THIRTY conservationists met yesterday to plot a survival strategy for a rare bird which is slowly making a comeback in its last remaining English stronghold, the North Pennine Hills.

Thousands of pounds are being spent on rescuing the distinctive black grouse, which, with only 900 males in the area last year, counts as one of Britain's most endangered species.

Countryside managers met for a day-long workshop on Lord Barnard's Raby Estate, near Barnard Castle, County Durham, organised by the Forestry Commission and the North Pennines Black Grouse Recovery Project.

Black grouse is a priority species for the UK Biodiversity Action Plan and the project is a partnership between the Game Conservancy Trust, the RSPB, English Nature, Northumbrian Water and the Ministry of Defence.

One of its aims is to create more suitable habitats, including a mosaic of heather moor, rough grazing pasture, hay meadows and native woodlands on the moorland fringe.

Colin Grayson, operations manager with the Forestry Commission, said: "It's critical we do all we can to help black grouse and this workshop will deal in practical advice.

"The event has been oversubscribed, showing that there's a real enthusiasm to revive the bird's prospects."

Over the past year, the Forestry Commission has invested more than £40,000 to support woodland schemes in the North-East and issued new conservation guidelines.

One simple method of preventing needless fatalities is already proving effective.

Not the brightest or nimblest of birds, low-flying grouse often perish on steel wire fencing protecting young trees from sheep.

Now shiny metal plates which reflect the sunlight are being fixed to fences to warn birds off potentially dangerous flight paths.

Phil Warren, black grouse recovery project officer, said: "The bird can fly at 70 miles an hour and is not always agile enough to avoid such obstacles.

"All new fencing to create habitat for black grouse needs to be marked to stop these unnecessary deaths."

Research for the project has found that the birds are responding so well to sympathetic management and predator control that numbers have tripled at some Pennine sites.

Mr Warren said: "The potential to increase the population definitely exists. It's a question of grasping the opportunity."