'Landscape incinerated' after week of wildfires in NI

A week of fires in upland areas of Northern Ireland has left an "incinerated landscape" affecting wildlife and walkers, conservationists say.

In the past week, the fire and rescue service has put out numerous fires in the Mourne Mountains of Co Down and in other parts of Northern Ireland.

It followed a period of very dry weather which had been preceded by a wildfire warning.

It is believed the vast majority of fires were deliberately set. The intention may be to burn off gorse and heather and promote grass growth.

It is difficult to catch people in the act of fire-setting and enforcement is virtually non-existent.

Nigel McKinney is the chief executive of the Mournes Heritage Trust, a conservation charity.

He said he was "shocked, disgusted, overwhelmed and frustrated" after a series of fires in various part of the range damaged around 18 sq/km of often protected habitat.

"You've got a blackened landscape, an incinerated landscape.

"The plants have been burned, the nests of ground nesting birds and their eggs, the insects that they feed on.

"We're already a nature-depleted place and the uplands are a repository of our biodiversity and it's going to take many, many years for there to be a recovery," said Mr McKinney.

Slieve Beagh Mountain borders counties Tyrone, Fermanagh and Monaghan. It is one of the few places in Ireland where the critically endangered Curlew comes to breed.

A cross-border project has been running in an attempt to support what breeding pairs there are and every nest is crucial.

But a fire there last week forced the abandonment of an active nest with four eggs. The fire spread across the bog stopping inches away from the nest.

The eggs have now been recovered in the hope that they may be able to be incubated to hatching, but there are no guarantees.

Dr John Cusack is chair of the Slieve Beagh Curlew Conservation Trust.

The breeding wader and its burbling call is synonymous with remote places in Ireland but has been in critical decline.

"We're talking about a 98% population decline over the last 10 or 20 years. It's got to the stage now where we really have to make sure that every nest survives.

"This particular nest represents hours of monitoring, nest protection, putting up fences. That has all kind of been wasted, unfortunately," said Dr Cusack.

He praised the fire and forestry services who managed to put the fire out but he said only time would tell whether the recovered eggs would be viable.

Slieve Beagh has been hit before and so have the Mournes.

For Mr McKinney, one of the biggest problems is the cumulative impact of annual fires in the upland areas.

The Mournes has seen a huge rise in amenity use by the public since Covid. Many more people are taking to the hills.

He said everyone needs to get the message, landowners and recreational users, that the mountains are a sensitive area that must be protected.

Mr McKinney said after the fires there was "more life on the moon" than in the affected areas.

"This is a really attractive site for people to go walking, or a picnic.

"It's a really good introduction for children and young people to the beauty of the uplands.

"But who wants to walk in a black and charred incinerated landscape with all that biodiversity gone and all the natural beauty eroded," he questioned.