Wales wildfires could take centuries to recover
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- Nick Thomas of Natural Resources Wales warned that peat soils incinerated by Welsh wildfires could take "hundreds of years" to recover because peat grows only about a millimetre a year, and expects 2026 to be the worst year Wales has ever experienced for wildfires.
- The Rhinogydd mountain range fire in Gwynedd burned for nearly two weeks and scorched over 2,000 acres of a National Nature Reserve and Special Area of Conservation — both fires were visible from space.
- A 2018 wildfire on Mynydd Llantysilio near Llangollen incinerated about 10cm of peat in some areas, and eight years on, large patches still have no heather — a real-world timeline for what current burn sites now face.
- Thomas linked a "big upsurge" in heather beetles on the same mountain — possibly driven by milder winters — to stripped leaves and combustible woody stems, calling it "a vicious circle which is associated with climate change."
- Pensychnant Conservation Centre lost about one-third of its 150 acres in a July fire; warden Julian Thompson said soil turned to dust "right down to the rock," destroying rare Ashworth's Rustic and Weaver's Wave moths found nowhere else in the world.
- RSPB Cymru said the fires "can have significant impact on breeding birds and fragile habitats that can take years to fully recover."
Why it matters: Losing peat uplands means they hold less water as a "sponge," raising downstream flood risk on top of centuries of biodiversity loss — including endemic Ashworth's Rustic and Weaver's Wave moths found nowhere else. Wales has already lost one-third of a 150-acre reserve this July, with Thomas calling the situation "very frightening."
