BY BERT BURNETT
RSPB, We Warned You
As the smoke continues to drift across the A9 and the acrid smell of scorched Caledonian pinewood lingers in the glens, we must take stock of the reality that has unfolded in the Cairngorms over the past week. Over 10 square kilometres of one of our most fragile and treasured habitats has been reduced to ash. More than 100 firefighters have risked their lives tackling a blaze that, despite the spin, remains a dangerous and active incident. Yet, as I look at the response from certain quarters, particularly the RSPB, I am left shaking my head in disbelief. They are learning nothing. They are stuck in a bureaucratic loop, still banging on about “rewetting” as if it is the silver bullet for every fire risk.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am no enemy of conservation. I have spent my life on the land. I have seen the beauty of the Cairngorms in all its moods, and I have also seen it burn. But this obsession with rewetting as the sole solution to wildfire prevention is, to put it bluntly, dangerous nonsense. How on earth do you rewet a mountain side? That was a question put to me recently by a friend who, like many in the rural community, is watching this situation unfold with growing frustration. It is a good question; one that seems to be conveniently ignored by the armchair ecologists who have never had to battle a blaze across steep, unforgiving terrain.
Rewetting—blocking drainage ditches to raise the water table—has its place. It is excellent for restoring peatlands and locking in carbon. But to suggest it is the preferred method for preventing catastrophic wildfires on the scale we just witnessed is absurd. The Cairngorms are a vast, complex landscape of mountains, forests, and heather moorland. You cannot simply flood the side of a mountain to stop a fire that is roaring through dry vegetation, driven by unpredictable winds. It takes years to raise the water table, and even then, in a dry spring, the surface vegetation remains tinder-dry.
While the RSPB was waxing lyrical about rewetting, the fire was ravaging the Abernethy estate. The irony is stark. They were quick to call for helicopters, and rightly so, but where was the management on the ground in the years leading up to this? We should be looking to the Mediterranean. As experts have pointed out, Catalonia has made remarkable strides in preventing wildfires by using traditional methods like grazing animals to clear undergrowth and creating natural firebreaks. We have known for decades that reducing the “fuel load” is the most effective way to slow the spread of a fire. Controlled burning, or “muirburn” as we call it in the hills, has been practised for centuries. It creates breaks in the vegetation and removes the combustible material that accelerates a wildfire.
Land managers and gamekeepers have been advocating for this for years. They are the ones on the ground. Yet, there is a persistent reluctance from certain NGOs to embrace these techniques fully, favouring instead a model of “rewilding” that often leaves vast swathes of land overgrown and susceptible to infernos. Let me tell you, when you are fighting a wildfire, you do not want to be wading through chest-high heather and thick scrub. You want open, grazed ground and firebreaks that give you a fighting chance.
This brings me to another pressing issue: the deafening silence from the Scottish Government. Specifically, the lack of visible leadership from the two Cabinet Secretaries who should be all over this like a rash. I am referring to Neil Gray and Gillian Martin. The question nobody is asking publicly is: Where are they?
We had Neil Gray swanning in at the beginning, declaring the blaze “contained.” That was a shocking misjudgement. According to those fighting the fire, it was “not the case.” It was an amateurish statement that risked encouraging the public to resume their holidays, potentially walking into danger or hampering rescue efforts. It shows a lack of understanding that is frankly terrifying.
And what of Gillian Martin, the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy? Deathly hush. You would think that the destruction of a vital carbon sink and the devastation of our natural heritage might elicit a comment or a visit to the site. But it has been radio silence. In the face of a climate emergency—which they never stop talking about—the silence is deafening.
Personally, I don’t trust either of them with rural issues. Neil Gray has demonstrated a dangerous flippancy, and Gillian Martin seems to have a tin ear when it comes to the realities of managing the Scottish countryside. The First Minister, John Swinney, went to the scene to offer platitudes, but where is the policy? Where is the urgency to implement practical fire-prevention strategies?
We have to stop treating the symptoms and start curing the disease. We need a radical shift in land management policy. We need to empower the gamekeepers, farmers, and land managers who have the local knowledge and the expertise. We need to move beyond the ideological fixation of groups like the RSPB and embrace a mixed approach: grazing, controlled burning, and yes, rewetting where appropriate, but not as a catch-all answer.
The “significant hot spots” remain. The fire isn’t out. If we don’t change our ways, if we don’t learn from places like Spain and Catalonia, we will be facing these scenes with increasing regularity. The trees that have burnt to a crisp are a permanent loss. They are a monument to a failure of management and a failure of political leadership. We must demand better for the glens and the future of our country.
Bert Burnett is a retired gamekeeper of more than fifty years’ experience.