National Parks accept nature recovery will raise wildfire fuel loads

All 15 UK National Park Authorities have endorsed a joint wildfire position statement acknowledging that nature recovery measures, from woodland expansion and reduced grazing to rewetting, will raise fuel loads while new habitats establish. The Moorland Association says the admission must now be followed by a Natural England review of the guidance covering fire-risk access restrictions, “before the next fire season, not during it”.

What does the National Parks statement say?

The statement, published by National Parks UK, says large areas of mature woodland and rewetted ground will likely help create a more fire-resilient landscape in time, but that these habitats can take many years to develop and “during the intervening period fuel loads will increase”, with a corresponding need for fire-risk mitigation. It records that the Moray fires of 2025 were the largest ever recorded in the UK, stretching over 10,000ha, that spring remains the time of highest fire risk, and that controlled burning is both a land management practice within many parks and a cause of wildfire when a set fire escapes.

Each authority commits to writing wildfire management into its National Park plan as it is reviewed, to leading or helping prepare an integrated wildfire management plan, to naming a wildfire lead on its staff, and to sharing best practice through the UK National Parks wildfire group.

The association’s response

Andrew Gilruth, chief executive of the Moorland Association, said the statement should end “any assumption that a nature-recovery intervention is successful simply because it has been delivered”. “Rewetting is an activity. Wildfire resilience is an outcome,” he said. “Doing nothing is not the absence of a decision. It is a decision with consequences of its own.”

The association wants Natural England to review its guidance on Section 25 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, under which access to open land can be restricted on fire-risk grounds, so that restrictions can be applied before a dangerous spring rather than negotiated during one.

The argument keepers made first

Gamekeepers and moor owners have argued through a summer of major fires that fuel load, not weather alone, decides how a wildfire behaves, and that managed moors carrying lower fuel loads give firefighters a chance. The parks’ statement is the first time all 15 authorities have jointly accepted that recovering habitats carry a transitional fire cost that must be planned for rather than assumed away.

What happens next?

The association has asked for the Section 25 review to be complete before the next fire season. The sector gathers at the Wildfire 2026 conference in Leeds on 10 and 11 November, where fuel management will be on the agenda; ticket sales close on 22 October.