VIDEO: Rewetting Fails to Prevent Snake Pass Wildfire
- Rob Beeson
- 4 hours ago
- 1 min read
This video from the Peak District Moorland Group shows that whilst rewetting has a place in moorland management, indeed many moorland gamekeepers have been creating and advocating wet “bog flushes” for over four decades, it cannot be given serious credit for the prevention of wildfires.
The Snake Moor wildfire recently ripped through millions of pounds of management interventions intended to raise the ground water level to a state where it would be resilient to fire all year round.
Some suggest this work needs time to work, 50 years has been suggested, but with year on year increases in wildfire incidents perhaps these incidents serve as a get out of jail card for failed ideas, in other areas 50 years has been reached and the area still dries out.
This fire burned through wetted gullies and set vegetation on fire on the peat hag edges, fire spotting then occurred igniting the precious peat, undoing all the carbon capturing over centuries.
Sadly we have seen these sites used in other wildfire incidents where the narrative has been twisted in suggesting that the “green oases” stopped the fire (Saddleworth Wildfire 2018 and Goyt Wildfire 2025). What actually put the fires out on these areas was direct fire suppression with water from the ground crews and aerial water dropping from the helicopter crew.
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