Restoring the UK's Lost Wetlands Could Help Hold Back Wildfires, Researchers Say

As firefighters battled a wildfire that spread across more than 4,000 hectares in the hills above Blaenavon in south Wales for three weeks, researchers argue that Britain could make its landscapes more fire-resilient by restoring a habitat it has spent centuries removing: wetlands. More than 75% of the UK's bogs, fens, marshes and other wetlands have been dug up, drained and destroyed since 1700, stripping the land of much of its natural ability to hold water.

Wetter soils and vegetation provide less fuel for flames, and strategically placed wetlands could act as natural breaks that slow fires before they reach homes, forests or farmland. The need is growing: across England and Wales this summer, firefighters had responded to 966 wildfires by August 10, including 458 during July alone. Many upland fire sites are peatlands, or bogs, but that does not mean they still function as healthy wetlands.

In a healthy bog, waterlogged conditions stop dead plants from fully decomposing, so their remains slowly build up as peat. Where bogs have been drained, as many have been for generations, the water table falls and the peat and vegetation dry out, creating more fuel in hot weather. If flames reach the peat, they can smoulder underground and reappear elsewhere, making a fire very hard to put out, one of the problems firefighters faced at Blaenavon.

Restoring wetlands need not mean flooding productive farmland; often it means bringing back wetlands that existed before people drained them. On degraded peatlands, old drainage ditches and gullies can be blocked with small dams known as bunds, bare peat can be stabilised and replanted, and sphagnum moss can be reintroduced. Sphagnum can hold 20 times or more of its own weight in water, keeping the ground wet and creating the conditions in which more peat can form.