Wildfires

Why are our precious peatlands left to smoulder? We examine the ongoing wildfire response, RSPB inaction, and policies leaving moorlands completely vulnerable.

Natural England and Defra still can't show the audit trail behind NEER155's “rigorous peer review” claim — and why that matters for moorland management.

Gamekeepers' families, including a 12-year-old, told Parliament's wildfire inquiry the human cost of restricting moorland management. Their evidence, in full.

A wildfire burned around 200 hectares of moorland near Glossop. Land managers say new limits on controlled burning leave England's uplands primed to burn.

MPs heard evidence that cutting wildfire risk means managing upland fuel loads — through prescribed burning, cutting and grazing — not rewetting alone.

Record wildfires are now a threat to Britain's electricity supply. The evidence on fuel load points to a remedy that policy is moving away from: controlled burning on the uplands.

A naked flame on a drought-stricken moor caused the largest wildfire in the North York Moors' recorded history. A new resilience report counts the cost.

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.

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.

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.

The Moorland Association responds to The Telegraph's wildfire coverage: ministers are ignoring fifteen years of Defra's own evidence on controlled burning.