It's an annual thing here, supposed to stop by 31st March I believe. Farmers say that it helps remove woody heather and promote new growth. I say it exposed peat and kills less mobile organisms like invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians and small mammals. The 31st March cut off date is supposed to protect ground nesting birds.
Today, April 25th, yet another fire was set above the Amman valley, the third one in as many days. My wife was caught up in it. She was with a Duke of Edinburgh award practice expedition and she was wholly unaware until another supervisor elsewhere phoned her to let her know. They diverted the group and everyone was OK.
Fire brigade attended and were brilliant; and really exasperated about the whole thing. They had to close the road, the lanes are very narrow and the engines are big beasts.
I've spoken with the firefighters previously, they don't believe that the fires just start on their own... ...they have their suspicions. I don't think it is bored kids either, it's not the holidays yet so kids should be in school, fires at wrong time of day, really isolated spot etc. I've heard that it's a way to help control ticks but don't know if this is so.
At 10.30PM I can smell the smoke here at home and she can see the still burning hillside from the campsite about five miles away. It's all going to green up soon enough I suppose but I don't think it should be happening in the first place.
Mrs A is peeved but OK. DoE participants are OK. I am far less accepting than I was previously.
Scrubland/gorse Fire down here at palnackie/rockcliff (sw Scotland) due to farmer setting fire to hillside and it getting out of control, my bro is a retained fire,fighter and was called out at 4pm.
Needless to say the farmer had a “vote for Finlay Carson Scottish Conservatives” sign in his field that got “accidentally flattened”
I saw the title and was just coming on to say Betws was burning this afternoon...
My money's on teenagers, but who knows?
Double post
Was the fire on a grouse moor? If so then we know the answer. Custodians of the countryside, innit?
I despise driven grouse moors and everything associated with them. The desertification of the countryside, the killing of anything that doesn’t support grouse production (including raptors), the false pretence that they are huge economic contributors, the rabid Tory customer base, the restrictions on access and the environmental destruction caused by burning. In the not too distant future, we will be able to look back and wonder how it was ever still a thing in any right minded society in 2026.
Farmers say that it helps remove woody heather and promote new growth.
They are farming grouse. For someone reason the shooting people don't enjoy it unless they get to shoot dozens of birds.
It's not grouse moor. It's the slopes of Tair Carn Uchaf that are above Pal y Cwrt. Any cavers amongst us may have visited Llygad Llychwr. That's where Mrs A was. Other ires have been above Gwaun Cae Gurwen, again an area with no grouse.
There was a big fire on the Mendip Hills opposite Stockhill Woods last month. No reason for the fire was ever given (as far as I know) by Devon & Somerset Fire Service and was only ever referred to as 'accidental' but local opinion (partly due to the straight edges of the burn) was that it was a controlled burn that got out of hand.
I ride past weekly and it's remarkable how quickly plant life is reclaiming the area, but it's an area of special scientific interest and I suspect that wildlife was decimated; it was toad breeding session too I believe.
BBC.CO.UK 
Peak District already had a few. Fingers being pointed at the bbq brigade usually.
Mrs A was chatting to a local farmer who does not have any open land that he grazes, so no axe to grind I suppose. Says that because March was so wet the burns didn't happen, so the graziers are catching up now. He reckons that the birds aren't nesting up there yet.
We have had a load of quite serious fires on the Gower Commons this year. Birds will be nesting now, and reptiles are active and insect species, some rare and special, will be impacted by burns.
The fires are not all set by farmers, although many are. We are often told that burns are needed for vegetation management, that they have burned for generations and that we have heathland of SSSI quality thanks to the traditional management that included fire. There will be some truth in that… but in the past the farmers probably burned with more care and thought… and they followed the burns with aftermath grazing. That doesn’t always happen now. They also cut (and milled) gorse for feed and bedding, so reducing fire load. Additionally, cattle numbers on our commons were much higher. Keeping cattle on the common is fraught with problems - so it’s no wonder that numbers have reduced. With the reduction comes the risk of higher fire loading and more severe uncontrolled burns.
A wet year is no excuse for a later burn. All burns on SSSI land should have consent and be done in accordance tin the consent.
So do I
Martin McMullan said the fires in the mountains at the weekend "definitely didn't look like they started from a recreational source".
"The areas where they started were almost inaccessible to the general public. This happens year after year... and there's no consequences for those that are undertaking these actions,"
It boils my p155 that this archaic practise is allowed to continue. Gowerboy alludes to certain 'reasoning' used on Gower, and probably used similarly elsewhere. He also mentions other land husbandry practices no longer used.
We, the public, the taxpayers are subsidising the open hills. I'm not at all happy that my money is being used albeit indirectly to support the destruction of habitat and organisms this regular, wholesale basis.
I despise driven grouse moors and everything associated with them. The desertification of the countryside, the killing of anything that doesn’t support grouse production (including raptors),
+1
The sooner the entire industry is driven out of business the better.
I got to spend last week in the Lakes house sitting, even my OH commented that it was odd not seeing any birds in the sky. Down south Kite's seem about as common as pigeons, as are buzzards, and smaller raptors.
Ditto foxes, a common feature of riding around the Chilterns, didn't see one all week.
Yet you go to a national park, where the natural environment is supposed to be protected and it's completely devoid of apex predators?
Whilst I agree that heath / moorland is an important habitat, it can be an important habitat in the right amount, in the right places, for the right species. Not just absolutely everywhere that isn't productive farmland and just for shooting birds.
