As pressure mounts to ban moorland burning, expect to hear desperate industry voices invoking ‘wild fire risk’ to justify business as usual scenarios. This is a misleading and nonsensical argument, which seeks to lock us in to a biologically impoverished future.
Thread. 1/14
Thread. 1/14
@Lukesteele4 @guyshrubsole @Rebirding1 @MarkAvery @RuthTingay I’ll first summarize why burning is counterproductive, borrowing heavily from Baird et al. 2019 link here nature.com/articles/s4156… and then outline what needs to be done…. 2/14
@Lukesteele4 @guyshrubsole @Rebirding1 @MarkAvery @RuthTingay Natural peatlands have higher floristic and microhabitat diversity, from pools and wet hollows to hummocks, often with a wide range of Sphagnum moss species. jstor.org/stable/2844692… 3/14
@Lukesteele4 @guyshrubsole @Rebirding1 @MarkAvery @RuthTingay Such peatlands do not require managed burning to maintain the floristic diversity or to prevent succession to heather or dwarf-shrub dominance because they are waterlogged 4/14
@Lukesteele4 @guyshrubsole @Rebirding1 @MarkAvery @RuthTingay Where it does occur in natural peatlands, heather (which is highly flammable) tends only to occupy hummocks and ridges because of its intolerance to shallow water tables. jstor.org/stable/2257846… 5/14
@Lukesteele4 @guyshrubsole @Rebirding1 @MarkAvery @RuthTingay Indeed, the overabundance of heather is an indicator of peatland degradation. hub.jncc.gov.uk/assets/78aaef0… 6/14
@Lukesteele4 @guyshrubsole @Rebirding1 @MarkAvery @RuthTingay Most of the UK blanket bogs have been overgrazed by sheep, burnt and drained, which, together with historic air pollution, have resulted in less diverse vegetation communities, gully erosion and, often, heather dominance besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11… 7/14
@Lukesteele4 @guyshrubsole @Rebirding1 @MarkAvery @RuthTingay Heather dominance may, in turn, alter soil structure so that it becomes better drained and, therefore, less likely to support more waterlogging-tolerant peatland species typical of the natural condition. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.10… 8/14
@Lukesteele4 @guyshrubsole @Rebirding1 @MarkAvery @RuthTingay Invoking the Saddleworth fire is ridiculous, this fire (visible from my house) started on a grouse moor and ended when it reached RSPB Dove Stone where @moorsforfuture is working to rewet the moorland 9/14
@Lukesteele4 @guyshrubsole @Rebirding1 @MarkAvery @RuthTingay This fire destroyed a huge heavily managed estate where scars from cutting and burning are very visible, this regime failed whilst Dove Stones, even in the early years post fire, proved resilient 10/14
@Lukesteele4 @guyshrubsole @Rebirding1 @MarkAvery @RuthTingay That is not to say we don’t have to consider the future resilience of these systems, we do. The degraded Winter Hill isn’t managed for grouse but also burned in 2008. 11/14
@Lukesteele4 @guyshrubsole @Rebirding1 @MarkAvery @RuthTingay If we restore clough oak woodland to the hill sides then we need not worry about fire, Britain does not have any readily ignitable tree species, this is not Australia. Restored/rewilded hill sides will be great for biodiversity and C-sequestration books.google.co.uk/books?id=zDg9D… 12/14
@Lukesteele4 @guyshrubsole @Rebirding1 @MarkAvery @RuthTingay Restoration of the water table on the tops, e.g. through ongoing work by @moorsforfuture will reduce heather dominance and reduce fire risk, in addition to sinking more carbon and restoring more biodiversity 13/14
@Lukesteele4 @guyshrubsole @Rebirding1 @MarkAvery @RuthTingay These healthier upland landscapes can still support a portfolio of different activities, extractive and non-extractive uses. There will have to be compromises, but we need to move forward and close the door on damaging activities 14/14
Typo - 2018 rather than 2008
