To grouse farmers, it is a vital act of preservation; to environmentalists, it is arson. Will a ban on peat burning add fuel to the fire?
It’s been dry for days. The breeze gently ruffling the tops of maroon-coloured heather and clumps of tall, pale grasses is neither too strong nor too weak. There is a pleasing squelch to the moss-covered peat below. These are the perfect conditions for burning.
Three gamekeepers from the Bingley Moor grouse estate in West Yorkshire begin their final burn of the afternoon – on land the government’s nature protection agency, Natural England, classes as blanket bog.