How the Government Quietly Dropped Plans for Wildfire Preparation as Gamekeepers Left Holding the Line

This summer, England's countryside burned on a scale few of us have seen. Homes were threatened in the West Midlands, and a nature reserve in Suffolk was devastated by a fire that came close to Sizewell B nuclear power station. Through all of it, the people on the ground were asking a simple question: where was the plan?

We now know the answer. As the Guardian reported, the wildfire risk programme promised in the 2023 national climate adaptation programme was never implemented. It was meant to run from 2023 to 2027 and to adapt land management in England to growing wildfire risk. The government has admitted the commitment "was made by the previous government but was not brought into effect." For four years, no national programme existed to prepare our landscapes for fire.

When the state steps back, someone else has to step forward. On England's moorlands, that has been gamekeepers and land managers. They cut and maintain firebreaks, manage vegetation to reduce fuel loads and keep firefighting equipment on hand. They are very often the first on the scene when a fire breaks out, working alongside fire crews who know the value of their local knowledge and their kit.

Nowhere was this clearer than in the Peak District. In August, when a wildfire took hold on the Bradfield estate near Sheffield, gamekeepers from the Peak District Moorland Group battled the flames alongside South Yorkshire firefighters. The group's WhatsApp network meant that within an hour, experienced gamekeepers with their own firefighting equipment had arrived from shooting estates across the area, joined by local farmers bringing tractors and slurry spreaders. A local pub sent food up to the keepers as they worked into the night.

In the Dark Peak, the Tintwistle wildfire burned for weeks. The Peak District Moorland Group's evidence to Parliament's Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee notes that it was still burning a month after ignition, and that a separate fire was stopped from spreading onto neighbouring moorland by PDMG gamekeepers and South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue.

The pressure began well before high summer. One Peak District keeper with over 40 years' experience told the committee that by early May there had already been nine fires, all attended by local gamekeepers alongside fire services, including a major blaze of around 800 acres on the Snake Pass moors. Over the weekend before that fire, local keepers had approached 17 groups of campers with fires lit in nearby woodland.

The same Guardian report reveals data obtained by the Country Land and Business Association. More than half of the fire services that responded have no wildfire-specific protective equipment, and in some areas only a small fraction of staff are trained for wildfire operations. This is no criticism of firefighters, who do extraordinary work. But it shows how heavily the countryside has come to rely on the people who live and work on the land.

Their contribution has not even been acknowledged. When the government hosted a reception to thank those who fought this summer's wildfires, gamekeepers were not invited. Many of the people who stood on the fire lines, often first to arrive and last to leave, were left off the guest list entirely. It is hard to think of a clearer sign of how little their role is understood in Westminster.

At the same time, government has made the job of fire prevention harder. The Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) Regulations 2021 restricted controlled burning on peatland.

The 2025 amendment went further, lowering the peat depth threshold to 30cm and extending the restrictions across the Less Favoured Area. Controlled, cool burning in winter is one of the most effective tools land managers have for reducing the build-up of dry vegetation that fuels summer wildfires. Restricting it leaves more fuel on the hills when the hot weather arrives.

Yet the government's own response to this summer's fires points to firebreaks and land management as part of the solution. The tools are being taken away with one hand while the outcome is demanded with the other.

Some campaigners are now calling for an end to moorland burning altogether. That would be exactly the wrong lesson to draw from this summer. A landscape left unmanaged is a landscape loaded with fuel. Re-wetting and restoration have their place, but they cannot replace practical, year-round management by people who understand the ground.