A Sickening Sight

I had an early call from my neighbour telling me not to worry, there was a fire on the mountain between our farms! I had smelt the smoke laden air but thought it was from the previous three days of burning that have blackened vast tracts of the mountains on the peninsula. I looked up to see the smoke billowing up from behind the ridge. Driving to work I could see the fireman working to quench the fire , all seemed under control but at the end of the day I was advised to call the fire brigade out as the fire had started up and was now heading to my place threatening my woodlands. By the time I got home the fire was almost out. I'm praying now that no one else starts any more fires tonight.
Burning is a very controversial issue, although these days it would seem that most people are against it. It is illegal between the 1st of March and the 1st of August. Many birds are nesting at the moment. Pheasants apparently don't leave their nest and burn with their eggs or chicks. The old argument was to get a flush of green grass for the sheep, these days there are very few sheep on the mountain!  I have observed though that after a fire here 6 years ago that the most successful regeneration was gorse seedlings. I have heard the burning referred to as a tradition, of course slash and burn has been part of land clearance since the first farmers and earlier but I think in the more recent past the gorse was seen as a resource, the sticks were used as kindling and the tops were used for animal feed. On my farm here the gorse provides shelter for the young trees, it fixes nitrogen as the trees grow it weakens as it can't tolerate shade, it's part of a natural succession. Could some of the wild mountain land be allowed to regenerate to forest again and maybe some areas kept more open, this would create wild life habitat and enough has perished in this wave of burning madness.
As you can gather I have been reflecting on this issue today, one which I believe needs a lot more consideration as there are quite a conflict of interests. There is a lot of blame being put on farmers but many are opposed to this scale of burning.  A few years back there were grants encouraging areas to be left for wildlife, now farmers are being penalised if they have any areas or scrub on the farm! Apart from a blackened landscape the smoke has been so intense that it has obscured the sun. Rather ironic really that one can be prosecuted for having a garden bonfire and yet prosecutions for this level of air pollution is very rare. Many visitors will come to walk the Sheep's Head Way this spring, I think they will be very disappointed with what is underfoot, the stench in the air that lasts for weeks and the absence of wildlife.