'Highland wildfires are likely to get more intense, longer and more frequent unless action is taken'
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The "stark" message from a wildfire summit meeting in the Highlands called in the wake of the recent massive blaze at Cannich and another at Daviot was that similar fires will happen unless action is taken.
The private meeting of politicians, land managers and the emergency services was organised and chaired by Highland SNP MSP Kate Forbes and also attended by Mairi Gougeon, secretary for rural affairs, land reform and the islands.
After the meeting in Kiltality, Ms Forbes said: "There were very stark messages today that wildfires are likely to get more intense, longer and more frequent unless action is taken, and that is quite concerning of course.
"The other side is that action can be taken and that is looking at how we work with land managers in particular to ensure that the terrain, the geography, does not lend itself to widespread wildfires, and also that we ensure that all the different organisations have the training and the kit to prevent and deal with these fires, and with an ability to co-ordinate quickly."
Wildfires had a big impact on the communities involved, she said.
"They are really distressing and concerning to local communities," Ms Forbes stated.
"There is a huge workload for farmers, gamekeepers, people whose daily work is not putting out fires but find themselves having to do that to protect livestock and their land.
"So what I would like to see is far more co-ordination across the public bodies, which I think there is a willingness to do and an understanding in parliament when it comes to legislation for example around muirburn."
Asked if she thought there needed to be legislation in terms of wildfires and wild camping, Ms Forbes said: "There was a discussion about whether the Access Code for Scotland needed to be changed, and the general consensus was, although some people disagreed, that the code is not the problem because the code is clear that you may have a right to roam but you have a responsibility when you do.
"The problem is not with the code but the enforcement and perhaps looking at greater penalties when the code is not implemented correctly."
Ms Gougeon described it as a very good meeting, saying: "One of the lessons we can learn going forward is that these are not isolated incidents that we are seeing and we do expect to see similar incidents in the future because of climate change and human behaviour as well.
"I think it is great that we do see people outdoors in our countryside but we need to ensure that access is done in a responsible way.
"We have the right to roam but with that comes responsibilities and I think that was one of the key points in the discussion today."
She said any response to perceived infringements of the countryside code should be proportionate.
The vast majority of people who visit our countryside don't cause any harm or damage, but she said what was part of the discussion was how to educate people to act responsibly at times of high risk.
A ban on campfires and portable barbecues was not on the agenda, but warning labels on such cooking equipment and warning signs in high risk areas of the countryside was something worth looking at.
She said: "It was really good just talking through some of the issues that people are up against just now and what we can potentially do in the future.
"Education is critical so that enough people know about the access code and know about their responsibilities."
Land managers have urged the Scottish Government to listen to fire experts and recognise the value of controlled burning.
Scottish Land & Estates were among representatives at the summit, and Bruce Farquharson, deputy assistant chief officer at the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, provided an overview of the recent wildfires and tools such as muirburn that can help mitigate the wildfire risk.
Tim Baynes, senior policy officer at Scottish Land & Estates, said: “Wildfire is becoming an evermore present danger to Scotland and we welcome the efforts of Kate Forbes in organising this valuable summit.
“As we have seen in recent years, wildfires have caused devastation across many areas of the Highlands, particularly at Cannich in May as well as the Flow Country fire in 2019 which was estimated to have doubled Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions for the six days it burnt.
“It is up to the Scottish Government, its agencies and stakeholders to look for solutions that can manage the increasing risk as much as possible. That involves taking the views and expertise of gamekeepers and land managers into account and working with them in partnership.
“We spoke at the summit about work going on elsewhere such as at the Peak District National Park in England where a range of groups and government have come together to develop landscape scale wildfire mitigation planning.
"Their method combines local practitioner knowledge and professional wildfire expertise to provide a solid evidence base for responding to wildfires and it is an approach we should be looking at.”
SLE also reiterated its call for the value of muirburn to be recognised when managing land susceptible to wildfire.
