Nature 'bouncing back' after UK wildfire

Peatland on a nature reserve is showing signs of recovery after a severe wildfire.

Back in 2018, a wildfire blazed through around a third of the Smithalls nature estate, in Greater Manchester, destroying around 2,000 trees and important peatland.

Emergency services worked day and night for 41 days to put out the fire.

Now, six years later, conservationists have been investigating how the area is recovering and how to protect it in future.

Conservationists studied areas of the land to see how it was recovering

Conservationists from the Woodland Trust are studying the area by looking at two metre, by two metre, squared patches of land and noting down the plants and animals discovered there.

Smithills site manager Oliver Stainthorpe, of the Woodland Trust, said: "Nature is bouncing back in some ways."

"There has been much recovery from plants and animals and our survey will help us to shape the future recovery and restoration of the complex environment under the ground." he said.

So far the survey has discovered that plant species like purple moor grass, turfed hair grass, wavy hair grass, mat grass and sphagnum moss, are recovering, as well as birds like meadow pipits, kestrels and skylarks.

This picture from 2018 shows some of the damage caused by the fire

However, conservationists say it could take a very long time for the areas to fully recover from an event like this.

"Nature can bounce back but the damage caused from such a catastrophic event can take hundreds of years to overcome," he said.

The conservationists goal now to to help the land recover by 'rewetting' the area , re-planting trees, and introducing fire patrols to stop it happening again.

"As well as restoration, we must try protecting the site from such a devastating incident occurring again, this summer we have had volunteers doing fire patrols to detect any threats." said Oliver Stainthorpe.