With the advent of the autumnal fine weather, the heather burning season has quickly got underway. At least half a dozen fires could be seen from Ainthorpe Rigg today with smoke was creeping down on to Guisborough and the Esk valley. A sharp contrast to just six weeks ago when the North York Moors National Park issued a severe fire risk warning. The earliest official start date for moor burning was 1st October. The burning is intended to create a mosaic of heather ages, mature for nesting and young shoots for feeding the grouse. The shooting industry rigorously defends the practice but research suggests that burning releases carbon and is bad for water quality. In this year of Extinction Rebellion, this practice, solely to maximise the stock of birds available for shooting is becoming increasingly intolerable by the public.
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