Hansard

09:02

The Convener Con

The second item on our agenda is an evidence session on wildfires in Scotland. We will take evidence from stakeholders who have expertise in, and an understa...

Calum Kippen (Scottish Gamekeepers Association)

I represent the Scottish Gamekeepers Association and Bright Spark Burning Techniques.

Professor Robin Pakeman (James Hutton Institute)

I am from the James Hutton Institute. I am an upland ecologist and am interested in all things management in the uplands.

Jon Henderson (Scottish Fire and Rescue Service)

I am one of the assistant chiefs at Scottish Fire and Rescue. I am the director for prevention and the strategic lead for wildfire.

Grant Moir (Cairngorms National Park Authority)

I am the chief executive of the Cairngorms National Park Authority.

Dr Mike Rivington (James Hutton Institute)

I am from the James Hutton Institute. My areas of interest are mostly the impacts of climate change.

Dr Zakary Campbell-Lochrie (University of Edinburgh)

I am a lecturer in fire science at the University of Edinburgh. I am interested in fire behaviour and fire behaviour modelling.

Michael Bruce (Firebreak Services)

I am from Firebreak Services Ltd, and I am also the director of Glen Tanar estate. I am the chair of the south Grampian wildfire group and vice-chair of the ...

The Convener Con

Thank you. We will touch on a number of themes this morning. The first theme that we will explore is the causes of wildfires and how fire-prone conditions ca...

Jon Henderson

I will get to answering the question, I promise. Regarding the prevalent conditions, colleagues are probably better placed than I am to talk about what contr...

The Convener Con

This is a broader question for the scientists, if any witnesses would like to put themselves in that category. What is currently making wildfires more likely?

Professor Pakeman

What is more likely is not the ignition but the chance of the fire spreading and heat building within the fire to make the impact worse. The issues are chang...

Michael Bruce

There is available science relating to the relationship between fuel load and fire behaviour. Research has been published in Scotland—in particular, by Dr Ma...

Dr Rivington

We are aware of the increase in the number of visitors to the areas where fires occur. We are experiencing what we call cool tourism, which is people avoidin...

The Convener Con

I want to broaden the discussion out. Last year, close to 12,000 hectares were destroyed, and there were wildfires on a huge scale in Galloway as well as in ...

Professor Pakeman

You can never say that something is caused by climate change on the basis of just one year. Last year, we had particular conditions that coincided with a par...

Calum Kippen

Wildfire seasons in Scotland have always been cyclic. Large-scale fires in Scotland are not a new thing. We can go back to the Allt Lorgy burn in 1943, which...

The Convener Con

A lot of that is to do with the increased fuel load.

Calum Kippen

Yes, absolutely.09:15

Michael Bruce

I want to go back to talking about fire investigation. There are international standards for wildfire investigation, but they are not yet part of UK fire ser...

Jon Henderson

I agree with Michael Bruce on that point. We are not looking to reinvent the wheel. There are countries that are perhaps further along in their journey than ...

Grant Moir

I will respond to the question about what causes fires. We did quite a lot of work to compile statistics in the Cairngorms. The statistics from the Scottish ...

Dr Campbell-Lochrie

This might partly summarise what has been said. I certainly echo the points about international learning, particularly about the physics and chemistry of con...

The Convener Con

Looking at the characteristics of wildfires, we see a perfect storm at the moment, as Calum Kippen said. In the past, the reason for a wildfire one year migh...

Michael Bruce

The Scottish Wildfire Forum was established in 2004, after a particularly bad fire season in 2003. We have held two national conferences: in 2015 at Cambusla...

The Convener Con

I have probably encroached on our next theme, which is on short-term and long-term management to mitigate wildfire risk. I will bring in Tim Eagle.

Tim Eagle (Highlands and Islands) (Con) Con

Thank you, convener. Feel free to encroach on anything. Yes, theme 2 turns to short-term and long-term planning.I am up in Moray, so I was quite close to the...

Jon Henderson

I will try to touch on some of that as well as echoing some of the points that Michael Bruce made in response to the previous question.The Scottish Fire and ...

Tim Eagle Con

Staying with Jon Henderson, I might have picked this up completely wrongly, but when I was speaking to people in Carrbridge, some of the gamekeepers told me ...