Research Paper Summaries

The claim that a wetter bog sheds its flammable heather has never been directly tested in UK uplands — and the evidence shows heather thriving on wet peat.

FireInSite uses UK vegetation measurements, weather and terrain to predict wildfire behaviour, with encouraging early tests and further validation needed.

UK curlew have fallen 49% since 1995. Four studies find keepered grouse moor fledges nearly four times as many chicks. Evidence for Defra's gamebird call.

University of Nottingham says rewetting is still essential but wants stability checked in deep peat and on slopes, where modelled stable depth falls to 0.27m at 12°.

WMO's 2026 bulletin finds extreme fire-smoke events have tripled since the 1990s and that standard models may undercount wildfire deaths.

BTO modelling puts Curlew stability at 1.06 chicks hatched per pair, not the 0.6 fledged figure often quoted. Why the two differ, and what it means for the uplands.

A study on the Langdale Moor fire finds managed heather patches burned less severely, sparing an estimated 7,000 tonnes of soil carbon.

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.