Gamekeepers thanked by fire services for their work in tackling moorland wildfires

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As most of the country continues to experience a dry spell, with little rain and rising temperatures, wildfires have been breaking out nationally on a regular basis. A wildfire near Cannick, in the Scottish Highlands, burned for six days and is believed to have been one of the largest wildfires on record in the UK, burning through 30 sq miles of scrub, woodland and moorland including Forestry and Land Scotland woodlands and the RSPB Scotland reserve at Corrimony.

The Scottish Gamekeepers’ Organisation stated that around 16 gamekeepers, a local farmer and his staff joined the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s fire-fighting effort using their equipment and skills developed in undertaking controlled burning.

In England, Marsden Moor also experienced a wildfire – believed to be the eighth recorded on the National Trust-managed moor this year, and the third there in May alone. As in Scotland, gamekeepers worked through the night in a bid to put a stop to the blazes. Peak District Moorland gamekeepers were thanked by firefighters from the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Services for working alongside their wildfire crews and landowners to limit fire spread, using 4x4s, Argocat and Polaris, along with blowers and backpacks.

Scientists have predicted that the UK will see increasing numbers of wildfires, all across the country, as hotter, drier summers become the norm. Higher temperatures alone are not necessarily going to create wildfires; however, a combination of accidental fires – caused by anything from campfires and disposable barbecues to discarded cigarette ends – with dry ground and vegetation to provide a fuel load and little rain to dampen the flames creates the perfect environment for wildfires to spread. Last year (2022) saw a record number of wildfires reported in England. Fire services dealt with nearly 25,000 wildfires in June, July and August in 2022, almost four times the number of summer 2021.

With that in mind, the NGO believes is vital that land - particularly grasslands and moorlands – is managed in ways that reduce the fuel load or excess vegetation which enables wildfires to spread. Prescribed burning is also a vital tool in a land manager's toolbox, not only for reducing fuel load, but also for creating fire breaks which can reduce landscape-scale fires. One reason gamekeepers are so useful in wildfire situations – on top of the fact that they know the lie of the land inside out – is that they are trained in fire management through their use of prescribed burning, and have the correct machinery and equipment to control moorland fires. 

Richard Bailey, Head of the NGO Moorland Branch, commented:

"Moorland gamekeepers and farmers who turned out along with the fire and rescue services to help contain and extinguish the recent wildfires on National Trust ground around Marsden Moor have welcomed the acknowledgement of their efforts in social media posts.

"Whilst we might have differing views on how best to mitigate against landscape scale fires, once a wildfire is burning it has little respect to boundaries and any areas with a large fuel load build up will be very susceptible to total destruction. It is not just vegetation that is destroyed, but also all of the moor's associated wildlife and its carbon sequestering peat.

"The NGO Moorland Branch welcomes the recent findings from the Climate Change Committee along with the University of York work with the suggestion that the management of moorland fuel loads urgently needs addressing in many ways if we want to retain the unique importance of these areas for the benefit of so many factors and livelihoods."

The latest report on moorland management from the University of York can be found here.