Government Policy is Increasing Upland Wildfire Danger: Our Letter to The Times

Sir, Melissa Harrison explained how vegetation management, including firebreaks, helped contain the lowland wildfire at the RSPB’s Dunwich Heath (Nature Notebook, Aug 29). The lesson for Defra is simple: wildfire fuels need managing. However, government policy in the uplands has reduced grazing and increasingly restricted controlled winter burning.

Modelling by the Moorland Association estimates that this has contributed to a 39 per cent increase in upland vegetation since 2005, with highly flammable dead material up 74 per cent - an additional tonne of vegetation every seven minutes.

This month we sent our calculations to the Prime Minister and asked Defra to check them. The matter is urgent because fire chiefs have already warned that restrictions on upland management could increase the danger to firefighters and the public.

If our figures are wrong, Defra should say so. If they are right, ministers should change course before the next wildfire. Andrew Gilruth Chief Executive Moorland Association