Weeks of wildfires have 'decimated' ecosystems

WHOLE ecosystems have been "decimated" and endangered species put at risk after weeks of wildfires across the UK, charities have warned.

- REBECCA SPEARE-COLE [e-mail]

One of the driest Marches in decades, combined with warmer than average temperatures in April, has led to the UK being hit by one of the worst fire seasons on record.

Vast areas of habitat for small mammals and birds, including butterflies, beetles and falcons have been damaged, while some peat bogs may take "hundreds of years" to recover.

Wildfire have broken out in Cornwall and Devon with one last month destroying 68 acres of heathland at Cornwall Wildlife Trust's Rosenannon Downs reserve, near St Columb.

Abergwesyn Common in Powys, Wales, was consumed by a 1,600 hectare fire an area roughly 400 times the size of Cardiff's Principality Stadium.

And National Trust rangers fear that the breeding habitat of the area's last known population of golden plovers, a rare, protected bird found in upland moorlands, will have been lost.