This year (2025) is a record year for UK wildfires. I would like to begin this by addressing a very basic ecological question – is wildfire a natural part of a temperate-coastal climate, such as in Wales? The answer is no. Whether or not fire has been used as a management tool to our advantage or not, this is not a natural part of our environment, such as it is in countries like Australia. The uplands of Wales are a long way from what they would be naturally while the climate is fast changing and so different approaches to management may be necessary, but it is important to understand the evidence with mounting pressures from the media and concerned citizens.
Climate Change
As human-induced climate change progresses, more extreme rainfall and longer periods of drought are predicted within Wales, which is already being seen with warmer, drier springs becoming commonplace, as well as more intense rainfall events during the autumn and winter. According to the Met Office, Spring 2025 ranks as the sixth driest on record and with a relatively mild winter preceding it, it has left huge areas of the uplands throughout Wales extremely dry and at high fire-risk. There is no doubt that the major compounding issue contributing to increased fire risk is the warming climate, however, there is much nuance in our landscape, and I will do my best to explore below.
Controlled burns
While many individuals and groups safely carry out burns each year, many of the controlled burns have led to wildfires under current conditions – with the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service stating that most of the fires they have responded to this year have been linked to controlled burns, while a report from UK climate risk in 2021 states “nearly all UK wildfire ignitions are anthropogenic”.
Muir burning, or controlled burns, have long been used as a method of vegetation control on managed moors to reduce the encroachment of trees and scrub and halt succession. Doing this effectively allows for the regeneration of heather, providing forage and cover for grouse. There are however concerns on the impacts this practice has, particularly upon peat. In many areas this has led to a dominance of Molinia or Purple moor-grass, alongside levels of sheep grazing that increased following WWII. While burning may be used to reduce the dead and dried grass (that is of little grazing value), there is no evidence to suggest this reduces the dominance of species like Molinia in favour of more palatable species – Molinia stores most of it nutrients within its root system so spring burning rarely damages the plant, instead destroying competing species and contributing further to its dominance.
Controlled burns are a topic of key debate currently and I am not here to condemn all muir burning, however, the evidence does not support that this kind of management supports diversity, water infiltration, or the long-term reduction of dominant species such as bracken or Molinia. Muir burning is a tool for managing grouse moors for a certain aim – to create optimum conditions for grouse and other upland avian species. Now if this is the aim for the landscape then there is strong evidence that it contributes to that objective, but it should not be confused with what creates a resilient ecosystem, particularly when considering the fast-changing climatic conditions of the uplands. Many of these systems were able to continue for centuries, but increased grazing in the 20th century, alongside the progression of climate change, has pushed these environments to breaking point.
Peatland
What do we know about peat in Wales – around 4% of Wales is covered in peat, while 90% of this is classed as damaged and not functioning as it should, releasing carbon, nutrients and water that it would otherwise sequester and slowly release. Healthy peat in the uplands acts as a giant sponge, soaking up rainfall and slowly releasing this into river catchments. It also is extremely difficult to burn when in full health, due to the content of water and associated species, such as Sphagnum. While controlled burns are still used throughout the country, many organisations are banning burns on areas of deep peat, as its impact has become better understood. Almost all regions throughout Wales and England are carrying out peat restoration and this year, there has been good evidence to show that rewetting peat and raising the water table can have a beneficial impact upon the spread of wildfire.
Local case study
Graziers of the Beacon hill common in northeast Radnor regularly share that they once would “get stuck in their 4x4’s during the summer on the hill – now, they can traverse the entire hill year-round without getting stuck”. Beacon hill is not known for having deep stores of peat, but it has shallow peat forming soils and was once much wetter than it currently is, with pools and flushes forming a mosaic over the hill. But Beacon hill does carry out controlled burns and does have levels of sheep grazing that are common throughout Wales – this is not to say these practices have directly dried the hill, but this is a story you will hear echoed across upland commons throughout Wales. As the water table has slowly dropped, the wet vegetation communities have been reduced to small fragments, leaving behind large swaths of drier vegetation susceptible to fire. Fire breaks are cut on the common, which certainly reduces the risk, but it does not address the cause.
We are working with the Beacon Hill CIC to increase resilience on the common; there is an issue with bracken dominance in this landscape, including on the RWT reserve Cnwch bank, that can be a considerable fire risk when unmanaged – but what has led to a dominance in bracken? Much the same as Molinia, it has dominated because of a legacy of a particular type of management and is not palatable to livestock. As Tom Bullough wrote, bracken across Wales’s steep hillsides represents the “shadow of woodlands past” – bracken is a woodland species that does not dominate under the shade of a wooded canopy, or part of a mosaic landscape, such as Ffridd. Similarly, while heather is wonderful to see in its autumn glory, it also forms a dominance across heaths, making it susceptible to pests and disease, creating a vast swathe of combustible vegetation.
