UK Nature and Environment

Scotland's moorlands are deliberately burned from October to mid-April in a practice known as "muirburn", which encourages new grass and heather that feeds grouse and livestock. This arrangement suits landowners who shoot these game birds and farmers who graze sheep, but it poses a problem when it happens on peatland.

A healthy peatland is a soggy and spongy terrain made up of partially decomposed plant matter known as peat. Peat soils lock away vast amounts of carbon. In fact, peatlands globally store twice as much carbon as the world's forests. Peat soils damaged by fire release this carbon, warming the climate. Fire damage can also mean the peat retains less water, and so rain washes more quickly into rivers which increases flooding downstream.