Firefighting is the Last Resort. Active Management is the Solution

✅ KEY TAKEAWAY: Firefighting must always be our last resort. When it comes to protecting our landscapes, active management is the only sustainable solution.

The statistics from last year serve as a stark warning: 2025 was Europe's worst wildfire year on record, with over 1 million hectares of land devastated by uncontrollable blazes. Now, as we look ahead to the looming risks of summer 2026, leading fire scientists are sounding the alarm. We simply cannot fight our way out of this escalating crisis.

Writing in Wildfire Today, leading fire scientist Professor Guillermo Rein made a crucial observation. He warned that the devastation we are witnessing across the continent isn't a failure of our brave firefighting services - it is a fundamental failure of land management.

According to Professor Rein, the root cause of these modern mega-fires is a massive, unchecked buildup of vegetation. This highly combustible "fuel" is largely driven by rural abandonment.

When communities leave the land and traditional management practices cease, nature creates a powder keg. In these conditions, relying solely on emergency fire suppression is a dangerous and often tragic gamble.

The Solution is Rooted in Tradition

What is the answer to this growing international crisis? The science points directly to the practices that UK upland communities have championed for generations.

Active management by moorland gamekeepers - specifically through the use of controlled winter burning and careful grazing - is precisely the proactive fuel management that global fire experts say is so desperately needed today.

By actively managing upland vegetation during the colder, wetter months, our gamekeepers provide a vital frontline defense:

• Reducing Combustible Fuel Loads: Controlled, cool winter burning safely removes the dense, overgrown vegetation that acts as kindling for catastrophic summer wildfires.

• Creating Natural Firebreaks: This active management creates a diverse, patchwork landscape. These breaks in the vegetation canopy act as natural barriers, significantly slowing the spread of flames and providing safe, defensible lines for emergency services if a wildfire does break out.

• Sustaining Active Rural Communities: Traditional moorland management keeps working conservationists on the ground. By sustaining the rural economy and upland communities, we actively prevent the very rural abandonment that has fueled Europe’s recent wildfire disasters.

Listening to the Science

The message from the scientific community is clear: if we want to protect our landscapes, wildlife, and communities from catastrophic summer fires, we cannot wait until the flames appear. We must manage the land in winter.

At the Moorland Association, we recognize that the year-round dedication of our gamekeepers is more than just traditional land management - it is an essential public service. It is time we fully recognize proactive fuel management for what it is: our most effective insurance policy against the devastation of wildfires.

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