The catastrophic fire at Langdale Moor could take centuries for nature to recover from, according to ecologists from the North York Moors National Park.
Now in its ninth day, the blaze has destroyed around five square kilometres of moorland and forestry, as well as devastated habitats and wildlife. Huge numbers of wildlife species and plants have been affected, in what experts are calling a ‘devastating’ incident.
Firefighters were first called to the blaze on the evening of Monday 11 August, with extra crews brought in the following morning. It was declared a major incident two days later (Wednesday 13 August) as flames spread across the moor.
Senior Ecologist, Elspeth Ingleby, told YorkMix that the fire had caused significant damage to both coniferous forestry and moorland habitats, which are home to rare features such as dry heath, wet heath and blanket bog.
“Merlin is our smallest bird of prey, and the moor is specifically designated for them because this is one of the few areas where they breed,” she said.
“They nest on the ground among long heather that’s been growing for years. It will take decades for that heather to regrow and for conditions to return to how they were.”
While larger animals such as deer and some birds may have escaped, countless eggs, chicks, reptiles, and invertebrates are likely to have been killed.
“Species that can’t move quickly, like adders and lizards, would normally survive by burrowing underground, but this fire burned deep into the ground,” Ms Ingleby explained.
“Small mammals, beetles, spiders, caterpillars and other invertebrates would have had no chance.”
The fire also burned deep into peat soils, which store large amounts of carbon, but take millennia to regenerate.
Ms Ingleby described this as a catastrophic loss, “Peat accumulates at about one millimetre a year in good conditions. If a metre of peat has been lost, that’s 1,000 years of growth gone. To restore that kind of carbon and peat, we’re looking not just at decades, but centuries, even millennia, because that’s just how long peak takes to form.”
Although the damage is severe, she said that recovery is possible. “Nature is really resilient,” Ms Ingleby told YorkMix.
“Species and habitats will start to return fairly quickly, but it’s not going to look like it did for many years. Some vegetation might come back within a decade or two, but full habitat restoration will take much longer.”
Once the fire is fully extinguished, the immediate priority is to stabilise the land to prevent further damage.
With the protective vegetation burned away, the soil is highly vulnerable to erosion. “If we get heavy rain after such a long dry spell, there’s a real risk of washouts, which would delay recovery even further,” Ms Ingleby said.
In the coming months, efforts will focus on re-establishing ground cover, followed by longer-term restoration of rare habitats and woodland areas.
Ms Ingleby said this would be a collective action that could take years, “but the initial approach will just be get some vegetation on the site and work from there.”
