‘Rethink needed on new muirburn restrictions in wake of wildfires’ argue gamekeepers
Scotland’s gamekeepers have urged a rethink on incoming muirburn licensing restrictions in the wake of this week’s massive wildfires in the Highlands and Moray.
Representatives from the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) and Scotland’s Regional Moorland Groups relayed a pointed message to stakeholders including government advisors and NatureScot at Wednesday’s Muirburn Code meeting.
Their pleas came after gamekeepers mobilised voluntarily to help fight the massive wildfires, which affected a wide area around numerous communities, including Dava, Carrbridge and Knockando, over four exhausting days.
They argue that new inclusions due to be attached to the Muirburn Code risk being “potentially life threatening”.
The SGA and moorland groups have long argued that the proposals passed by the Scottish Parliament in the Wildlife and Muirburn Bill will take more and more land out of active management, at a time when increasing fuel loads need to be reduced.
New proposals will also introduce a licensing scheme and much stricter rules for carrying out muirburn on peatlands, which the Act changed in definition to ground where peat exceeds 40cm.
But they argue there is no mapping on how much of Scotland is classified under this new definition.
And, as a result, if gamekeepers, farmers and crofters want to carry out burning there, they will have to probe the ground with a peat probe in a 100 metre grid to discover peat depth and whether they can apply for a muirburn licence.
They claim the methodology is complex and expensive, and gamekeepers have argued that more ground will become unmanaged.
Even then regulators, NatureScot, can reject the application.
Gamekeepers say they find this perplexing.
And they argue that without existing muirburn management the blaze could have encroached “on the outskirts of Grantown on Spey”.
"This is the new reality," said a spokesman for the SGA. "The only reason the firefighters were able to stop it before it reached the town, was because the ground had been managed by muirburn. Those areas slowed the fire and allowed people to work at it.
“Even when it jumped into the newly planted Muckrach forest, the relic muirburn carried out there, before planting, was a massive help. What these new restrictions regarding peat depth will do, is make it much harder for anyone to burn or protect things we value. It will discourage burning licences for peatland.
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“These new regulations are supposedly being designed to protect peat, slopes and Schedule 1 bird nests. The results of this fire show the opposite.
“Occupied hen harrier and peregrine falcon nests have been burnt out. Sheep, red listed moorland wader chicks and protected young mountain hares have perished. The amphibian population has been decimated and this will be exacerbated by people having to stop controlled burning on steep slopes and on peat.
“The government is not getting this right. They are destroying the very things they set out to protect. They must stop putting roadblocks in the path of those who want to protect their ground and know how to. The 40cm peat depth restriction needs to be reviewed before they make things ten times worse.”
