Research Paper Summaries

A moorland fire is really two fires. Why rewetting and managing the fuel solve two different problems — and why the uplands need both.

A study of 206 wildfires in England and Wales finds grass moors burn biggest, heather hottest, and managed burning keeps fires smaller.

Neither of England's main farm schemes funds predator control for Curlew, a BTO review finds, though Yorkshire Dales farmers say they would back it.

Rewetting protects peat carbon but leaves flammable heather and gorse intact. Effective wildfire prevention needs cutting, burning and firebreaks too.

A Teesdale survey found roughly twice as many curlews on blanket bog managed by burning or cutting as on unmanaged bog, while numbers stayed stable.

Curlew are declining because too few chicks survive. The peer-reviewed evidence on predation control, habitat and managed moorland, and what reverses the loss.

A Stanford study in Science finds low-severity fire cuts the worst wildfires by 92% — and saves more smoke than it produces — which is significant for the UK burning debate.

A new review shows wildfire degrades catchment water for more than a decade, a direct threat to the upland peat catchments that supply most UK drinking water.

UK contributors shaped a new global ranking of the 50 biggest unanswered questions in peatland science, from fire management to carbon-credit integrity.

A US study ties worsening wildfires to rising ozone and 300 extra deaths a year. For Britain's fire-prone uplands, the cost of wildfire is the real lesson.

A NatureScot report sets out clearer definitions and a draft field tool for scoring peatland condition under Scotland's planning system.

Counting the wildfire smoke it prevents, controlled burning cut Oregon's smoke-related health costs by 65% and returned $4.35 for every dollar spent.