Fires leave me burning with anger
THESE wild fires are personal to us all.
As I surveyed the fire damage to the moors from Belmont Road, just outside of Bolton, a number of thoughts were washing around in my head.
How would wildlife survive? How would adult birds feel about leaving their fledglings behind to die? Would panicking foxes, sheep or deer escape when faced with a huge inferno? Why on earth would anyone start something like this?
I almost felt it was a personal attack on my moors. This is my wilderness, my thinking space. It’s a place I engage with wildlife. I have seen foxes, buzzards, blackcaps, meadow pipits, brown hares, roe deer, a huge dog fox, a merlin and kestrels. My path is often serenaded by skylarks up too high to see. Butterflies and bees colour the sides of the corridors where I wander.
There was no sound of curlews or skylarks as I looked at the fire-ravaged hillsides. Plumes of smoke popped up from deepburning peat under the blackened surface.
There were signs of hope. A thrush was singing in a nearby wood, joined by blackbirds. Bees and hoverflies were making the most of the plants around the edges of the ravaged areas.
Then I saw something desperately sad. A white butterfly had a source of food on the moor just a couple of days before. Now it was forlornly hunting for that plant, but it had gone. This image has haunted me this week, a white butterfly in stark contrast to the blackened peat. It’s too sad to even contemplate how that insect would now survive. And fire service personnel, bravely battling these blazes all over the region, told me stories of finding the carcasses of wildlife and dying sheep. One told me he found a toad alive in a hole. The chances of that surviving with no local food would be low.
The firemen and women from across the north west, the police forces and search and rescue teams who have helped out and all the volunteers are amazing. United Utilities can also be proud of their staff who have worked tirelessly to put out these blazes at Winter Hill and Saddleworth Moor. And in future we must find ways to support our local water supplier as they endeavour to keep large areas of the moorland wet, which helps to prevent fires spreading as well as providing homes for wildlife and capturing carbon.
Then there have been fires at St Anne’s Local Nature Reserve and at Wigan Flashes, which Wildlife Trust staff have been involved in fighting. They report small mammals and toads rushing to escape the flames, probably all started by arsonists or careless people. Our staff have helped the overstretched fire services to beat back the fires. So this is personal. My message to everyone thinking of setting up a barbecue, lighting fires, dropping bottles, which can create fires, or lighting Chinese lanterns during this prolonged dry spell, is think about what you are doing. And don’t do it. »●To become a member of The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside go to the website at www.lancswt.org.uk or call 01772 324129. For more information about Cheshire Wildlife Trust call 01948 820728 or go to cheshirewildlifetrust. org.uk.