Vegetation burning for game management in the UK uplands is increasing and overlaps spatially with soil carbon and protected areas

Douglas, D.; Buchanan, Graeme M.; Thompson, Patrick S.; Amar, Arjun; Fielding, Debbie A.; Redpath, Stephen M.; Wilson, Jeremy D.

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2015.06.014

Cited by 70 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…R. Soc. B 371: 20150469 conservation groups are anxious to avoid fire-damage to biodiversity, nesting birds or water quality [110,111]. Smouldering peat fires [107,112] are a particular concern for moorland carbon stores, peat erosion, biodiversity, air and landscape quality and discoloration of drinking water, resulting in the need for costly ecological restoration [113].…”

Section: (A) United Kingdom As a Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Living on a flammable planet: interdisciplinary, cross-scalar and varied cultural lessons, prospects and challenges

Roos

Scott

Belcher

et al. 2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Living with fire is a challenge for human communities because they are influenced by socio-economic, political, ecological and climatic processes at various spatial and temporal scales. Over the course of 2 days, the authors discussed how communities could live with fire challenges at local, national and transnational scales. Exploiting our diverse, international and interdisciplinary expertise, we outline generalizable properties of fire-adaptive communities in varied settings where cultural knowledge of fire is rich and diverse. At the national scale, we discussed policy and management challenges for countries that have diminishing fire knowledge, but for whom global climate change will bring new fire problems. Finally, we assessed major fire challenges that transcend national political boundaries, including the health burden of smoke plumes and the climate consequences of wildfires. It is clear that to best address the broad range of fire problems, a holistic wildfire scholarship must develop common agreement in working terms and build across disciplines. We must also communicate our understanding of fire and its importance to the media, politicians and the general public.This article is part of the themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'.

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Section: (A) United Kingdom As a Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Living on a flammable planet: interdisciplinary, cross-scalar and varied cultural lessons, prospects and challenges

Roos

Scott

Belcher

et al. 2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…Much of sparsely-populated western Scotland is managed extensively for sheep and deer grazing and traditional burning practices are associated with relatively large and uncontrolled burns to improve forage quality (Hamilton, 2000). Grampian is a key area for traditional moorland management for grouse shooting (Douglas et al, 2015) and it is noticeable that here, where intensive prescribed burning occurs each spring, wildfires are more common. There are, however, also strong gradients in fuel type and climate from west to eastern Scotland with the shrub-dominated moorland fuels and drier climate of eastern Scotland making fire hazard somewhat higher.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional variation in fire weather controls the reported occurrence of Scottish wildfires

Davies

Legg

2016

PeerJ

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Fire is widely used as a traditional habitat management tool in Scotland, but wildfires pose a significant and growing threat. The financial costs of fighting wildfires are significant and severe wildfires can have substantial environmental impacts. Due to the intermittent occurrence of severe fire seasons, Scotland, and the UK as a whole, remain somewhat unprepared. Scotland currently lacks any form of Fire Danger Rating system that could inform managers and the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS) of periods when there is a risk of increased of fire activity. We aimed evaluate the potential to use outputs from the Canadian Fire Weather Index system (FWI system) to forecast periods of increased fire risk and the potential for ignitions to turn into large wildfires. We collated four and a half years of wildfire data from the Scottish FRS and examined patterns in wildfire occurrence within different regions, seasons, between urban and rural locations and according to FWI system outputs. We used a variety of techniques, including Mahalanobis distances, percentile analysis and Thiel-Sen regression, to scope the best performing FWI system codes and indices. Logistic regression showed significant differences in fire activity between regions, seasons and between urban and rural locations. The Fine Fuel Moisture Code and the Initial Spread Index did a tolerable job of modelling the probability of fire occurrence but further research on fuel moisture dynamics may provide substantial improvements. Overall our results suggest it would be prudent to ready resources and avoid managed burning when FFMC > 75 and/or ISI > 2.

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“…The report by Van der Waal et al (2011) highlights the diverse array of provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem services provided by upland and heathland ecosystems in the UK. Douglas et al (2015) pointed to the overlap between designated areas in the UK uplands and areas with a history of managed burning activity, which, in our view, highlights the role historic management has played in creating some features of conservation importance. Whether current management regimes are appropriate for maintaining the range of ecosystem services that are now desired from upland landscapes is an open question.…”

Section: The Ecological Value Of Moorland Landscapesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Informed debate on the use of fire for peatland management means acknowledging the complexity of socio-ecological systems

Davies¹,

Kettridge²,

Stoof³

et al. 2016

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The effects of fire and its use on European peatlands and heaths are the focus of considerable research and debate due to the important services these ecosystems provide and the threats they face from climatic and land-use change. Whilst in some countries ecologists are actively promoting the restoration of historic fire management regimes, in the UK the debate has become increasingly acrimonious. Positions seem entrenched between continuing the intensive form of management associated with grouse moors or ceasing burning and seeking to eliminate fire altogether. In a recent paper we argued that participants' positions appeared influenced by political and philosophical beliefs associated with, for example, private land-own- FORUM PAPER Launched to accelerate biodiversity conservationA peer-reviewed open-access journal G. Matt Davies et al. / Nature Conservation 16: 59-77 (2016) 60 ership, hunting, and associated conservation conflicts such as raptor persecution. We also suggested there was inadequate engagement with key concepts and evidence from fire and peatland ecology. We argued that management debates should aim to be inclusive and evidence-based, and to understand the benefits and costs of different fire regimes. In a strongly-worded critique of our paper, George Monbiot (author of "Feral: Searching for Enchantment on the Frontiers of Rewilding") suggested we: i) framed our research question too narrowly; ii) made the implicit assumption that moorlands were the "right" ecosystem for the UK countryside; and iii) failed to adequately engage with arguments put forward for cessation of managed burning. Here we critically examine each of these issues to provide further insight into how adaptive, participatory land-management could develop. We argue that a productive debate must acknowledge that complex trade-offs are inevitable during ecological management. Choosing the "right" ecosystem is difficult, especially in a landscape with a long history of human influence, and the answer depends on the values and ecosystem services we prioritize. Natural resource management decisions will be improved if based on an understanding and valuation of the multiple scales and levels of organization at which ecological diversity exists, the role of disturbance in controlling ecosystem composition and function, and the need for participatory action.

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Vegetation burning for game management in the UK uplands is increasing and overlaps spatially with soil carbon and protected areas

Cited by 70 publications

References 41 publications

Living on a flammable planet: interdisciplinary, cross-scalar and varied cultural lessons, prospects and challenges

Living on a flammable planet: interdisciplinary, cross-scalar and varied cultural lessons, prospects and challenges

Regional variation in fire weather controls the reported occurrence of Scottish wildfires

Informed debate on the use of fire for peatland management means acknowledging the complexity of socio-ecological systems

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