Why heathland arsonists must be stopped (From Bournemouth Echo)

Why heathland arsonists must be stopped

9:28am Monday 20th April 2009 in

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The Friends of Kinson Common volunteers were shocked and saddened by the Talbot Heath blaze.

Kinson Common has a very small area of heathland which had for many years been decimated by arson.

Seeing wildlife such as lizards, frogs, toads and slow worms being burnt alive has been very upsetting to us as volunteers.

Apparently we used to have sand lizards many years ago which were lost because of such fires.

Shortly after we formed in 1999, a strong partnership was formed with the Countryside Officers of Bournemouth Borough Council, Dorset Fire & Rescue Service, Dorset Police and the Urban Heaths Partnership.

Through regular meetings and information given by regular users of the site we were able to identify the main culprit and action was taken.

This person has now thankfully left our area and what a difference we now see.

The photo shows the gorse in flower on Two Barrow Heath this year which has not been seen for many years and there are also some superb areas of heather now appearing.

Hopefully birds such as the Dartford Warbler will now return to enhance our site still further.

Heathland is apparently more endangered than tropical rain forests and Dorset is lucky to have many such areas.

These sites are however at risk from other pressures such as irresponsible dog walkers allowing their dogs to disturb nesting birds and also not cleaning up after them.

Fly tipping and litter are also problems. Thoughtless acts by a few cause countless problems for this very special habitat.

We must all ensure these very special areas are preserved for future generations to enjoy.

On the Common: the Kinson Common blog

• Volunteers wanted to study the Bronze Age Barrows on Kinson Common
• There it was... gone!
• Postcard