Guest blog – Hatfield Moors SSSI: Fetch a bucket of water boys? by Helen Kirk

Helen Kirk is passionate about environmental conservation and wildlife. She is a peatland campaigner and field naturalist.

Growing up on a farm on the periphery of Hatfield Moors, and attending school in the 1970s where visits to Thorne Moors were frequent, saw Helen cut her teeth in terms of natural history interest and later campaigning in order to save the sites.  In recent years significant discoveries have justified the tenacity needed to secure recognition of Thorne & Hatfield Moors’ value. Sadly still witnessing the need to hold statutory agencies and authorities to account.

This is Helen’s second guest blog here, her first in 2013 posed the question ‘Muzzled Watchdog’ to ‘Toothless Terrier’?  after Defra agencies presided over damage to a part of Thorne Moors SSSI. 

Hatfield Moors SSSI: Fetch a bucket of water boys?*

In early May nearly one half of one of England’s largest National Nature Reserves went up in smoke. Thorne and Hatfield Moors SSSI are England’s largest former lowland raised mires.  They are some 1620 ha (4,000 acres) and 1416 ha (3,500 acres) in extent respectively.

Following the Peat Campaign of the late 1980s and early 1990s the land was ‘gifted’ to the nation by Fisons the peat extraction company.  However, peat extraction continued by agreement with English Nature until another peat campaign saw a buy out of the extant planning consents in 2002 for £17.3M.  In 2004 English Nature took on the responsibility for the management of the sites, a move much to the benefit of the mineral extraction company as it removed the need for any afteruse plan or further investment.

The two sites are very different, Thorne is underlain by the clay-silts of pro-glacial Lake Humber, whilst Hatfield is largely underlain by sands and gravels.  Consequential of the differing geology the botanical interest is very different and likewise the invertebrate assemblage. 

In terms of its invertebrate fauna, Thorne Moors is the richest peatland site in Britain. It contains the fourth largest assemblage of rare species of any British site irrespective of habitat. Hatfield Moor is in the top ten of such sites and is acknowledged as being under-recorded.

So far, the recorded insect fauna of both Moors exceeds 5000 species – around 25% of British fauna – with over 30 Red Data Book species and over 250 nationally scarce species. Six species are known from no other sites in Britain, including three that were new to Britain in 1992.  Botanical interest includes royal fern, bog rosemary, cranberry, the insectivorous round leaved sundew and greater bladderwort, and the greater yellow-rattle.  Around 235 bird species have been recorded from on the moors, including around 90 breeding species. Nightjar, the species for which Thorne and Hatfield were designated as a Special Protection Area (SPA), fluctuate in numbers, reflecting the tenuous nature and stability of the sites’ breeding population.  As recently as 2000 Common Crane returned to Yorkshire and the vast wetland has proved suitable as a breeding habitat.  The sites are also important for adders although the population is under increasing stress from habitat change,  from rewetting and impact on hibernacula areas, disturbance from visitors, and fires are also a problem.   

The sites have also yielded significant archaeological finds.  A Bronze Age trackway was discovered on Thorne Moors SSSI in 1972 and a Neolithic one on Hatfield Moors in 2004, both now destroyed.

In recent years various schemes and projects have seen, at a conservative estimate some £22M spent on Thorne and Hatfield Moors.  These works include the implementation of a Water Level Management Plan (WLMP) for Thorne Moors SSSI; the WLMP for Hatfield Moors expired in 2006.  A European LIFE+ project saw further scrub clearance and work on the delivery of water management.  A new office was also built at Hatfield Moors at an additional cost of £2,861,245. Its location, remote from public transport, raises some doubt over NE’s commitment to lowering its carbon footprint.  Management consists of a Team Leader, a Senior Site Manager, three Site Managers and just a single Estate Worker and around 80 or so volunteers.

As an example of the continuing potential of the sites for further discoveries, Buckleria paludum, the Sundew Plume Moth, was rediscovered on Thorne Moors in 2018, 127 years to the day after G T Porritt had found it.  Historically the Moors have been pillaged for their natural resources and now deserve better.  Any attempt at ‘restoration’ – a misnomer in that a site can never go back to the past although there is the opportunity to create something new and equally interesting – represents a further opportunity for carbon sequestration. Sadly on Sunday 17 May a member of the public reported a fire on Hatfield Moors. 

Despite valiant endeavours by the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service the fire raged for five days before Damian Allen, the Chief Executive of Doncaster Borough Council, called it in as a Critical Incident.   It is not known why Natural England, the organisation with responsibility for the site, did not call for more assistance earlier.  Following the local authority intervention more resources were made available including a helicopter which then spent nine days water bombing the Moor.  Fire and Rescue teams were brought in from Humberside, West Yorkshire, Lancashire and Shropshire, but were hampered by a lack of local knowledge.  The windy weather exacerbated the spread and eventually the fire reached deep peat where it got hold and is still smouldering as I write this on Day 38 (22 June). 

