Many listeners would be familiar with the highly skilled use of fire to manage vegetation that has been practiced by First Nations peoples of Australia for thousands of years. What surprised me was learning that my own ancestors were also using fire to shape parts of the landscape across what is now the United Kingdom — in some places for more than five thousand years. Curious about this long history, I reached out to one of the leading authorities on the subject – Matt Davies.

Matt is a leading expert in fire ecology and land management, currently serving as the Director of Agriculture for the Falkland Islands Government. He is internationally recognized for his extensive research on muirburn—the traditional Scottish practice of managed heather burning—— and on the complex relationships between fire, biodiversity and carbon in these landscapes.

In this conversation we explore the long history of fire use across parts of the U.K., stretching back to the end of the last Ice Age. We discuss how the combined influences of burning, grazing and clearing helped shape the distinctive heather moorlands we see today.

Matt explains what these heather ecosystems look like, how burning practices changed during the upheavals of the Industrial Revolution, and how fire became central to the management of grouse shooting estates. We also explore the contemporary debate about whether burning should now be phased out to encourage forest expansion, or whether more nuanced approaches might recognise the ecological and cultural value of these long-managed landscapes.

Some of Matt's research can be found here: Moorland Burning Research and here: https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=CslCJjcAAAAJ&hl=th

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