Upland keeper: rewilding is building a fire-load disaster in waiting

There is a real irony in the fact that those who are buying up large areas of the countryside, and those who are telling us how we should manage it, may in the end be those who do the most damage.

It may not have escaped your notice that there have been some catastrophic wildfires, not only on mainland Europe but here as well, and one of the main reasons for their ferocity has been the fire-load.

My visits to Europe have been limited, but one thing that struck me when I did venture into the countryside was the sheer area of land, once under some form of agricultural management, that had been abandoned and left to nature’s devices. The result was whole hillsides simply covered in scrub and dry vegetation, without a break of any sort to stop a fire if one were to start.

Why short heather is easier to burn than long

The amount of vegetation available for a fire to consume is one of the main drivers of out-of-control fires. Any gamekeeper who burned heather before the advent of the plethora of equipment we now have will tell you that it is far easier burning heather when it is 12in high than it is at 2-3ft. The younger, or shorter, you kept it, the easier it was to deal with. But what do we have now? We have carbon gurus who would have no management of our uplands whatsoever, and companies buying up carbon stores to offset damage elsewhere. They would, and do, remove most of the graziers and grazing animals, both wild and domestic, and plant trees to aid their green credentials.

What do we end up with? A fire-load that, given the chance, will do untold damage to the carbon store for generations to come, without even considering the deaths of countless nesting birds unable to escape.

A 40m fire front is faster than you can run

Unless you have seen a wildfire rolling along with a 40m front, gobbling up vegetation faster than you can run, it is difficult to imagine. But that is the reality of what we are now creating.

I wonder how long it will be before one of the upland wind farms in Scotland is engulfed by a wildfire? The cost of that may just be enough for those in power to look again at policies that aid “rewilding” – a term I really do not like, as what we end up with is far removed from what would have been there a few hundred years ago.

It is just as well there are still enough gamekeepers in some areas to go to the aid of the firefighters and do a sterling job containing many summer fires. It is wonderful to see them get the plaudits they deserve, as it is not very PC these days to praise anything connected to shooting.

How the grouse have fared this summer

On that subject, there will have been more than a smattering of shooting days by the time this appears in print, a few miles walked and a good few grouse eaten. The prospects are mixed, but for those who had a healthy stock, the grouse, in keeping with most gamebirds, have had a good summer.

Areas that suffered from heather beetle last year will pay a price for a few years, until new growth can sustain the grouse once more, and sadly there have been some areas hit by fresh outbreaks this year that will suffer because of it.

I have heard little from north of the border, but there are large areas up there struggling to produce meaningful numbers of birds due to tick densities and louping ill. If you are lucky enough to have been out, either as a gun or helping, I trust you will have had a great time in the company of like-minded people. If you haven’t been out, try to get an invitation just to go and watch: it is quite a spectacle.