READERS of the article on moorland burning in the Gazette & Herald on August 19 could erroneously underestimate its importance.

More than 60 per cent of England’s upland Sites of Special Scientific Interest are managed grouse moors and it is because of that traditional management, of which heather burning is key, that has given rise to that designation.

The special interest features of both rare birds and vegetation are maintained by the continuance of the rotational burning of small patches of heather. This produces a patchwork of young shoots for food and older stands for nesting cover.

Controlled, rotational burning of heather does not damage peat, enabling it to remain a carbon sink. However, the hot burns of wildfires cause damage which results in the peat burning and the carbon store being lost to the atmosphere and watercourses. Such burns also destroy the dormant seed in the peat. Traditional rotational burning produces a wildfire safe landscape and it is of course, wildfire which is the biggest threat to the peatland carbon store and the vegetation growing on it.

With climate change predicting an increase in wildfire conditions it is increasingly important that the appropriate measures are taken on all areas of heather moorland. In recent decades many areas of moorland that were dominated by grass and bracken have been restored to heather and brought back into the burning rotation. In combination these possibly account for the small increase in the number of burns recorded between 2001 and 2011. Only two per cent of the North York Moors has deep peat.

George Winn-Darley, Buttercrambe