Following Bob Berzins’ recent guest blog about a so-called ‘controlled burn’ on a grouse moor in the Peak District National Park (see here), another blog reader has sent the following:
I thought you might appreciate a bit more information on the photos of the burning moor on Bob Berzin’s blog. I am a frequent visitor to that area, often a passenger in a car or bus looking over that landscape where the smoke is. I was driving past that site on the weekend of the 10th and 11th October. On the 10th I saw the smoke coming from muirburn and assumed it was a routine heather burning. I also drove past on the next day, the Sunday, and was surprised to see smoke still coming from the area. No one seemed to be in attendance (viewing through binoculars from Mortimer Road).
Then the next weekend, about 8 a.m. 17/10/26 I was driving past again and was really surprised that the same place was still smouldering, smoke still drifting towards High Bradfield as in Bob’s photos. An hour or so later viewing the moor from Ughill Moor (to the SE of the burn site) with my binoculars this time I could see three fire engines, what looked like a vehicle with a water tank, a fire service lorry and a fire service van. I took the photos attached.
By the following Monday or Tuesday a friend told me that the smoke had finally stopped, and the fire service was no longer there. Last time I drove past, on 22/10/26, and could no longer see smoke from Foulstone/Moscar Moor. It seems to be properly out now.
This episode leaves me with a few questions. For one thing, I wonder who pays for all those public services going out to attend to a fire that was started deliberately? Another is, how come gamekeepers are burning the moors when they are clearly still rather dry and perhaps it’s likely the fire will get out of control? These are rhetorical questions, I don’t expect you to answer them.
I find it ironic that the grouse shooting industry is claiming to know all about managing vegetation to prevent wildfires and yet they cause this by carrying out a supposedly a “controlled burn“.
ENDS
Just guessing ……… Nothing to do with the estate of course. Must have been someone illegally camping and using a barbeque. Gamekeeper did report seeing something like a tent or bird hide. They watched the area carefully and reported to the fire brigade out of a sense of abundant caution.