Moor owners talk of fire devastation
The family which owns 2,000 acres of moorland ravaged by fire has spoken of the devastation caused by the blaze – and the years the land could take to recover.
Firefighters have been battling the blaze on Stalybridge Moor for the past week, with incident taking a huge toll on the wildlife, the environment, and costing thousands of pounds in the response from the emergency services.
Police have now confirmed that they are considering the fire as arson after witnesses reported seeing a group of people lighting a bonfire on Sunday, June 24.
The moor comes under the Enville and Stalybridge Estate, which is owned by the Williams family on the Shropshire and Staffordshire border. The moor covers 2,500 acres, with 2,000 hit by the fire.
George Williams visited the moor earlier this week to see the impact first hand and said he was left shocked by what he encountered.
Devastating
He said: "Seeing the fire in the flesh was devastating, we all knew it was bad from reports and seeing the coverage on the news, but nothing prepares you for what it looks like when you’re standing amongst it.
"The fire has killed all sorts of wildlife, including, deer, mountain hares, ground nesting birds such as, lapwing, curlew, golden plover and grouse.
"Some sheep also perished, but luckily the farmer managed to get most of his sheep off the moor.
"It has done untold damage to the moor, killing bugs, insects, small mammals as well as destroying the habitat for the wildlife."
Mr Williams said they are now faced with the lengthy task of restoring the moor to its previous condition.
He said: "It will take years for the moorland to return to the condition it was in, its destroyed so much of the flora and fauna, this will come back naturally but it will also take a lot of hard work from ourselves, other landowners and organisations, such as; Natural England."
Trespassing
As police appealed for witnesses to the cause of the fire Mr Williams said people had been seen where it started.
He said: "Our gamekeeper saw some people on motorbikes trespassing on the moor. They were using it as a race track, when our gamekeeper and a couple of witnesses went to speak with them, they sped off, leaving rubbish behind, this is where the fire started from."
He added that more needs to be done to educate people about the potential risks of their behaviour on the moors.
He said: "We would encourage the public to be extra careful at this time, making sure not to have fires, barbecues and cigarettes in potentially dangerous locations.
"People need to be made aware of the damage and risk these fires can cause, whether that’s through schools, advertising or signs throughout the countryside, I don’t know, but something needs to be done.
"The next step is to make sure nothing like this happens again. We know how to manage these moors to prevent this sort of thing from happening however we are restricted by government policies and strict planning rules makes it very difficult to do as we wish.
"We need to do more controlled burning and have better access roads through the moor combined with enough fresh fire breaks. We also need more support from the police to deter illegal access."
'Amazing' firefighters
Firefighters from across the country, including a number from Shropshire, gamekeepers, and the army have been among those helping to battle the blaze and Mr Williams hailed their work in the face of horrendous and potentially life threatening conditions.
He said: "We can’t praise those enough who are helping battle the fire. The fire service and army have done an amazing job, we can’t thank them enough. The conditions they have had to fight this fire in have been horrible, it’s been seriously hot, it's remote and the terrain is difficult.
"We must also thank those who haven’t received the thanks they deserve. Our gamekeeper Richard, gamekeepers from neighbouring estates, local farmers, friends and mountain rescue services have risked their lives to help bring the fire under control. With their local knowledge and knowledge of heather burning, they have been able to help the fire service fight this fire."
Open access
The moor is open access land, which means anyone is allowed to walk on it.
Mr Williams said that the fire will likely have destroyed much of the maintenance and improvement work carried out since a previous fire in 2003.
He said: "It’s a great space for people to walk dogs and appreciate the local countryside. We have been managing it with guidance from Natural England to provide a rich diverse landscape for an amenity and a wildlife point of view."
"We have spent considerable resources with the help of Natural England to re-vegetate bare peat patches which amounts to about 300 acres to slow down the effects of erosion, increase the amenity value, slow down run off and make new valuable habitats for wildlife.
"There were also plans to do further bare peat restoration work and to put in 412 gully blocks to slow down run-off and wet the moorland with the help of Moors for the Future.
"We have a gamekeeper on site who carries out controlled burning and vermin control to encourage grouse and other birds to thrive. We had a big fire in 2003, not quite the size of this one, but it caused a huge amount of damage and the moor was just starting to fully recover."
