BMC access officer Cath Flitcroft takes a look at the causes and impacts of moorland wild fires.

Few will have failed to notice the rash of moorland fires that have swept the country over the past few years during the summer months. 

Most recently, fire-fighters have tackled moorland fires across swathes of Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and the Peak District which threaten to cause considerable environmental damage to fragile moorland ecosystems and destroy remote cottages and farm buildings.

The resources of the Fire Services, National Park Rangers, National Trust and landowners are often stretched to the limit during the warmer, drier months. The bill for helicopter support on National Trust land alone ran into tens of thousands of pounds back in 2003. It’s a little known fact that all helicopter costs are borne by the relevant landowners whether they be public companies like United Utilities, charities like the National Trust or individual owners.

But fire is nothing new in the countryside. The hills of the UK are largely a man-made landscape shaped by millennia of human activity using the ‘tools’ of fire and grazing animals. The use of fire continues to the present day, particularly on the grouse moors, where keepers burn the heather in rotation to provide the mosaic of different plants upon which the unique red grouse depend.

However these management fires take place in the winter when animal life is dormant or away on migration and the peat is wet and less prone to burning. Most importantly these burns tend to be small and within a rotation, so species are able to move into a newly created and developing habitat as it becomes suitable after the fire. This is not the case with unintentional ‘wildfires’ which are, without exception, very damaging.

Why should we be concerned?
The main answer is that many of our species have not evolved to cope with fire – it’s not a natural part of our ecosystems or climate. Principally it is the heathland and peatland habitats that are particularly prone to wildfire in the UK – mainly because it is a habitat dominated by dwarf woody shrubs. Winter fires, if carefully executed, can be beneficial to some species like red grouse but any fires in the ‘active’ season between April and October can be extremely damaging. There is no feature of our upland environment that is not harmed in some way by these fires.

What makes the hills so special?
At a personal level what makes these areas special to us is often intangible – the emotional and near spiritual relationship that we have with a relatively wild and exhilarating environment. At a more objective level there are a series of special features that characterise our uplands.

In global terms moorlands, and many of the closely related species that live in them, have a restricted distribution. Heather and bilberry, for example, are really only found on the western fringe of the European continent – predominantly in the British Isles - as are some of the lower plants, like mosses, liverworts and lichens which thrive here.

The assemblage of birds that live in the uplands is also virtually unique at an international level. Although their density may not always be high, the gathering of special species to nest in spring means that many birds reach internationally important numbers on our moors.

In human terms too, the moors are vitally important. They form the water-gathering grounds for many cities, and act as recreational spaces where people can relax away from the pressures of the modern world. And last, but not least, they form an important part of the country’s agriculture – our hills, moors and mountains are literally the backbone of the UK’s sheep industry.

Unintentional summertime fire can seriously damage and impact upon all of these aspects. It’s therefore in all our interests, whether as walker, fell runner, climber, farmer, landowner or conservationist to work to reduce the number of wildfires.

What are the impacts?
The impacts are many and complex and highly variable depending on the prevailing conditions, each and every fire is different.

Some are obvious, such as the direct impact upon nesting birds and other animals and plants. Even where many adult birds can escape, the entire brood from the year’s breeding can be lost over the affected areas. For example, back in 2003, no young were reared from 7.4 square kilometres of Bleaklow – an area where potentially around 50 to 70 pairs of Golden Plover might be expected to breed.

Attractive species of conservation concern like Golden Plover, Merlin, Short-eared Owl, Dunlin, Curlew and Hen Harrier may all be seriously affected as they nest on the ground. The consequences are possibly more serious for invertebrates, lizards and snakes, whose populations may be held in small colonies that can be wiped out by a single fire.

The recovery of plants varies according to the severity of a fire. If the fire, driven by the wind, sweeps through quickly, the rootstock may be relatively undamaged and some plants may be able to quickly regrow. But where a fire burns slowly it can kill the rootstock and large amounts of peat can be ignited and lost. These deep-seated fires are very difficult to extinguish and may burn for weeks, the only way to put them out is by dousing hot spots with water. In remote locations the only cost-effective means of fighting such fire is by helicopter.

Some of the effects of fires are less obvious. After a fire the normally saturated peat becomes desiccated and more acidic – especially where the local rainfall is contaminated by acidic pollution, as in the southern Pennines. This can be as low as pH 2.8 on Kinder and Bleaklow adding greatly to the problems that we face in restoring a protective cover of vegetation.

There is also a wider economic impact. Apart from the loss of grazing land, the peat, once it’s dried by fire, is readily eroded and immediately becomes a new source of sediment that is washed into streams, rivers and particularly reservoirs, reducing their capacity. Even worse, the water companies will experience a tremendous flush of dirty, brown-coloured water which reaches their treatment works during the winters in the years following a fire. This colouration is largely the result of bacterial activity in the dry peat following a fire and can be very expensive to remove from the water supply. The residue ends up either in landfill or mixed with paper pulp as a soil conditioner. A double kick in the teeth for the environment.

