Had to call the fire service this evening...

[Rebel_Commando]

I went for a quiet walk this evening to the NNR at the back of my house (It's about 2500 acres of peat bog and scrub). The site has a strict no fires and no smoking policy due to how peat can burn for weeks underground and needing to be watched 24/7 if it ever catches.

Anyway I came across an area that had been clear felled of the birch,alder and willow in the past couple of years. It looks like on Friday they had a team in stacking the brash with a medium sized tracked digger and burning it! That sounds bad enough but noticed two of the fires sites were still smouldering away, one had gone down into the peat by a foot or so and the other was starting to smoke quite alot when a breeze got up. To make it even worse about 6ft away from one of the fires was a bucket with a couple of litres of what looked like sump oil and red diesel mixed then found a full 20 litre drum marked as red diesel!

I think the guys responsible need a right good kick up the backside!

[easy-lift guy]

And if caught thrown in jail for a very long time.

easy-lift guy

[cousin jack]

I went for a quiet walk this evening to the NNR at the back of my house (It's about 2500 acres of peat bog and scrub). The site has a strict no fires and no smoking policy due to how peat can burn for weeks underground and needing to be watched 24/7 if it ever catches.

Anyway I came across an area that had been clear felled of the birch,alder and willow in the past couple of years. It looks like on Friday they had a team in stacking the brash with a medium sized tracked digger and burning it! That sounds bad enough but noticed two of the fires sites were still smouldering away, one had gone down into the peat by a foot or so and the other was starting to smoke quite alot when a breeze got up. To make it even worse about 6ft away from one of the fires was a bucket with a couple of litres of what looked like sump oil and red diesel mixed then found a full 20 litre drum marked as red diesel!

I think the guys responsible need a right good kick up the backside!

 

Some people really have their brains up their backside, hope the people responsible are hauled over the coals, the people who gave them the contract should be held to account as well.

[Rebel_Commando]

Well the site is jointly managed by CCW and Natural England, I'd originally tried to call the emergency number on a sign for the site manager but got an answerphone message with two mobile numbers for two other people,neither were obtainable!

There was another half a dozen piles of brash waiting to be burnt too but hopefully that won't be happening now!

[Big Bolt]

for 1 if the contract was with or through NE no fuel is allowed to be left on site and to have waste oil on site for fire starting is a big no no ,and to have a fire on a peat bog is absalutly a no done thing , we have to remove and chip up here, i would give them a call again on tueasday or go beyond the little men get it in the paper !!!

[face cord]

CCW is one of the biggest employers in N Wales they have a massive office complex but iv'e always wondered what most of them actually do, as they get contractors in to do most stuff.

 

Can't remember the exact figure but i think it was around 500 employees?

 

 

Also why spend loads maintaining land as heath if it wants to regenerate into woodland (naturally it would be oak woodland evertually)?

 

I know it might support some rare species but doesn't oak woodland also?

[openspaceman]

Also why spend loads maintaining land as heath if it wants to regenerate into woodland

 

Heath and the populations it supports is globally rare, as are bluebell woods, just a band in northern Europe.

 

(naturally it would be oak woodland evertually)?

 

Would it? In SE England it would be predominantly pine for centuries and this is a species that hardly was planted before the Jacobite era. It had been displaced by broadleaves a few thousand years before.

 

 

I know it might support some rare species but doesn't oak woodland also?

 

Different species and that's what biodiversity is all about.

[Rebel_Commando]

CCW is one of the biggest employers in N Wales they have a massive office complex but iv'e always wondered what most of them actually do, as they get contractors in to do most stuff.

 

Can't remember the exact figure but i think it was around 500 employees?

 

 

Also why spend loads maintaining land as heath if it wants to regenerate into woodland (naturally it would be oak woodland evertually)?

 

I know it might support some rare species but doesn't oak woodland also?

 

 

This site was made a NNR in the early 90s. Most of the drier margins had been redclaimed for ag use years ago and the bog area was used for commercial peat digging.

 

The peat company was draining the water off to allow for better access plus guaranteed every summer while they were operating there would be fires. 20-40 acres would catch and there would be fire teams from all over the country watching the site 24-7 for weeks. After the fires birch dominnated most of the whole area.

 

Since they started the management plan the fires stopped the water level has risen, sphagnum moss is on the increase, adders and grass snakes are a more common site now plus other plants,bugs and birds that I know nothing about lol

[face cord]

Snowdonia would be alot nicer though imo with a few more areas of broadleaf trees around even if it was just limited to a few enclosures.

 

Where most people seem to see the rugged "natural" beauty of moorland & heather grassland I somtimes think of it as a massive expanse of degraded land denuded by sheep since it was cleared in the neolithic etc

 

CCW & National trust policy is maintaing the status quo or the heritage of the current managed/farmed landscape.

[adbat234]

I have had to turn out with the fire service to deal with peat fires before today, The sheer time and resources that have to be thrown at them is unbe effin lievable.

It really does leave the service thin on resources for serious life threatning emegencies. Some folks just dont think .