartmoor is an ecological disaster zone masquerading as a National Park, as its ecosystems have been grazed out by sheep. Now this must change.

Brilliant result from our legal challenge about overgrazing on Dartmoor ⚖️ Now the Dartmoor Commoners' Council must fulfil its statutory duty & urgently make appropriate assessments of stocking densities & reduce the number of sheep where overgrazing is apparent. wildjustice.org.uk/dartmoor/wil...

BREAKING: Great news - and a huge WELL DONE to @wildjustice.bsky.social 🙏 ❤️ wildjustice.org.uk/dartmoor/wil...

Sign this :). I mean, what’s not to like here www.change.org/p/replace-wi...

"The land set aside for sheep is twice the size of all built-up areas combined, and yet constant grazing strips areas of natural foliage." Interesting to see the pro building lobby now going after sheeps - not sure how that's going to play out ... 😊 www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

ICYMI ... just a few reasons why fully investing in the restoration of nature in places like Dartmoor is a really good idea. Yes, a lot of cash is needed, but it's absolutely NOT a cost - it's a huge SAVING - for you, me and everything else. www.itv.com/news/2026-02...

Well done, Duchy of Cornwall, Natural England, Moor Trees, Woodland Trust. Dartmoor needs more rainforest! duchyofcornwall.org/article/volu...

A wonderful “Dartmoor-y” day.

As a geographer by training I do a love a map - just looking at the 1960s Land Utilistion Survey maps for the Dartmoor Commons, probably the earliest mapped vegetation survey on the moor (C is Calluna, M Molinia, E Trichophorum, F Festuca/Agrostis).

From small acorns ... good news from the ever-wonderful Moor Trees - putting back native woodland on Dartmoor. moortrees.org/major-milest...

Gov's Magic map now shows the total cost of the Forest of Dartmoor HLS agreement, including all the "roll-overs" following the end of the initial ten-year agreement in 2022. This scheme was launched in May 2012 at a cost to the taxpayer of £13M. That cost has now risen to £17.5M.

An argument has long been made that “forced” reductions in grazing by Natural England in the 2000s led to “undrgrazing” and the rise in dominance of Molinia on Dartmoor Commons. Pic here from a report I’ve found from 1985 showing Molinia dominance around Tavy Head at the height of overstocking.

This is a good read ... cieem.net/resource/hab...

The People's Emergency Briefing - Crowdfunder nearly there to enable this briefing to be shared across the UK - please help... www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/the-people...

Since saving 50 acres of #Dartmoor, where the Rivers Strane & Swincombe meet, the DPA has devoted itself to nurturing the health of the #mires and open #moorland. For 2026 and beyond we're pleased to announce refreshed land management plans for the site. dartmoorpreservation.co.uk/preserving-s...

Want to know how your favourite Dartmoor Common is being managed? Following an EIR request in Autumn last year, here are all the Dartmoor Commons Habitats Regulations Assessments for the HLS agreements, along with the management plans for each common. www.dartmoornature.org.uk/file-share/4...

Why winter sheep grazing on Dartmoor’s commons must end. Bold decisions are needed to ensure new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier and Landscape Recovery Schemes deliver for nature and protected sites on Dartmoor's precious commons. www.dartmoornature.org.uk/post/why-win...

After a few months break, I’ll be sharing news and views again on Dartmoor nature restoration here on Bsky - hopefully a few interesting things on the horizon. In the meantime here’s a view from just above Warren House earlier this afternoon.

This is SO good, and inspiring, well done @reclaimourmoors.bsky.social

🥾 Just shy of 200 people joined us up at Moscar Moor today to mark the start of the shooting season and united around our call for this huge grouse shooting estate in the Peak District to be taken into community ownership.

Great chance to share your hopes for nature restoration on Dartmoor …

A good read. I don't agree with some of the points, but it's thoughtful and well-written. sustainablefoodtrust.org/news-views/s...