Anyone who knows the site knows that it is difficult terrain to walk with the exception of the area immediately around the new Natural England offices at Boston Park.  Because of its accessibility this part of Hatfield  is a very popular area for dog walkers, joggers, horse riders and cyclists.  Litter is rife and visible ‘wardening’ or visitor engagement negligible.  Sadly, far too many of the visiting public appear to treat the National Nature Reserve as a country park type venue and they expect others to tidy up after their mess.  There is no area dedicated or managed for picnics and this has seen single use barbecues abandoned in quiet areas where there is no oversight. In this incident, one was left to start a fire which has devastated at least 40% of the Moor.

Whilst the site is currently closed because of health and safety concerns, people continue to visit as there is no policing beyond a few A4 notices posted at various entrances.

As a result of the fire on Hatfield Moors, neighbouring Thorne Moors has been put on high risk alert.  It has seen a number of fires in recent years, one in 2017 which saw around 40ha (100 acres) seriously burnt with a number of dead adders amongst other casualties.  One in 2019 spotted by volunteers was put out, by local neighbouring landowners.  If the summer weather is dry and hot, then the bulldozed timber and brash from the emergency construction of fire breaks on Hatfield Moors, unless removed, present a serious potential fire risk by offering miscreants ready-made bonfires. 

The issue now is whether Natural England and Doncaster Borough Council, along with the Fire and Rescue Services, will undertake a review or investigation into the fire, its causes and how best to ensure that the risk of a future event is reduced or can at least be effectively contained?  Concerns have been raised with the statutory agencies and authorities.  It is perhaps understandable that there may be a degree of discomfort and embarrassment on their part in that they failed to take the fire seriously early enough and get control in a timely manner.  Had a Critical Incident and associated resources been deployed in the first couple of days before the weather changed, then it is not unreasonable to think that that the fire might have been prevented from reaching the deep peat, and ultimately not been as expensive in financial terms to bring under control.  The final costs of all aspects are not yet known.

Further to a recent Freedom of Information request, it has been established that Natural England (NE) did not have a “Fire Management Plan”.  Reading the document provided under the FoI request reads something along the lines of “phone the fire brigade and run”?

A Defra press release reports “Tony [Juniper] thanked Doncaster Council and SYFRS for their work, and noted that NE is working on a plan to restore the site including a long-term approach to minimise fire risk.”  This implies perhaps that NE are now undertaking some kind of reactive belated production of a ‘plan’ of some kind?   

The failure to have considered the risk of fire appears to be a major oversight on sites of such importance with a known history of wildfires.  Neglecting to carry out fire risk assessments has given rise to severe consequences.  The situation had a potential risk to human life (in neighbouring properties) as well as a risk to wildlife and the carbon sequestering resource at the sites.  It also risked a nationally important gas storage facility on the edge of Hatfield Moors SSSI.  More importantly, the failure placed emergency service staff and equipment at significant risk and it is astonishing that this has been allowed to happen. 

What needs to be done to ensure this cannot be allowed to happen again? 

• Ensure that there is a basic fire risk assessment for both Thorne and Hatfield Moors SSSI.  Following the risk assessment and in collaboration with all agencies and authorities, a Fire Management Plan which identifies nearest water resources, equipment, people, etc. available for use in tackling any future fires on either Moor.  This plan needs to be shared widely across multi-agencies.
• Implement interim measures to prevent re-ignition of deep peat fires still burning.  This could include regular fire wardening patrols throughout peak visitor period.  This would also provide an opportunity to interact with the public to explain the value of the NNR beyond just an open access area.  Consider closure of some sensitive areas (rare breeding species protection) which might also include the very dry high risk areas which cannot be effectively wardened  Make safe the bulldozed timbers and brash to reduce fuel loading and reduce the risk of a future fire. Some kind of Critical Incident Review needs to be undertaken.  This needs to be demonstrably transparent otherwise confidence in the future management of these sites will be further reduced.  The Review should refine the Fire Risk Assessment where necessary and, in a timely manner, result in an updated inter-agency Fire Management Plan.  This plan needs to be available should another fire incident occur in this season or in the future.   We need to make sure there is input from local people and adjoining landowners who are knowledgeable about the site and not just NE staff or volunteers.

There is much public interest in how this fire got out of hand so easily. It cannot be allowed to happen again.

*Reference to the popular Sea Shanty “Fetch a bucket of water boys”

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