Ministers Are Ignoring 15 Years of Their Own Burning Evidence: Our Letter to The Telegraph

Sir - Defra established the nation’s only long-term study of controlled winter burning on moorland nearly fifteen years ago. Ministers continue to ignore it (“The battle to stop Britain burning”, May 30).

The findings so far indicate that careful burning on peat moorland raises the water table, increases biodiversity and locks up more carbon than “leaving it to nature”. It is perverse that this government has replaced field evidence with political fashion and introduced a blanket ban.

The National Fire Chiefs Council has warned that removing this historic management tool could increase fuel loads and the risk of larger, more intense wildfires. Australia and the American West offer us a warning.

Traditional controlled burning was long suppressed because European settlers saw it as an indigenous practice at odds with modern progress. It is now being revived because its removal left landscapes more vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires. There are uncomfortable parallels with Labour’s treatment of rural England today.

Yours faithfully,

Andrew Gilruth Chief Executive Moorland Association