Burning Resentment?

Dorset is an English county with large expanses of endangered heathland. Heathland is a somewhat artificial creation as, without human intervention, it tends to turn into scrub and then forest. This change, termed succession, is prevented by controlled burning. Maintenance of heathland (and its characteristic plants and animals) will be, however, endangered by rocketing numbers of wildfires in Dorset and Wiltshire (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-62517061). The Dorset and Wiltshire fire service note that wildfires have been much more frequent this year. This August's first 10 days, for example, had more than four times the number of wildfires seen in the same period of 2021. Wildfires will destroy vegetation, preventing succession. Wildfires are not, however, an effective way of maintaining heathland. Controlled burning is limited to carefully defined areas, at specific intervals. Such burning is also done when the habitat's contained organisms (like rare reptiles and nesting birds) are unlikely to perish. Wildfires, increasingly common in Europe, just destroy everything in their path. Summer wildfires will increasingly have to be dealt with in many regions of a drought-afflicted UK.