RSPB Outlines Wildfire Prevention Plan After Cairngorms Blaze
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- RSPB Scotland is implementing four wildfire prevention measures at its Abernethy reserve: wider fire breaks (three times the six-metre flame height), more ponds and rewetted peatlands for firefighting water, cattle grazing to cut fuel loads, and planting broadleaved species like alder, rowan, aspen and birch — which burn less easily than resin-rich Scots pines.
- The Cairngorms wildfire burned for more than a month, destroying over 2,500 hectares (about 10 square miles), forcing the evacuation of an entire village, and producing smoke visible 60 miles away in Aberdeen; hot spots were still emerging a week after firefighters departed.
- Scotland's chief fire officer published an open letter calling for better wildfire planning and a "more formal and proportionate fire safety regime" comparable to the rules governing urban businesses.
- A Cairngorms National Park Authority bylaw introduced in April banning summer fires and BBQs cut recorded campfires/BBQs to 36 this year from 94 in the same period last year.
- University of the Highlands and Islands researcher Roxane Anderson calls peatland restoration "a complete no brainer," citing a 2019 Melvich fire where re-wetted peat suffered only superficial damage; Scotland targets 400,000 hectares of peatland restoration by 2040.
- The Scottish government is in the final stages of introducing muirburn licences for controlled heather burning on grouse moors — a practice RSPB avoids but Scottish Land and Estates defends as a vital fuel-reduction tool.
- Wildfire consultant Michael Bruce says the UK lacks sufficient long-term research on wildfire behaviour and that estates must "build up layers of defence" because "wildfires find the gaps."
Why it matters: Opposing land managers — rewilding charities and grouse-shooting estates — stood side-by-side for five weeks fighting the Cairngorms blaze, and RSPB Scotland's four-pronged prevention plan now ties them to shared wildfire-risk practices even where their end goals diverge. Scotland's 400,000-hectare peatland restoration target by 2040 becomes a frontline climate defence as longer dry spells are predicted to make tinderbox summers more likely.
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