'Tense time' for beauty spot as heat continues

The area manager for a Shropshire beauty spot has said it is an "incredibly tense" time looking after the landscape amid rising temperatures.

Gates leading up to the Long Mynd in Church Stretton, which is run by the National Trust, have been shut, because of the high risk of wildfires in the area, though the public continues to have access to it.

Three fire crews were called out to a blaze near a cottage on Pole Bank on the land, at about 16:40 BST on Sunday, where gorse and peat were found alight.

"There's very little green ground - the trees are green, but the hillsides are browned off," said manager Patrick Edwards.

The site, which has more than 5,000 acres of upland heathland, is a registered common and a site of special scientific interest.

It is home to heather plants, rare bumblebees, wild ponies, and birds such as red grouse, whinchats and pied flycatchers.

Edwards said his team had been given the go-ahead by Shropshire's highways team, to close the snow gates at the site, which are at the three main entrances to the seven-mile (11km) hill.

The gates are closed but left unlocked.

"People can come 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days of the year - we're accessible throughout the year, throughout the night, he said.

"So sadly, it's that nocturnal activity of people coming up for an evening barbecue or whatever, that we're most worried about."

"We have extra evening patrols," said Edwards.

"We have staff on at the weekend patrolling the hills - it's just trying to be seen and out and about, and keep an eye on people.

"We've got signs up that we're a high fire risk area, we've got big banners, we're asking for people not to have barbecues, we've got it on our social media."

"Still, people will sit within 30 metres of a sign having a barbecue."

Edwards said there was a lack of respect from many for the working landscape.

"Commoners rely on this for their livelihoods, they need the vegetation for the sheep to graze, for them to take the market, to be part of the national economy," he said.

"People need to understand that this is an old landscape, it's a managed landscape, it's here for people to enjoy but they've got to respect it as well."

He said that wildfires would affect many of the native wildlife there.

"To lose this habitat, this vegetation, would be incredibly sad and would have a very short-term effect on the birds and a long-term effect on vegetation and the landscape," Edwards continued.

"It would probably see the rise of more bracken coming up, which is an invasive species.

"It would be a shame to have a fire that would destroy decades, centuries, of people's management of the hill."

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