Cairngorms: 'Unpredictable' blaze creating 'treacherous' conditions

The 9,340-hectare Mar Lodge Estate, managed by National Trust for Scotland, has closed its car parks at the popular tourist spots Linn of Dee and Linn of Quoich, as hundreds of firefighters, two helicopters and specialist resources tackle the flames.

The wildfire was first reported on Wednesday after smoke was seen near Ryvoan Bothy on the RSPB Scotland’s Abernethy Estate. Flames have since spread through about four square kilometres of land saddling the charity’s nature reserve and Forestry and Land Scotland terrain.

Jon Henderson, SFRS assistant chief officer, said conditions on Saturday morning were "favourable" but that they remained "treacherous".

Read more: Two helicopters dispatched to tackle Cairngorm wildfire after minister said fire was 'contained'

"This morning, we have very low cloud and very low wind but conditions remain dangerous and unpredictable,” he told BBC Radio Scotland.

"The terrain is and mountainous and some of it is inaccessible, and incidents like wildfires ebb and flow over time.

"We hope to make some progress today but the likelihood is we continue the response over the weekend, then asses what that looks like for the week forward."

Mar Lodge said it had closed its reserve, home to ancient Caledonian pine forests, heather moorland, and four of the five highest peaks in the UK, as a “precaution.”

Read more: What can Scotland learn from Spain's Catalonia about wildfires?

A statement from the reserve’s team said: “The fire is still a significant distance away, and there is no immediate risk to buildings or property on Mar Lodge Estate. However, given that this is a serious fire, and that many people choose to walk through the Cairngorms from these car parks, particularly at weekends, we have taken this decision as a precaution, to protect the public, and to help facilitate any emergency response, should it be required.”

The Loch Garten Nature Centre on the RSPB reserve near Nethy Bridge remains closed as well as the nearby Pine Marten Bar + Scran near Loch Morlich in Glenmore, which had to be evacuated along with other tourist and residential properties in the area.

Earlier, community leaders, landowners and gamekeepers called out the Scottish Government after minister, Neil Gray, described the fire as “contained” on Thursday.

Read more: 'We are losing the identity of Scotland' - New charter launched to protect the open moors

Rural experts on the ground said, at the time, the situation was far from contained and that conditions were vulnerable to changing quickly, which they did.

Others assisting with the fire have called out the Scottish Government, including the secretary for climate action and rural affairs Gillian Martin, for their absence at the scene.

Scottish ministers have been called to act urgently on wildfire prevention to prevent even more devastating fires in the future.

In the last year, communities in Speyside, Galloway and now the Cairngorms National Park have had to be evacuated due to wildfires reaching residential homes and other properties.

The Cairngorms Crofters & Farmers Community (CCFC) said the ongoing wildfire “once again highlights the need to rethink upland land management” and called for a review of Scotland’s approach to wildfire resilience.

Members said while the cause of the fire has yet to be established, “one issue that cannot be ignored is the build-up of combustible vegetation across many upland landscapes.”

“The CCFC has repeatedly warned that reducing active land management and grazing, in favour of allowing land to rewild, risks increasing fuel loads and making future wildfires more difficult to control,” they said.

Ministers have been urged by gamekeepers and landowners to adopt fire prevention techniques used by other wildfire-prone countries, including Spain. The country’s Catalonia and other regions dispatch livestock, including goats, to graze back combustible vegetation in wildfire-prone areas. Response teams also use prescribed burning to create gaps in the terrain to stop fires jumping and spreading quickly.

Some landowners and land managers in Scotland carry out muirburn, otherwise known as “controlled burning” of heather. While the practice is predominantly used to help grouse by encouraging fresh, young shoots for the chicks to eat, it works as an effective wildfire prevention tool. The SFRS’s wildfire officer Michael Humphreys said the method should be one of many tools in the box for fire prevention in land management.

Opponents to muirburn, including RSPB Scotland, favour other methods including rewetting, which raises a landscape's water table (often by blocking drainage ditches), which can keep the soil saturated to help slow the spread of the flames.

Critics also point to some wildfires being caused by out of control muirburn, which takes place in a closed season between September and March.

A Scottish Government-funded study by the James Hutton Institute found: “Overall, 96 % of the total wildfire area occurred outside moorlands managed by muirburn, with wildfires covering 1.1 % of total moorland area.”

Councillor Geva Blackett, based in Braemar, said the Aberdeenshire village’s local fire team have once again headed to the scene to assist with the fire.

Commenting on the fire, Mrs Blackett said: “There surely has to be a rethink on the anti-muirburn agenda in Holyrood. I think we are all extremely grateful to the keepers whose expertise and skills gained purely because of grouse moor management are out there leading the fight to manage this fire - if investment in grouse shooting goes, how will those skills be replicated?”

An RSPB Scotland spokesperson said: ““Abernethy is an incredible place for nature supporting more than 5000 species including some of the UK's rarest and most threatened wildlife.

“While we won't know the full impact of the fire until it is out, we are very worried about the impact on young Scots Pine and broadleaved trees from areas of natural regeneration and planting as well impacts on invertebrates, reptiles, mammals and birds.

“The fire is currently being fought on two fronts – one where it has moved into Forestry Land Scotland at Glenmore and the other on our nature reserve. There is a huge community effort to halt the spread and extinguish it with gamekeepers and other staff from neighbouring estates, multiple partner organisations, our volunteers and community volunteers all working alongside the SFRS.

“We are also incredibly grateful for the support from local businesses and individuals in helping provide supplies for those on the front line.”