What's next for Holme Fen now the wildfire is out?

Now that the flames have finally abated and the fire crews have been stood down, questions are being asked about the future of Holme Fen. Observing what is now a very barren and empty looking landscape, the nature reserve looks a long way off returning to its once verdant self.

Thankfully however, Natural England – a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) – is offering an optimistic outlook:

“The birch, the silver birch that we see around here, that will come back very, very quickly because it's a very quick coloniser of these sorts of soils," said John Torlesse, Natural England’s Deputy Director for West Anglia.

The Holme Fen blaze lasted for the best part of month. As a result, the landscape looks charred and devastated. Happily, there is already some greenery shooting through, albeit in very small patches.

“We don't need to do any replanting as such,” John noted, “as we'll find a lot of the vegetation comes back fairly fast, like the birch, the bracken and brambles.”

Observing a huge heap of the reserve’s felled trees, John speculates on the reserve’s outlook further down the line:

"Longer term, we need to make a decision about whether we want to actually let a place like this stay open, or let that birch come back into a full woodland,” he asked.

“And to think about that, we'll need to consider some of the issues that we faced this year with fire risk, and how we manage those sorts of risks into the long term?