David Ross is correct to highlight the dangers of wildfires to the peat
stored in Scotland’s uplands, and the evidence of massive damage in the
English Peak District over past decades is a warning (“Peat wildfires are
linked to climate change”, The Herald, September 24).
As our climate changes, wildfires are likely to become more frequent,
especially in the spring when there is a lot of dry fuel in the form of
dead vegetation after the winter, as we have seen in 2012 and 2013.
Wildfires with high fuel load burn hottest and go down into the peat layer
below, resulting in loss of all vegetation and then releasing the carbon
stored in the peat through wind and water erosion.
However, periodic reduction of the fuel load by carefully managed muirburn
has a big part to play in preventing such wildfires. When done correctly,
muirburn will take off excess vegetation, leaving the ground layer intact
and encouraging vigorous new growth that protects in turn the peat below.
Areas of short vegetation also act as natural firebreaks, which is why
wildfires on managed moorland tend to be far less damaging than where a
thick layer of old woody heather has been allowed to develop.
Peatlands are increasingly recognised as a vital way of storing carbon and
moorland managers are playing an active part in preventing damage to the peat.
Tim Baynes
Director Scottish Land & Estates Moorland Group,
Stuart House, Eskmills Business Park, Musselburgh
Glasgow University researchers suggest peat destroyed by a wildfire on a
10-acre site in the Highlands released between 0.1% and 0.3% of carbon
dioxide all the UK’s peatlands would otherwise have absorbed in a year.
Why, then, does the Scottish Government support the building of wind farms
on peatlands? The first phase of the Whitelee site covered 13,000 acres
from which one million cubic metres of peat were removed.
Gillian Bishop,
Woodside Cottage, Ryelands, Strathaven.
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