This is Ilkley Moor and behind me you can see the extent of the damage caused by the
fire that occurred in August 2006. Nearly 18 months ago. And you can see that after the time
has elapsed, there’s still not a lot of regrowth on large parts of it. And on some
of it, some of the parts there, that were burned previously, it still stands out, and
those are the bits that we anticipated would come back the quickest, and they possibly, they
haven’t. They still look pretty bare. And this point here is where the fire was stopped
by the fire service after eight days. And it started about a mile to the west, by the
forestry at Rivock Edge. We lost about 400 acres in the end, of moorland.
If I’m being generous, somebody accidentally dropped something like a cigarette end or…
but I suspect that somebody set it deliberately with a box of matches.
We had staff on the ground within half-an-hour or so of it being reported starting;
and there was somebody there almost immediately. And
they looked like they almost had it under control at one point. But, overnight, it got away
again and that was it. Since the fire we’ve had a training exercise: the fire service
were particularly concentrating on the logistics of fighting a moorland fire, how to get all
their equipment to site, and what equipment they needed and the ways of getting water
- that was the main problem of the fire - was getting water to the front of the fire.
The heat from the moor, from the heather, is, can be extremely hot. Depending upon how
the moorland is managed, if it's particularly deep heather which is on fire, it can be very a
very arduous fire to fight and require a lot of turnover of crews because it is so hot
and demanding, physically on your body, with dehydration, etc. And generally when these
fires occur it’s when it is extremely hot anyway. So, as well as the heat from the fire,
and with the heat from the environmental factors as well, just ‘cos of sunshine, and ambient
air temperature which can make it very very difficult to do.
We’ve been looking at different ways of getting water onto the moor. One option is inflatable pools that you put up on the
moor and then pump water into them from a fire hydrant down in Riddlesden and about
a mile away [and 1,000ft rise]. The fire service are also investigating the possibility of having
a large pumping system which will pump a lot of water quickly over fairly long distances.
And, although Ilkley is quite close, it’s very difficult access across the top of the moor.
We’ve also got a list of equipment drawn up on a fire plan. The Council has equipment,
so do landowners, farmers and gamekeepers. Gamekeepers, particularly, have eight wheel
drive vehicles which will go almost anywhere; which will carry tanks of water and have misting
machines on them, which are powers washers which will spray a fine moist of spray on the front
of the fire and put it out. Fire engines don’t carry a lot of water, so these devices are
pretty important to get to the front of a fire and put it out. As well as burning heather,
the fire has also taken out loads of habitat which were ideal for ground nesting birds,
such as short eared owls and merlins. The fire destroyed all of this and it will be
a long long time before they return. In the winter between October and April, we have
controlled burning on the moor. We do that to create different age structures amongst
the vegetation. Because different types of nesting birds like different lengths of vegetation.
To set-off a controlled fire we put down a fire front using paraffin. We will burn an
area roughly approximating the size of a football pitch and then we’ll put it out at the end.
You have to be very careful of wind direction which can move suddenly up here; and use natural
breaks to make it stop. We usually use either a path or a track, or sometimes a dry stone wall.
The main difference in burning in winter and the fire we had in the summer, is that the
ground underneath the vegetation is wet. So unlike in the summer, the peat doesn’t catch
fire. It burns the vegetation off the top of the peat. This promotes growth in the heather
because seed beds grow faster back from the peat, than they do from basal shoots of the plants,
which are quite slow to regenerate.
Well, from here I think I will now take you up the moor and we'll look at a patch of patch of heather where we’ve tried to do some re-seeding using
brash from another site, to try and reinstate the heather growth on the moor.
This area is on a bit of a slope and we’re concerned about erosion. It's quite rocky around here
and the peat has burned right down to the mineral rock. And if we can’t get some cover
on it, peat might be blown away or washed away.
This is an experimental area here, that has been set-up by John Lilly, a student at Park Lane College at Horsforth.
What he is doing here is to try and determine which experimental technique is best for trying to regenerate
heather on the bare bits of the moor that’s been burned away. And he’s divided it into
four squares. And in this square here, what he’s done is spread this brash about, which
has got lots of seeds. Now, that was cut from our moor at Harden and we’ve brought over and
spread it about. And this square here, he’s going to put down some coconut matting and
pin it down and see whether that helps to stabilise the ground - stop it eroding and washing away.
This square here, he’s brought some heather plants and he’s going to plant heather plants
all over this square. And on this square, this is the control square and he’s going
to do nothing on this and just see what comes back on its own.
Here we can see an area of peat that’s been really really burned down. You can see the depth there.
Right down to the rocks here; down to the sandy mineral stuff. And it’s beginning to get washed
away in this gully down the hill.
Here’s an example of some really old heather. You can see that the plant has collapsed and new growth comes from the basal shoots at the
bottom of it - and crowberry is coming up, in this case here. That’s a very slow process.
This lot really needs burning, ready to promote some new growth.
This is a good example of a patch that's been burned. Here we’ve got the long heather next to
the burn. And here we’ve got regrowth. We’ve got heather coming back; bilberry coming back;
and crowberry here. Altogether in a little mosaic together with some grass as well.
Just what we're looking for.
Here’s another problem we have on the moor: people have camp
fires and they leave them burning and they leave hot ashes. And in the summer that can
set fire to whole large areas of moorland, and things like portable barbecues are very
popular now - and they get left behind. When they are still hot, they can set fire to heather.
Cigarette ends; discarded matches - they can all cause catastrophic fires in the summer.
So I’m urging people take the stuff away with them. If the moor catches fire in the
summer and we lose a whole area of moor again, it can take 30-50 years
to get vegetation grow back on it again.