Call after latest wildfire
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A councillor has called for a review of moorland management and the impact of windfarms after another wildfire raged in upland Moray.
Seven fire crews were battling another wildfire that has razed moorland and woods at Johnstripe near Dunphail, near Forres. The fire ripped through more than two sq km, encroaching on local roads.
At the end of April a heroic effort by firefighters from across the country held back one of the biggest moorland fires in the UK in recent years. The blaze near Paul's Hill windfarm at Knockando ravaged 27sq km of land between Knockando, Dallas and Dunphail.
The fire service had warned of a heightened risk of wildfires across Scotland this week after a spell of dry weather.
Moray councillor Claire Feaver (Scottish Conservative, Forres), said: "The latest devastating fire has taken place at Dunphail in my ward. It is absolutely heartbreaking to see what has happened and the enormous damage it has done to the wildlife in the area. Plant and insect communities will have been completely wiped out, small animals fried to death, and the breeding habitat of many bird species lost for the season.
"We have to review how we are managing these precious areas. Years of intensive management for grouse shooting has led to an unnatural monoculture of dry heather moorland covering hundreds of square miles of northern Scotland. Many of the natural wetland features which should be present on peat-based moorland have been drained in order to produce what are considered the right conditions for grouse productivity.
"Meanwhile miles of hardcore access tracks have been built across the moors for windfarm developments and a vast tonnage of concrete dug into the ground to provide foundations for turbines and pylons. This has broken up the peat, led to it drying out, and released carbon. This change in the hydrology of the moors has made them more vulnerable to wildfires which, ironically, are so fierce that they are even threatening the turbines themselves.
"We have to start acting as responsible custodians for these special places and stop regarding them as expendable assets to be used and abused by special interest groups. It’s long past time when the management of the moorlands was properly reviewed with a view to protecting them."