What happens afterwards?
The process of restoration of the damaged areas can be extremely difficult, expensive and time consuming. It is probably not possible to ever get moorland back into the same ecological condition, it is irreversibly damaged. However, techniques have been developed to do an acceptable job of making good the damage, though the cost can run to several thousand pounds per acre.

Some of the techniques used to achieve recovery are not always popular. In particular, sheep are the major enemy of plant regrowth, and if they are not excluded they will rapidly eat the young shoots of recovery. Usually the only way of keeping the sheep away is by erecting temporary fences. Land managers would ask for some patience and tolerance from users – very often they have no wish to erect fences in relatively wild and open country but it remains the only realistic option if they're going to tackle the damage. The fences are only there for a definite purpose and for a temporary period.

What is being done to tackle the problem?
In the Peak District a partnership of agencies including the National Park Authority, the Fire Services, the National Trust and landowners and user groups like the BMC and Rambler’s Association have been working for several years to prevent these damaging fires from happening. And programmes have been developed to raise awareness amongst moorland managers and visitors alike - Moors for the Future is now leading the way in safeguarding the moorlands of the Peak District and South Pennines.

Methods to assess and predict periods of high and extreme fire risk on the moors have also been developed, so that we can be made aware of the prevalent conditions and be better prepared if fires occur - the Met Office Fire Severity Index is an assessment of the current day's fire severity and a forecast of the fire severity over the coming five days. Much effort has also been made to improve the coordination and effectiveness with which we fight fires when they do happen.

The most contentious of actions is that of moorland closure. In the event of extreme fire risk, the National Park Authority has the power to suspend access to those moors covered by Access Agreements under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. The argument for closure is generally based on the view that the fewer people there are on the moors, the lower the risk of fire. The economic and wildlife importance of the moors, the scale of the potential damage and the costs of putting the fires out and then repairing the damage can outweigh the temporary inconvenience of closure to users.

On the other hand, there is an argument against closure, in the interests of the economic benefits of access. The disastrous impact of closures was clearly demonstrated during Foot and Mouth. Plus, the presence of people on the moors means that there are more eyes to watch for fire and raise the alarm when smoke is spotted. Why inhibit the rights of the majority, because of the actions of a tiny minority? Whatever your personal views, the arguments over the issue of closure are likely to continue even when the CROW Act is implemented.

In the Peak District, the National Park Authority has attempted to reach consensus over these arguments by bringing the various interests together to provide information on the location of personnel, water supplies, routes for access to moorland and provision of fire fighting equipment. This group, known as the Fire Operations Group, (FOG) is made up of Fire Service officers and those actively involved in fire-fighting including gamekeepers, National Park rangers and National Trust wardens.

The work of this group has resulted in a number of improvements. A commonality of equipment and of radio communication has been set up and Fire Plans have been prepared for all the moorland areas recording details of the locations of access points, water supplies and personnel.

The common purpose of everyone concerned is the aim of minimising the impact of wild unintentional fires. Wildfires are bad news and everyone has a role to play in conserving and protecting our heritage from fire.

How you can help

Don’t carelessly discard cigarette ends. During periods of high fire risk cigarettes can be safely stubbed out on rocks. If they’re stubbed out in peat they may smoulder and ignite the peat some time later.

Reporting suspected arson, smoke and fires via 999 as soon as possible. Don’t assume that someone has already reported the flames you can see!

Contributing to appeals for restoration of damaged moorlands either by gifts of time, as volunteers, or of money, to help pay for some of the essential work of fire-fighting or of moorland restoration.

Supporting campaigns to seek government assistance to fund the use of helicopters for moorland fire fighting, rather than the costs falling upon private landowners.

The causes of fire

The term ‘wildfire’ is slightly misleading. None of these fires were wild. They were all caused by people in one form or another, and in the Peak three general causes have been identified:

Arson: the deliberate act of vandalism. The fire services now consider this to be a significant factor in all fires they have to deal with and the moorlands are no exception. Several of the Easter fires in the Peak District were highly suspicious, although it is nearly always impossible to identify the precise causes after the event.

Carelessness: the careless discarding of cigarette ends, campfires, disposable barbeques or possibly glass bottles on sunny days may all be capable of igniting a bigger fire.

Accidental: where management fires get out of control in conditions where burning should not have been carried out. Many keepers are under pressure to burn a set percentage of their moor each year and often, towards the end of the burning period, in spring, conditions can get dry and hazardous. Heather or grass burning is legally permitted between October and the end of March or the 15 April depending on the locality and the altitude of the moor.

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