The inferno on Tintwistle Moor, near Glossop, Derbyshire, broke out on Wednesday night as Britain recorded its, then, hottest ever June day, leaving the ground dangerously dry. Multiple fire engines and two helicopters battled the blaze, which sent thick smoke and ash billowing for miles across neighbouring towns and villages.
While the cause of it remains unknown, the Government was warned its rewilding policies may have added fuel to the flames, which only came under control on Friday night.It says curbs on traditional land management have allowed dangerous build-ups of dry vegetation, turning large swathes of countryside into tinderboxes primed to ignite in heatwaves.
Sounds a lot like the case in California where wildlife management by the state ends up causing wildfires, and indeed that is exactly the case here.
Rewilding involves allowing nature to look after itself without human interference. Gamekeepers and farmers have traditionally carried out controlled burning of heather and grasses in the cooler months – encouraging new shoots which grouse and sheep graze. Last year, the Government brought in strict rules preventing controlled burning of heather on more than 1.6million acres of land. They claim the measure targeted at peatlands will improve air quality and ‘protect environmental and public health’.
I wonder if the citizens of Glossop felt their air quality had improved when they had to shut their windows to keep out the smoke!
But Andrew Gilruth, of the Moorlands Association, said the ‘core problem’ is farmers and gamekeepers have been increasingly stopped from reducing vegetation. ‘The fire on Tintwistle Moor is on land which the RSPB has rewilded. This has created huge amounts of tinder dry dead vegetation which catches fire very easily,’ he said.
All part of Labour’s war on farmers and country sports.
Gavin Lane, President of the Country Landowners and Business Association, said the policies amounted to a de facto ban. ‘The system now required to apply for a licence to burn is so complex, time consuming and unwieldy as to be unfit for purpose,’ he explained. ‘With hotter, drier weather making moorland fires more dangerous, we cannot afford a system that blocks common sense. Government must fix it, fast, so the people who know this land can protect it.’
It won’t happen, because common sense is not common in this government….








