BY CALUM CAMPBELL

It is a scene that has become all too familiar. The Cairngorms, one of Scotland’s most cherished landscapes, is ablaze. As firefighters spend another night on the hill near Ryvoan Bothy, and as families are evacuated from their homes in Glenmore, a difficult question hangs in the smoke: how did we get here? The answer, for many, lies not in the weather, but in a disastrous management ideology that has created a tinderbox.

The current wildfire on the RSPB’s Abernethy reserve is a stark example of this failure. For days, flames have consumed hundreds of hectares, with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) battling a blaze that residents say is still “burning hard”. The fire has now spread across approximately four square kilometres, leading to evacuations and significant damage to the reserve.

Yet, the response to this emergency has laid bare a shocking level of ineptitude. Reports have emerged that volunteers, including experienced gamekeepers who drove for over an hour to offer their help, were turned away at the muster point by RSPB staff. One gamekeeper, when asked his experience, replied “Gamekeeper,” only to be told, “oh, we don’t need your help.” This was not an isolated incident. The SFRS reportedly confirmed they had heard this “a lot lately,” and they had to redirect these skilled individuals to where their expertise was actually needed.

This arrogance is not just a PR disaster; it is a fundamental misunderstanding of the resources needed to fight moorland fires. For decades, the RSPB has campaigned relentlessly to ban the ancient practice of muirburn, the controlled burning of heather in the cooler months. They frame this as an environmental necessity, but to those who live and work on the land, it is a thinly veiled campaign against grouse shooting. The reality is that the muirburn they seek to outlaw is one of the most effective tools for preventing the very wildfires that are now ravaging their own reserves.

The science is simple, irrefutable, and ignored by the RSPB. Without controlled burning, heather grows rank and woody. The fuel load—the amount of combustible vegetation—increases exponentially. On regularly managed moorland, fuel loads are around 2-4 tonnes per hectare. On unburnt land, this can rocket to 10-15 tonnes and, in extreme cases of rank heather, reach a staggering 60 tonnes per hectare. The consequence of this is not just more fire; it is a hotter, more intense, and more dangerous fire. Fires in older, tall heather generate flames of 3 to 7 metres, burning at temperatures that can ignite the peat below, leading to underground fires that smoulder for weeks.

This isn’t theory; it’s a devastating pattern that has been playing out for years on RSPB reserves. In 2018, a wildfire on Saddleworth Moor, parts of which are managed by the RSPB, burned for over three weeks, releasing the same amount of carbon as 100,000 cars over a year. In 2023, the RSPB’s Corrimony reserve in Inverness-shire saw the UK’s biggest wildfire burn for over two weeks, with gamekeepers having to force their way past RSPB staff to get access to fight it. These were supposed to be wake-up calls. Instead, they have been learning opportunities for an organisation that is failing to learn.

Now, the RSPB is left scrambling for a response it should have had ready. It has had to rely on the very people it spends its time campaigning against—gamekeepers and neighbouring estates—to bring their own kit and expertise to the fight. An RSPB spokesperson even acknowledged the “huge community effort” from gamekeepers and other staff. This is a damning indictment of their stewardship. With over £200 million in the bank and a duty of care to the land they own, their failure to invest in fire-fighting equipment is not just neglectful; it is an abdication of responsibility.

The RSPB has been warned for years. Locals who have lived and worked in the Cairngorms their entire lives told the charity in the 1990s that reinstating forest tracks with bulldozers was a mistake, as these would be vital for fire access. The advice was ignored. Now, 30 years of mismanagement at Abernethy—stripping the land of herbivores and ending all heather burning—has produced exactly the catastrophic result that locals predicted. The tall, rank heather they have cultivated is a wildfire risk of the highest order.

As the flames continue to burn, and as the RSPB inevitably puts the “begging bowl” out for donations to fight a fire it was warned about years ago, we must ask: how many more of our landscapes must burn before the RSPB admits it got this catastrophically wrong? The evidence is on fire right in front of us.

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Calum Campbell is a commentator on rural and environmental issues in Scotland.