I live on the edge of Ilkley Moor which is a north Pennine heather moor. Being easily accessible it has a large number of visitors each year, most of whom appreciate the land and treat it respectfully. Yet, despite signs warning people to not light fires, disposable barbeques, discard cigarettes etc, and after a very dry winter and spring it being being bleeding obvious to even to most blind, knuckle-dragging numbskull that the moorland is tinder-dry and is therefore a fire risk. Need I say more...
Pentax K5, DA*300mm. Pictures taken from about a third of a mile from one of the fires.
As I type this post there are helicopters flying overhead dumping water onto the fires. I hope the fire and council staff who have been managing the fires, lugging their equipment far from roads, up a steep, rocky hill side, in baking sunshine and now into the night, stay safe. Their efforts have undoubtedly saved a number of properties that are close the fires but the effect on the ground nesting birds and other wildlife will be catastrophic.
I am so fortunate to live in such a lovely place and just a few miles from work such that I can walk to and from the office most days across the heather moorland in all weathers. I get to see the efforts of local volunteers who maintain the land and meet many people who, like me, appreciate it and all that it provides for us. Actions by mindless, thoughtless individuals destroy much of what we have and, by extension, the efforts of those who make it accessible to us all. Not least they put at risk the lives of those who try and save it.
There are still two days of bank holiday days left with fine, warm weather forecast. Sigh.
