Clearing moors for grouse shooting creates a tinderbox | George Monbiot

The Saddleworth fire could prove another reason to ban this disgusting 'sport', which turns the land into a monocultureWhat caused the Saddleworth Moor fire? The immediate reason, of course, is the peculiarly hot and dry conditions of the past few weeks. But that may not be the end of the story. Some types of vegetation are much more susceptible to fire than others, and the kind that prevails on Saddleworth Moor was an accident waiting to happen, a human-made tinderbox.As the environmental campaigner Guy Shrubsole says, the fire sites on the moor correlate closely with places managed for driven grouse shooting: the practice of sending large numbers of red grouse over the heads of people lying in shooting butts who pay - in some cases, thousands of pounds a day - for the privilege. In order to attract such fees, the moors are managed to maximise the number of grouse. This often involves draining boggy ground, and cutting and burning vegetation to maintain a monoculture of low heather. Such an artificial habitat often happens, as the Forestry Commission notes, to be highly susceptible to wildfires. Continue reading...