Dartmoor landowner who won wild camping ban may be putting rare beetle at risk

Dartmoor national park. Photograph: Terry Mathews/Alamy

The landowner who took Dartmoor national park to court to ban wild camping may be putting a rare beetle at risk by releasing pheasants next to an ecologically important woodland, against the advice of environmental experts.

This is despite him having said he pushed for a wild camping ban in order to “improve conservation of the Dartmoor commons”, arguing that campers damage the national park with litter and disturbance.