I have seen articles in several Rupert Murdoch-owned newspapers recently using the wildfire in Dunwich Heath to promote a rewilding and climate denial agenda - several people have asked me about it. As is often the case, the authors of these articles are politically motivated and seek to provoke through clickbait headlines and dimensionally narrow arguments.
Rewilding, as the restoration of ecosystems to become self-sustaining, is a concept that I am broadly in support of. I am also a pragmatist, and there are caveats. The wildland-urban interface - where human habitation meets the natural environment - also requires consideration.
There is currently little evidence that rewilding in itself has contributed to an increase in UK wildfires. The principal driver is scientifically recognised as being climate change, which has given rise to more intense and frequent heatwaves. These extended periods of dry weather amplify the risk of a wildfire outbreak, and as arid conditions persist, the risk of ignition, spread and fire severity increases. Under this exposure, any lack of vegetation management becomes a threat — and management is not always straightforward. The main bird breeding season in the UK runs from March to August, constraining when vegetation can be legally cut or cleared, so fuel accumulates through precisely the months that lead into peak fire risk.
Rewilding and habitat restoration need to take wildfire safety seriously as vegetation types differ in flammability and in their response to sustained temperatures under heatwave conditions. Fuel loads matter. There is little point restoring an ecosystem only to see it lost to a fire that management might have contained. Globally, unmanaged vegetation has repeatedly amplified the impact of fire on adjacent communities.
Rewilding and wildfire safety aren't opposing goals. Rewilding can actively reduce risk by promoting less flammable vegetation, managing fuel loads, restoring wetter ecosystems, creating strategic firebreaks, and engaging communities in understanding flammability.
The concept of a natural fire regime - the fire frequency and intensity an ecosystem needs to stay in equilibrium - raises the question of how far rewilding projects actively account for it, especially where that regime may be incompatible with surrounding community safety without mitigation.
Rewilding helps build resilient landscapes, but they take time to establish and deliver benefit. During that transition, active land management - strategic firebreaks and fuel management - remains essential to prevent large, damaging fires. These incidents are becoming harder to manage for their sheer scale and intensity, particularly under the accelerated conditions of drought.
While we can't control the weather, we can design and manage landscapes that are safer when extreme conditions do materialise. Landscape resilience isn't a matter of choosing one approach over another. It is a matter of the right measures, in the right places.