Truth or Fiction?
The 2018 wild fires across England’s uplands sparked a blame game in the press. Expert Chris Dean comments.
Were this year's wild fires in England caused by clearing moors?
WHEN A WILD FIRE that reportedly started near Saddleworth Moor spread into the neighbouring RSPB Dove Stone reserve in early July, it not only threatened breeding waders, it also allowed two sides of a complex debate to start pointing fingers at each other.
In one corner, the grouse moor community, who say controlled burning of old and woody heather over the autumn and winter reduces the risk of wild fires in the summer; and in the other corner, wildlife conservationists, who want to see our uplands become wetter environments more hospitable to peat-forming species such as sphagnum moss – and with less heather.
So, who is right? “Repeated fires do promote the growth of flammable vegetation such as heather and purple moor-grass.” says Chris Dean, who heads up the Moors for the Future Partnership, an initiative that is trying to improve the condition of thousands of hectares of moorland in the Peak District and South Pennines.
“There have been over 400 wild fires in the Dark Peak since 1976, so our favoured option is to restore wetter blanket bog vegetation whilst recognising the need to manage fire risk.” But Dean says the real problem in the moors around Greater Manchester and as far north as Ilkley in West Yorkshire is the degradation of the uplands by coal smoke over a 200-year period.
Pollution killed much of the wetloving sphagnum moss and other blanket bog species, leading to bare peat, water erosion and an environment where wild fires can take hold much more easily.
“Moor owners know that ‘wetter is better’ for raising grouse,” Dean adds. “If they have very dry moors, there is less food – such as cranefly larva, which need wet ground – for their chicks.” Moors for the Future has been operating since 2004, but as Dean points out, impacts of the pollution were felt for some two centuries. Add to that the fact that sphagnum moss spreads very slowly, then it’s going to take a while yet before England’s uplands are in a position where they can resist wild fires during an extreme summer such as the one we have just experienced.
Repeated fires do promote the growth of flammable vegetation such as heather and purple moor-grass.