Wildfire grants for keepers after Scotland’s largest blaze

Grants for keepers and land managers

Gamekeepers and land managers who deployed their own specialist equipment to battle Scotland’s largest wildfire are to receive grants to repair the damage.

More than 100 people from 33 rural businesses, including 27 estates, deployed a conservatively estimated £3.1 million worth of equipment to tackle the unprecedented blazes at Carrbridge and Dava in late June and early July. The fires devastated 11,827 hectares – an area roughly the size of Manchester.

At least 110 all-terrain vehicles, fogging units, tractors, diggers and water bowsers were pressed into service alongside the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service. The Cairngorms National Park Authority has now established a £10,000 fund, administered by Scottish Land and Estates (SLE), to replace damaged kit.

Equipment damaged by wildfires

Ross Ewing, SLE Director of Moorland, praised those who “rushed to the scene, risking their own safety, to bring the fires under control”.

“Without the involvement of gamekeepers and land managers the devastation caused could have been even worse”, he said. “It is absolutely vital to replace damaged equipment in order to be ready for future wildfires, which are sadly becoming more common.”

However, the news arrives even as new licensing rules threaten to restrict the ability of keepers and land managers to use controlled burning to prevent future blazes.

Money’s only part of the problem, says SGA

A spokesman for the Scottish Gamekeepers Association warned that whilst the grants “recognise there was a financial cost to estates who volunteered at the fire”, there remains “a gap in thinking between what experienced gamekeepers and what the authorities think is necessary to prevent wildfires on peatlands in future”.

The contradiction is stark: the National Park is funding equipment repairs whilst the Scottish Government simultaneously restricts the land management practices that prevent such catastrophic blazes. “Money is well and good but if we are to provide proper protection to peatlands during drier weather in future, we can’t strip the tools from the people who can make a difference”, he said.

“That is what the draft Muirburn Code conditions do and it needs to be changed before new licensing restrictions on controlled burning take effect on 1 January.”

The licensing scheme will require gamekeepers to probe and measure peat depths across their land to establish whether they can apply for licenses to carry out managed burning. Critics argue this bureaucratic burden will hamper the very land management practices that proved so effective during the wildfire emergency.

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