LOAFPaper4_BarbequeAdvice

CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FOR­UM PAPER 4

CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FORUM

Title: Bar­be­cue Advice Pre­pared by: Adam Streeter-Smith, Out­door Access Officer Pur­pose: To seek advice on:

1. Sup­port for a Park wide approach to mes­saging and man­age­ment of bar­be­cues and fire pits:
2. To advise on Access Author­it­ies pos­i­tion on bar­be­cues and firepits

Back­ground

1. Land man­agers have raised con­cerns about the use of dis­pos­able barbeques and fire pits, namely that: a. They con­tin­ue to be used dur­ing peri­ods of high fire risk; b. Smoke from these devices lead to fire alerts and on-site invest­ig­a­tions; c. Irre­spons­ible barbe­que light­ing leaves scorch marks on the ground; d. They are often used to host a fire after cook­ing has taken place.

Legis­lat­ive background

1. Neither the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003 nor the Scot­tish Out­door Access Code (SOAC) spe­cially men­tions barbeques and fire pits. How­ever, in rela­tion to fires SOAC states:

a. Nev­er light a fire any­where dur­ing a ​“high fire risk” period;

b. SOAC states ​‘Nev­er light an open fire…in areas such as forests, woods…or on peaty ground, there­fore, if the site being used falls in to these cat­egor­ies, then land man­ager per­mis­sion is required;

c. Page 106 of SOAC, ​“Nature Reserves and oth­er Con­ser­va­tion Areas” states that ​‘access rights extend to these places but remem­ber that they are care­fully man­aged for nature con­ser­va­tion and to safe­guard rare anim­als and plants. Take care to avoid dam­aging the site or dis­turb­ing its wild­life, or inter­fer­ing with its man­age­ment or enjoy­ment by oth­ers. Depend­ing on your activ­ity, you might be reques­ted to fol­low a spe­cif­ic route or to avoid exer­cising access rights in a spe­cif­ic area: fol­low­ing such loc­al guid­ance can help to safe­guard the nat­ur­al her­it­age of these areas.

d. Page 41 of SOAC in rela­tion to cul­tur­al her­it­age sites states: ​‘Some cul­tur­al her­it­age sites are pro­tec­ted by the law (these are called scheduled

CAIRNGORMS LOC­AL OUT­DOOR ACCESS FOR­UM PAPER 4

monu­ments), though many lack form­al pro­tec­tion. You may not always be aware of the import­ance of a site or recog­nise that it is vul­ner­able to the pres­sure of vis­it­ors and might be eas­ily dam­aged. In exer­cising your access rights, there­fore, you need to treat these sites care­fully and leave them as you find them by:

i. not dig­ging or oth­er­wise dis­turb­ing the ground sur­face (at these sites, some activ­it­ies such as camp­ing, light­ing fires or using met­al detect­ors can lead to such disturbance).

Access Author­ity Position

1. In rela­tion to barbeques, includ­ing dis­pos­able, it is the view of CNPA, as access author­ity, that they do not con­sti­tute an open fire because:

a. They are enclosed;

b. They require fuel to be trans­por­ted to the site rather than sourced locally;

c. They are spe­cific­ally for cooking.

1. The use of barbeques, provided they adhere to the advice in ​“tread lightly in the Park” to cook on, is allowed under access rights, namely:

‘If it is safe to have a barbe­que place foil trays on a sol­id, fire res­ist­ant sur­face such as stones, sand or shingle. Take the foil tray home or dis­pose of it safely in a bin’.

1. How­ever, the sub­sequent use of barbeques to host an open fire with loc­ally sourced wood ​‘in areas such as forests, woods…or on peaty ground’ is not responsible.

2. In rela­tion to ​“fire pits” it is our view that they con­sti­tute an open fire giv­en that they require wood to be sourced on site, present a fire risk (through spark­ing and dis­pos­able of ash) in wood­lands, peat land and farm­land and gen­er­ate sig­ni­fic­ant amounts of smoke lead­ing to poten­tial fire alert events. There­fore, it is our advice that the pub­lic, or com­mer­cial oper­at­or, should not be using a ​“fire pit” without land man­ager permission.

Bush­craft

1. In rela­tion to ​“bush craft” it is our advice that any com­mer­cial oper­at­or or edu­ca­tion­al group seek­ing to use an open fire as part of the ses­sion should seek land man­ager permission.