Marsden blaze was good for the moor
Marsden blaze was good for the moor
6 May 2009
published by www.examiner.co.uk
United Kingdom — I find your headline Moorland Destroyed (May 5) unduly inflammatory.
Fire is a natural and necessary feature of heath and moorland and the superficial burning which you illustrate will do nothing but good to the native vegetation. Tough on the ground-nesting birds, of course, but thats nature.
The type of fire to be feared on our moors is that which is allowed to burn longer and deeper.
If it gets into the peat then it can burn for months and destroy not only the vegetation but the peat beds right down to the gravel and rock. Such a fire is also very difficult to tackle as it can burn undetected underground with the danger of the firefighter falling through into the inferno below.
Incidentally, and changing the subject completely if I may, I am astonished to find myself agreeing increasingly with your correspondent Ian Brooke one-time supporter of Russian communism and apologist for the IRA in his letter headed All Dictatorship Is Wrong. One or other of us is clearly mellowing with the years.
