"the moors burn, the moors burn and fall,
the peat cries its waters to us all
after only one summer dies the Harrier
us only cruel immortality consumes..." after Tennyson, badly
These images were taken on Spaunton Moor, Norther Yorkshire. The heather in the area is regularly burned to encourage new heather growth to support the grouse and partridge populations needed for small shooting groups. The burning damages peat and the vital mosses that grow on it that are needed to "sponge" up rain. Despite "Burning alters the vegetation composition, pattern, physical structure and age structure of plants and can affect soil structure and hydrology" being a UK government finding, burning of the heather continues.