Wild camping is not a significant fire risk on Dartmoor, data shows, despite claims by a wealthy landowner who has been trying to ban the practice.
The supreme court is deciding on a case brought by the hedge fund manager Alexander Darwall, who is seeking to remove the right to camp on Dartmoor without landowner permission.
Lawyers acting for Darwall told the court earlier this month: “Their concerns arise from their responsibilities as stewards of the land in their ownership and over which they have commoners’ rights: concerns about the damage that wild camping can cause and, in particular, about the significant risk of fire associated with it. Their concern is that the respondent’s position ‘takes away our ability as landowners to permit [wild camping] on certain terms, in certain places and at certain times, so as to mitigate the fire risk – and, indeed, some other risks’ – including the risk of harm to landscape, flora and fauna.”
Ten years of fire report data from the fire service covering Dartmoor national park, revealed under a freedom of information request by campaign group The Stars are for Everyone, shows the majority of fires they attended were started deliberately, rather than the result of a bonfire going out of control.
There is also, according to the data, a peak in the number of wildfires during March and April, which is peak swaling season – this is when landowners burn sections of the moor to create new shoots and sweeter pasture for grazing animals. Opponents of this controversial practice say it releases carbon into the atmosphere and degrades important peatland, which is a carbon sink.
Wildfires are also not occurring in large numbers in the special areas of conservation (SAC), which are the areas Darwall said he was concerned about protecting from damage caused by campers.
According to the data, 23 fires out of 307 (7%) were within the SAC over the 10 years. These SAC largely overlap with the most popular wild camping areas. Eighty-eight per cent of the SAC is available for wild camping; conversely, 72% of the area in which wild camping is allowed is designated as SAC.
The Natural England area manager, Wesley Smyth, is charged with monitoring Dartmoor’s environmental state and provided a witness statement to the court during the case. He said: “Natural England has no evidence that wild camping has had a direct or cumulative adverse impact on the SSSI or SAC conditions which are more largely influenced by wider land management practices.”
Smyth said excessive moorland burning by land managers was causing fires on the moors. He added: “On occasion, where burning management undertaken by landowners and commoners has got out of control, this can sometimes be reported as wildfires.”
Lewis Winks, from the campaign group The Stars Are For Everyone, said: “The claim that wild camping contributes to the poor state of nature within Dartmoor national park is baseless and no more than a smokescreen aimed at dividing public opinion.
“Wild camping has long been celebrated as a way for people to develop a respect for the land. It provides experiences which deepen our relationship with nature and is a vital conduit through which we can learn to care for the natural world and each other.
“The loss of wild camping here would deprive us of the last remaining right in England to sleep under the stars. To suggest that Dartmoor, its nature, and the public would be better off as a result of losing this right is simply absurd, and diverts attention from the many real threats that face this iconic landscape”.
Camping had been assumed to be allowed as a form of “open-air recreation” under the Dartmoor Commons Act since 1985, until a judge ruled otherwise in January 2023. It was the only place in England such an activity was allowed without requiring permission from a landowner. In July last year, this ruling was overturned in the court of appeal as judges decided wild camping counted as open-air recreation. The case was then heard in the supreme court, which is still deliberating and a ruling is expected in coming weeks.
