Scale of devastation caused by huge gorse fire at nature reserve in Cornwall
Cornwall Wildlife Trust says the blaze at Bartinney Downs near St Just has destroyed an area of land the size of 60 football pitches
Photos have revealed the scale of the devastation at a Cornish nature reserve after that huge gorse fire.
Cornwall Wildlife Trust says the area of land burnt to the ground at Bartinney Downs is the size of SIXTY football pitches.
Animals like voles and adders are likely to have died in the blaze, that took firefighters over TWENTY hours to put out.
"The fires that have burned at Bartinney Downs couldn’t have come at a worse time, with the awakening of nature in spring and the arrival of newborn wildlife".
Callum Deveney, Head of Nature Reserves at Cornwall Wildlife Trust, said: "Controlled burns are an important way of managing heathlands, but they must be planned carefully and carried out at the right time of year.
"The fires that have burned at Bartinney Downs are nothing of the sort and couldn’t have come at a worse time, with the awakening of nature in spring and the arrival of newborn wildlife.
"Thankfully our costs to repair the damage look to be low but incidents such as these are a massive set back to our work and our ability to provide the best possible habitats for Cornwall’s wildlife".
Callum Deveney, Cornwall Wildlife Trust
You can read the trust's full response here.
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