BY BERT BURNETT

Once again, we’re being fed the tired old narrative that climate change is solely to blame for the recent wildfires tearing through Scotland’s countryside. Lorna Slater and her ilk would have us believe that until recently, Scotland was a perpetually soggy paradise where the sun never shone and wildfires were unheard of. The reality, of course, is very different.

Scotland has always experienced dry spells and scorching summers. The difference now isn’t just the weather—it’s the disastrous policies of rewilding and land mismanagement that have turned our countryside into a tinderbox. In the past, wildfires were far easier to control because the land was actively managed. Today, vast swathes are left to run wild under the misguided dogma of rewilding, forestry neglect, and conservation extremism. The result? Sky-high fuel loads just waiting for a spark.

Climate change may play a role in drying out the landscape, but it’s not the root cause of these increasingly devastating fires. The root cause is the refusal to acknowledge that land must be managed—not abandoned. Controlled burning, responsible forestry, and proper maintenance could mitigate these disasters, but instead, the Greens and their allies demonise these practices as ecological vandalism.

Now, with John Swinney flirting with another coalition with the Greens, we can expect Lorna Slater to double down on her anti-management rhetoric. Swinney, ever the opportunist, will likely cave to her demands, meaning even less controlled burning and even more fuel piling up across Scotland’s wild spaces. The consequence? Bigger, fiercer, and more uncontrollable wildfires.

And here’s the bitter irony—while the Scottish Government preaches about reaching Net Zero, they conveniently ignore the colossal CO2 emissions from these wildfires.

The more land that burns, the further we get from any real environmental progress. But as long as the Greens can keep blaming climate change instead of their own failed policies, they’ll keep pushing Scotland toward an ecological disaster of their own making.

If this continues, there won’t be much left of the Scottish countryside to burn. But at least the Greens will have someone else to blame.

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Bert Burnett is a retired gamekeeper of more than fifty years’ experience.