BBC interview allows Wildlife Trusts Director to spout total untruths, yet goes unchallenged
- C4PMC
- Apr 3
- 2 min read
The government's proposed extension to the current legislation on heather burning which would further restrict land managers’ and farmers’ ability to manage the vegetation on their land through cool burns. Currently, unless a specific license has been issued, it is illegal to burn vegetation on deep peat areas (over 40cm depth) within an SSSI which is also an SAC or SPA.
The proposed new rules would require a license to burn on all land within a Less Favoured Area; change the definition of ‘deep’ peat to over 30cm, as well as introducing mandatory training.Yesterday, Rob Stoneman, Director of Landscape Recovery for Wildlife Trusts, was interviewed on BBC 4’s Farming Today programme, discussing these proposed changes. Strangely, while the presenter Anna Hill referred to “groups supporting game shooting”, who “claim that controlled heather burning is a routine part of maintaining grouse shooting moorland, and can encourage development of sphagnum moss and be used as a fire break to prevent the spread of wildfires”, the programme offered up no counter-interviewee to Stoneman, leaving his statements totally unchallenged.
Stating that these proposed changes were “really good news”, Stoneman went on to state that “just as we stopped burning in the lowlands, [we need to] really stop the widespread use of burning in the uplands.”Is that the case, Rob? It’s strange that the BBC let this go unchallenged, when there are numerous examples of lowland areas where cool burns are still used to control vegetation; indeed, the technique has featured on the BBC’s very own Countryfile programme, in areas such as Dartmoor, the New Forest, Norfolk and in Northern Ireland.
Addressing Anna’s point about the claims from “groups supporting game shooting”, which included the burning of fire breaks to prevent wildfires from spreading, Stoneman conceded that: “If you've got an active wildfire that's out of control, of course, actually burning a fire break is a very sensible strategy, that sort of thing you might do for health and safety. But routine, regular burning of the peatlands, I don't think has anything to do with wildfire management. In fact, it causes more severe wildfires.”Really, Rob? Do you really think it’s that easy to simply “burn a fire break” whilst a wildfire is raging?
His nonchalance over the topic shows how little experience he has of dealing with fire in any situation and is entirely disingenuous of the skill needed in those situations. Indeed, we believe that there are very few – if any – Tactical Burn Teams within the Fire and Rescue Services that have the expertise in executing these fire breaks in the future highly volatile situations we are highly likely to encounter.
As explained in the other C4PMC blog on the recent wildfires in the uplands, land rank with vegetation will burn, no matter how many sphagnum plugs you plant. Vegetation control is vital, not just in the upland moors, but in lowland areas too – unless, that is, we want the whole of the UK to go up in flames. Shame on the BBC for allowing this interviewee to go unchallenged.
