Henrietta Appleton

This summer’s spate of wildfires across the UK has been termed by experts the ‘2026 firewave’ due to the ‘perfect conditions’ for a wildfire disaster, with temperatures that exceeded 30 degrees, 30mph winds, and 30% humidity. Although the data is not yet available, it is possible that it will be the worst year yet.

By Henrietta Appleton, Policy Officer (England) The National Alert over the weekend is welcome in that it acknowledges the threat of wildfire to local communities, businesses and critical infrastructure, not just to environmental assets. But the cynic in me notes that this action was taken when property and the southeast were at risk; the government had failed to act when the rural landscape was burning – and spreading smoke over Manchester, Andy Burnham’s back yard.

By Henrietta Appleton, Policy Officer (England) This time last year we wrote a blog reviewing the recommendations from Natural England’s commissioned review of three wildfires on its own reserves (NECR484). In this blog we applauded NE’s creation of firebreaks on Hatfield Moss, a raised bog in the Humberhead Peatlands NNR, as mitigation against identified wildfire risk.