This summer, the news announced something I never imagined could ever happen here at Dunwich Heath, Suffolk – a heathland wildfire: devastation beyond words and of unimaginable size – in a place I visit frequently.
How will I feel when once again I stand on the heath I love, now blackened by fire? I do not know. No doubt, I will find it hard to process the loss without shedding tears and feeling overwhelmed with grief, helplessness, sadness. I desperately want to do something, anything to help save it.
The past five years, we have experienced long hot summers with temperatures that have been climbing; temperatures over 36ºC degrees have dried out the grass, heather and gorse. With no rain to give plants some moisture, the heath became so dry – a tinderbox vulnerable to fire.
The enormity of the loss
Since the arrival of Dartford warblers in the1970s, their Dunwich colony has developed into one on their largest breeding sites in the East of England.
I have spent years observing the Dartford warblers throughout the winter months into early March, when I leave them to get on with their nesting and raising their young undisturbed. I only return after the summer, in early autumn, to see how they have done.
Home to a whole host of residents and visitors
The Suffolk heaths are outstanding in beauty and scientific importance. Heather and gorse give the dartford warblers, stone curlews, woodlarks, nightjars, and other bird species a place to thrive and breed safely.
Last year, a rare turkestan shrike (also known as a red-tailed shrike) arrived from the Asian continent. It had been blown off course in a storm and landed on the heath. The bird stayed for over a week, to the delight of a vast number of visitors who travelled from everywhere to see it.
The insects that rely on the heathland habitat are part of the food chain that supports all the species, especially rare moths, butterflies, beetles, adders, lizards and invertebrates. Without the ground covering of heather, fauna, trees, scrub areas and bushes, the whole ecosystem will break down.
The destructive nature of fire
The fire has virtually destroyed all the building blocks that make the heath a viable home for the wildlife that dwell there.
It will impact migrant birds, like nightjars that fly from Africa, or the stone curlews who fly from southern Europe and north Africa. They will arrive in the expectation that their nesting sites will be there as before. The loss of habitat could have a profound impact on these species.
Protecting nature, protecting ourselves
Dunwich Heath’s vibrant, stunning heather, full of amazing colours is something to behold. It is usually full of wildlife activity that is unique to this type of terrain. To lose this habitat, which is a stronghold for so many species, is difficult to bear, even now, after weeks have passed. It has taken dedication, decades of growing, nurturing, and management to craft the heathland that existed before the devasting wildfires.
Whether you believe global warming is our own fault or down to planetary changes, I believe we have entered a new phase of evolution these past decades. Hot summers and wildfires are now part of our future, and we need to adjust our lifestyles.
Could we have acted sooner or done more? Yes of course. But we live in a fast moving, no time to think society, and with governing bodies that disregard inconvenient scientific evidence if it compromises their political ambition.
Preparing for a different future
Mankind is a species that has reached out into space and achieved wondrous inventions. But we need to stop and think how we go into the future. Too often, we take from Mother Earth what we need, with little or no thought to the harm we are doing. Instead, mankind must take more responsibility to protect and live in harmony with the planet we love and call home. Above all we must accept that without nature and the precious wildlife that we are caretakers for, mankind will not survive as a species.
It is time to put nature and conservation first, before we lose it all.
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