MOORLAND conservation, Brexit and heritage were just some of the topics covered at this year's Exmoor Society AGM.

There has been some controversy over the land management of the moors over the past year, with environmental campaigner and journalist George Monbiot calling on the Park to stop the traditional controlled burning of the land known as swaling.

Mr Monbiot has argued that grazing animals such as sheep, which he has described as 'the white plague', should not be prioritised over the growth of woodland on the moors.

But at the AGM held at Porlock Village Hall, Exmoor Society chairman Rachel Thomas defended traditional land management.

"There continues to be an anxious debate over traditional moorland management and today’s prescriptive agri-environmental regimes not necessarily suitable for Exmoor conditions," Mrs Thomas.

"This is why the Society had commissioned a report from Robert Deane, Exmoor’s Moorlands – Where Next?, which was launched at the Spring Conference in April.

"The Society argues that the moorlands are why Exmoor remains a National Park and are valued for a whole range of special qualities; they dominate the landscape physically and aesthetically providing access to, and experience of, wide open horizons, a sense of freedom, glimpses of the wild, special habitats and wildlife, valuable natural resources, archaeological features and people’s long cultural associations with the moorland.

"The glue, holding all these values together, is livestock grazing managed by farmers whose skills have been honed over the generations.

"Exmoor upland farmers are rooted in the landscape and understand it better than people from outside."

"However, not every demand for Exmoor’s moorland can be met and keeping the balance between the different interests remains a real challenge for the future,’ Mrs Thomas concluded.

"There will have to be some compromises and unprecedented times remain particularly now with Brexit.

"The challenge for Exmoor is to put forward its own land management scheme, within the national framework, tailored to its specific circumstances."

The Society welcomed the Government's eight-point plan for National Parks, saying it would help the ENP focus on its core purposes.