Message for Natural England: The G7 and White House Backs Controlled Burning

Moorland Association members who recently took part in the Defra heather burning consultation will remember one thing clearly: Natural England still believes rewetting is the answer to every question - including wildfire. But now we find that the world’s most powerful leaders do not agree.

Let me first recap. Our members have blocked over 7,000km of historic agricultural ditches. If rewetting was a silver bullet, we would have seen it by now. Even in Indonesia, with 3 some metres of annual rainfall and a simpler task of blocking drainage canals, rewetting has failed to deliver what Natural England still insists is possible in the UK uplands.

Meanwhile, last week in Westminster, wildfire was debated. Natural England was described as “not fit for purpose” and it was said, rightly, that no one should be surprised there’s a “fundamental breakdown in trust with landowners to whom it dictates”. Worse still, its behaviour is “putting humans, our environment and nature at greater risk.” We agree.

So it is fascinating what happened when the world’s most powerful nations met in Canada this week, with Sir Keir Starmer sitting alongside President Trump, President Macron, Chancellor Merz, Prime Minister Carney, Prime Minister Meloni and Prime Minister Ishiba. Among their formal agreements was a shared commitment to prevent wildfires getting worse.

The leaders called for the use of “controlled burning”. There was no namecheck for the vogueish notions of “rewetting” or “rewilding” that circulate Natural England. But the world leaders did advocate controlled burning to “reduce the risk of extreme wildfires” which are “endangering lives, affecting human health, destroying homes and ecosystems, and costing governments and taxpayers billions of dollars”.

These leaders recognised the ancient wisdom of preventative burns – calling them “indigenous” and “cultural”.

For the USA memories of the horrific fires that Los Angeles suffered in January are still fresh. That prompted President Trump to last week issue an executive order directing the Environmental Protection Agency to look at removing restrictions on “preventative prescribed fires”. His order was entitled “Empowering Commonsense Wildfire Prevention and Response”.

Of course, Natural England knows better. Through its despised habit of overregulating everything, it has drastically reduced the amount of controlled burning.

The real world consequences include the Saddleworth disaster of 2018. That fire started on land where Natural England only allowed controlled burns once every 23 years. Overgrown vegetation is the prime reason the whole country is suffering its worst ever year for wildfires. Last month’s fire on Dartmoor came months after a Defra report said excess vegetation was turning the moor into a “tinderbox”.

Yet Natural England has become so disconnected from reality that it does not listen to its parent department. So we cannot expect its Chairman, Tony Juniper, to defer to mere world leaders. Instead, he will seek to press ahead with his wild-eyed plans to even further reduce preventative burning.

His behaviour is threatening the countryside - and the survival of his agency. There is only so much stupidity politicians will put up with.

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