In reply to UKH News:
While fires caused by human carelessness are to be discouraged, burns on heather moorland are part of a perfectly normal cycle of disturbance and secondary succession that create interesting habitat mosaics and increase the biodiversity of an area.
For the lovers of the successional underdogs this burned stand may be rapidly recolonised by lichens (Davies & Legg, 2008) and some studies have shown that Golden Plover, Lapwing and Curlew may thrive on burned heather stands (Tharme et al., 2001).
Actively trying to prevent any fires on moorlands can also result in a build up of dead woody material which turns the hillside into a tinderbox which, when it inevitably catches, can cause devastatingly large fires.