The real reasons behind Britain’s ‘wildfire summer’

Hashim Zaman, Leo Mercer and Tom Tayler explain why climate change, land use decisions and human ignition are to blame for this summer’s surge in wildfires and why rewilding, far from being a problem, should be part of the solution to building climate resilience.

England, Wales and parts of Scotland are staggering towards the end of a truly extraordinary, record-breaking summer for all the wrong reasons – prolonged drought and recurrent heatwaves and wildfires. Unfortunately, rather than informing the public about climate change and what can be done about it, certain parts of the media are misinforming their readership about the causes of, and solutions to, the unprecedented number of wildfires: newspapers including the Telegraph and Daily Mail have published articles attributing the increase to rewilding.

Rewilding did not create Britain’s wildfire problem. Unprecedented hot and dry conditions caused by climate change, degraded ecosystems that struggle to retain water, vulnerable landscapes and human ignition are driving a new era of fire risk. The answer is not to retreat from rewilding or nature recovery, but to make it smarter: restore wetlands and peatlands, rebuild healthy soils, create diverse landscapes and use appropriate grazing and fuel management where needed.

Scale of the problem – and the underlying drivers

Data from the National Fire Chiefs Council shows that England and Wales had recorded 1,132 wildfires between 1 January and 16 August 2026, and Natural England’s records show over 240 reported wildfires across Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in England alone. With England and Wales experiencing their driest July on record, and temperatures reaching over 38°C in some locations this month, wildfires have continued to fuel blazes across farmland, moors and urban parks. In 2025, as many as 46,000 hectares of land were burned across UK, incurring costs in excess of £460 million for the economy from emergency responses and firefighting, damage to land and wildlife, pollution and health impacts, infrastructure repairs and lower farmer yields, water quality and tourism revenues. The economic costs of summer 2026 are expected to far exceed this.

Accumulated greenhouse gas emissions, which have already raised global average temperatures by around 1.4°C above the pre-industrial average, have created the conditions for these fires. Climate change is leading to a greater scale, intensity and frequency of wildfires in the UK and globally. Scientists at the Met Office and UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology project that global wildfire risk could rise by 14% by 2030, 30% by 2050 and 50% by 2100.

Additionally, for centuries land use decisions in Britain have prioritised homogenising landscapes, channelising watercourses and draining peatlands and wetlands to maximise agricultural productivity. The outcome? A hampered ability for catchments to retain water – even after ‘wet’ winters like the one we had a mere six months ago.

Under conventional management these degraded landscapes fuel wildfire risk by drying out quickly and being less able to retain water. The loss of wetlands, woodlands, scrub and other habitats removes natural firebreaks, which means a fire can quickly tear through open grassland and drained moors with little to stop its progression naturally. Degraded peatland can also become fuel itself, allowing fires to smoulder and reignite underground.

Rewilded and restored landscapes as natural shock absorbers

At its core, rewilding proponents advocate some form of large-scale nature restoration and conservation that aims to increase the integration of natural ecological processes into managed and/or degraded landscapes, sometimes via reintroducing keystone mammal species like large herbivores or beavers to kickstart the process.

Rather than increasing wildfire risk, well-designed rewilding can help build resilience to wildfire by helping break up fuel, and create wetter, less flammable landscapes that are better equipped to withstand and contain fire. Hence, rewilded landscapes can become natural shock absorbers, providing resilience against extreme rainfall and drought scenarios – helping landscapes hold onto water when it is in abundance – or when there is not enough.

Rewetting degraded peatlands and restoring wetlands helps soils and vegetation retain water, creating natural firebreaks. Grazing herbivores can reduce the build-up of combustible vegetation while creating a diverse mosaic of habitats, while beavers can rapidly create wetlands, ponds and wet corridors that slow the spread of fire. Hydrological studies show that beaver reintroductions can attenuate flood flows by up to 60% against control areas. Native, species-rich broadleaf and mixed woodland can be less susceptible to wildfire than uniform, highly flammable vegetation.

The benefits of rewilding were exemplified when a wildfire tore through the Elan Valley in Wales towards the end of April and burnt 8,000 hectares of upland grazing land: dramatic images highlight how areas of rewetted peatland emerged unscathed from the fire.

Overturning the false wildfire narrative  

What is behind the recent apportioning of blame to rewilding? These arguments centre on the accumulation of vegetation providing more fuel for fires to grow. One Times columnist wrote that “Leaving underbrush, fallen, and overgrown vegetation alone” has contributed to fires. It can be the case that the ‘transition period’ of rewilding can present a temporary spike in wildlife risk – but some media articles have disproportionately emphasised this factor, conflated it with all rewilding, and downplayed or omitted the much bigger drivers. Fuel loads will always be a relevant criterion when assessing wildfire risk. However, the prolonged high temperatures with little rain over the summer in much of the UK means extensive wildfires have occurred across a broad range of landscapes, from moorland to open grassland or cropland, woodlands and land undergoing a rewilding transition. An accurate understanding is needed of landscape-scale risks and mitigation options and an objective assessment of what land use choices increase wildfire risk premia and where options like rewilding can lower this.

When well designed – with the buy-in of local communities – rewilding can be a valuable, low-cost part of our land management toolkit to allow nature to recover, sequester carbon and create wetter, more resilient landscapes.

Rather than misinforming the public about the wildfire risks of rewilded land, we hope to see a change in discourse whereby rewilding is shown to be an effective option for many land managers to manage wildfire risk. These actions will be critically important as future summers make 2026’s look mild.