Firefighters recently spent weeks battling a massive wildfire in the hills above Blaenavon in south Wales. The blaze consumed more than 4,000 hectares of land, requiring the deployment of roughly 200 military personnel to support exhausted fire crews as additional fires broke out across the south Wales valleys. Smoke from the Blaenavon fire was visible from Cardiff and even parts of Gloucestershire, serving as a stark reminder of the growing threat posed by extreme weather events. While it is impossible to eliminate all wildfire risks, research from Bangor University highlights a highly effective, natural method for protecting landscapes: restoring UK wetlands to enhance environmental resilience and support wildfire prevention.
Understand the Current State of UK Wetlands
Historically, the UK landscape was rich with bogs, fens, marshes, and other wetland ecosystems. Since the year 1700, however, human activity has fundamentally altered this landscape. Over 75% of the UK’s original wetlands have been dug up, drained, and repurposed, primarily for agricultural expansion and urban development. This extensive drainage has stripped the land of its natural ability to retain water, leaving the environment highly vulnerable to both flooding and drought.
When wetlands are drained, the water table drops significantly. In upland areas, which are often peatlands, this drainage transforms what should be a waterlogged, sponge-like environment into dry, highly combustible terrain. As climate change drives hotter, drier summers, these degraded landscapes become literal tinderboxes. Recognizing this vulnerability is the first step toward building long-term environmental resilience.
Schedule a free consultation to learn more about environmental science programs.
Analyze How Wetland Degradation Fuels Wildfires
To understand why restoring wetlands is such a critical strategy for wildfire prevention, it is necessary to look at the mechanics of a peatland fire. In a healthy, functioning bog, waterlogged conditions prevent dead plant material from fully decomposing. Instead, this organic matter slowly accumulates over thousands of years to form peat—a dense, carbon-rich soil.
When drainage ditches are cut into these peatlands, the water table falls, and the peat begins to dry out. The surface vegetation becomes parched, providing an abundant source of fuel for any spark. More dangerously, if a surface fire reaches the dried peat itself, the fire can smolder underground. These subterranean fires, sometimes referred to as zombie fires, can burn for weeks or months, moving unseen beneath the surface and suddenly reigniting elsewhere. This phenomenon was a major complicating factor for firefighters attempting to control the Blaenavon wildfire.
Implement Practical Strategies for Restoring Wetlands
Advocating for the restoration of wetlands does not mean indiscriminately flooding productive farmland or converting every hillside into a bog. Rather, it involves a targeted, scientific approach to reversing historical damage and returning water to the landscapes where it naturally belongs. Experts at Bangor University emphasize several proven techniques for restoring wetlands effectively.
Utilize Sphagnum Moss for Peatland Recovery
At the heart of any peatland restoration effort is sphagnum moss. Often described as a great ecosystem engineer, sphagnum is capable of holding up to 20 times its own weight in water. Reintroducing this moss to degraded peatlands helps to keep the ground surface wet, creating the specific conditions required for new peat to form. By maintaining high moisture levels in the soil and surface vegetation, sphagnum moss directly reduces the availability of dry fuel, thereby playing a crucial role in wildfire prevention.
Construct Scallop Bunds to Retain Water
Another highly effective technique involves the use of low-impact excavators to dig shallow, crescent-shaped pools known as scallop bunds into degraded peat. A prominent example of this can be found on Holcombe Moor in the west Pennines, north of Manchester. In 2021, conservationists created approximately 3,000 of these bunds, followed by an additional 700 in 2024.
These scallop bunds are designed to catch and hold rainwater that would otherwise rush rapidly off the hillside. Monitoring data from the 2025 drought demonstrated that the areas containing these bunds remained significantly wetter for longer periods compared to unrestored peat. Within just five years of their construction, many of the original bunds had naturally colonized with sphagnum moss, beginning to resemble natural bog pools and actively contributing to the environmental resilience of the moor.
Share your experiences with land management and conservation in the comments below.
Review Real-World Evidence of Wildfire Prevention
Theoretical models and laboratory data are important, but real-world evidence provides the most compelling argument for restoring wetlands. A clear example occurred at Golticlay in northern Scotland. In June 2018, a severe wildfire swept through a commercial forestry plantation. However, when the flames reached a neighboring area where peatland restoration had recently taken place, the fire stopped.
In the restored area, conservationists had successfully raised the water table and re-wetted the ground and surface vegetation. This saturated buffer zone acted as a natural firebreak, denying the wildfire the dry fuel it needed to continue spreading. This case study proves that targeted restoration projects can immediately and effectively protect adjacent communities, forests, and agricultural lands from fire damage.
Explore our related articles for further reading on climate adaptation strategies.
Scale Up Restoration for Widespread Environmental Resilience
Isolated projects, while successful, are not enough to combat the scale of the wildfire threat facing the UK. To achieve true environmental resilience, wetland restoration must be scaled up and strategically implemented across Britain’s degraded landscapes. Priority should be given to areas situated close to communities, critical infrastructure, commercial forestry, and other regions identified as being at high risk for wildfire.
By creating a network of wetter, more resilient areas across the landscape, land managers can slow the spread of fires and prevent isolated incidents from escalating into major disasters. This approach requires collaboration between government agencies, environmental organizations, private landowners, and academic institutions. Research from Bangor University continues to inform these strategies, ensuring that restoration efforts are grounded in the latest ecological science.
It is important to set realistic expectations. Creating new peat and fully restoring a degraded wetland ecosystem is a long-term process that can take decades or even centuries. However, the specific benefit most relevant to wildfire prevention—keeping more water in the landscape—can begin to have a positive impact within just a few years of intervention.
Integrate Wetland Restoration into National Fire Strategies
The severe wildfires experienced across England and Wales this summer—where firefighters responded to 966 wildfires by early August, including 458 in July alone—highlight an urgent need for a paradigm shift in how the UK manages its land. Historically, wildfire management has focused heavily on reactive measures: deploying fire crews, dropping water, and creating tactical firebreaks during an active emergency.
While emergency response remains vital, it must be paired with proactive landscape management. Restoring UK wetlands must become a central, funded component of the nation’s broader wildfire and climate adaptation strategies. Instead of viewing water as a problem to be drained away as quickly as possible, land management policies must recognize water retention as a critical defense mechanism against extreme heat and drought.
We cannot make Britain completely fireproof. However, by committing to restoring wetlands, raising water tables, and reintroducing native species like sphagnum moss, we can make the landscape significantly more fire-resilient. Protecting these vital ecosystems is no longer just a matter of conserving biodiversity; it is an essential step in safeguarding communities and economies from the escalating impacts of climate change.
Submit your application today to study environmental resilience at Bangor University.
