Paper 2 Annex - Integrated wildfire management plan

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Con­tents

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..2
2. Redu­cing the risk of wild­fires start­ing ………………………………………………………………………………………8 2.1 Wild­fire risk assess­ment on a land hold­ing …………………………………………………………………………..8
3. Improv­ing the effect­ive­ness of fire­fight­ing when a wild­fire occurs …………………………………….14 3.1 Estate fire plans……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………15 3.2 Per­son­al Pro­tect­ive Equip­ment ……………………………………………………………………………………………16 3.3 Equip­ment for fight­ing a fire ………………………………………………………………………………………………17 3.4 Train­ing ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….18 3.5 The role of the Scot­tish Fire and Res­cue Ser­vice at a wild­fire ……………………………………………..20 3.6 Com­mu­nic­a­tions at a wild­fire ……………………………………………………………………………………………..20 3.7 The role of an estate office in a wildfire………………………………………………………………………………..21 3.9 Fire Groups and oth­er Col­lab­or­at­ive Mech­an­isms …………………………………………………………………22 3.10 Col­lab­or­a­tion and mutu­al aid …………………………………………………………………………………………….23 3.11 Heli­copters and insur­ance …………………………………………………………………………………………………..24
4. Build­ing Wild­fire Resi­li­ence in a Chan­ging Landscape…………………………………………………………..25 4.1 Wild­fire resilience…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………25 4.2 Vari­ation in fuel loads across the Cairngorms Nation­al Park……………………………………………….26 4.3 Future trends in fuel loads and times­cales to increase resilience………………………………………..29
5. Wild­fire and Com­munit­ies ………………………………………………………………………………………………………35
6. Resource, mon­it­or­ing and review …………………………………………………………………………………………38

Annex 1………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………39 Annex 2………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………43

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Integ­rated Wild­fire Man­age­ment Plan

1. Intro­duc­tion Wild­fires threaten man-made assets like houses, wind­farms, fences and oth­er built infra­struc­ture and they also threaten nat­ur­al assets like forests, peat­lands and immob­ile spe­cies. The fin­an­cial cost of wild­fires can be high. Estim­ates for the cost of the Sad­dle­worth Moor wild­fire in 2018 run into many mil­lions of pounds for fire­fight­ing and envir­on­ment­al dam­age. Pub­lic con­cern around the wild­fire issue has ris­en in recent years.

The cli­mate in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park has already changed. These changes are spa­tially and tem­por­ally vari­able, with the winter months becom­ing both wet­ter and warm­er, whilst sum­mer months have become warm­er with vari­able con­sequences for the amount of water avail­able to go into soils and aquat­ic systems.

Future pro­jec­tions indic­ate that the Park will exper­i­ence fur­ther warm­ing over the com­ing dec­ades, res­ult­ing in an increas­ing num­ber of dry days and num­ber of con­sec­ut­ive dry days, dur­ing sum­mer months. Large sec­tions of the Nation­al Park are likely to exper­i­ence spring and sum­mer sea­sons when there is a poten­tial decrease in rain­fall. This will increase the risk of drier soils and veget­a­tion, with con­sequences for eco­lo­gic­al func­tions and the risk of wildfire.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan object­ives to increase the amount of wood­land and nat­ur­al regen­er­a­tion; reduce the neg­at­ive impacts of red deer and oth­er herb­i­vores; and increase spe­cies and hab­it­at diversity on moor­land will pro­duce many bene­fits for biod­iversity and cli­mate resi­li­ence. They will also increase field lay­er veget­a­tion in some areas for a sig­ni­fic­ant peri­od of time. Large areas of mature wood­land and re-wet­ted areas will likely help cre­ate a more fire resi­li­ent land­scape in the future. How­ever, these hab­it­ats will take many years to devel­op and dur­ing the inter­ven­ing peri­od fuel loads will increase, as will the cor­res­pond­ing need for fire risk mitigation.

Land man­agers have been man­aging wild­fire risk in the Nation­al Park for many years. In light of the increased need for wild­fire plan­ning and the demands this may place on land man­agers, this plan aims to provide recom­mend­a­tions for land man­agers and

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actions for pub­lic bod­ies. These recom­mend­a­tions and actions are designed to increase the abil­ity of land man­agers to: • Reduce the risk of wild­fires start­ing • Pre­pare for and respond effect­ively to wild­fires that do start; and • Mit­ig­ate impacts of wild­fires in the landscape.

The fol­low­ing doc­u­ment sets out the actions and recom­mend­a­tions cor­res­pond­ing to each of the issues addressed. For ease of ref­er­ence, a sum­mary table provid­ing an over­view of these items is included below.

Sum­mary of recom­mend­a­tions and actions Wild­fire risk assess­ment on a land hold­ing Recom­mend­a­tion Land man­agers should pro­act­ively risk assess

their land holding in relation to wildfire at least
every three years or more regularly if required. To
do this they should:
•	Assess high risk areas, where people are most
	likely to interact with high fuel loads.
•	Identify methods for mitigating the risk of
	ignition and the impact of wildfire in the event
	of one starting.
•	Identify all assets and features which could be
	at risk, and which are prioritised for protection.
•	Map assets and areas of high risk and identify
	means of protection.
•	Consider the wildfire risk management of
	neighbours and discuss risk management
	collectively.

Muir­burn Action All muir­burn prac­ti­tion­ers to adhere to the

requirements as set out in the Muirburn Code.

Man­aging for vis­it­ors and the poten­tial byelaw Page 8

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Recom­mend­a­tion Land man­agers should con­sider when and where

they might give permission to organised groups for
fires to be lit.

Cur­rent approach to the man­age­ment of recre­ation­al fires Action If the byelaw is approved then the Park Authority

must ensure there is adequate resource, including
training, to make its use effective.

Wild­fire Danger Rat­ing Assess­ment Action The Scot­tish Wild­fire For­um to devel­op a more

robust system for developing Wildfire Danger Rating
Assessments by spring 2026.

Com­munity com­mu­nic­a­tions groups for wild­fire inform­a­tion Action The Park Author­ity to identi­fy com­munit­ies where

there is interest in setting up fire communication
groups and then to facilitate and support their
establishment.

Sig­nage and oth­er com­mu­nic­a­tions mater­i­al Action The Park Author­ity to devel­op and man­age a simple,

coordinated messaging framework, which can be
easily adapted for use on-line and other forms of
media.

Action The Park Author­ity to provide ranger support,

signage and communications to re-enforce
responsible behaviour messaging and the
implementation of a byelaw.

Estate fire plans Recom­mend­a­tion Every land­hold­ing should pre­pare a basic Fire Plan

which is maintained and reviewed annually and
shared with SFRS.

Action The Park Author­ity will sup­port SFRS in maintaining

a register of estates and landholdings with Fire
Plans

Per­son­al pro­tect­ive equip­ment Recom­mend­a­tion Indi­vidu­als who might have to tackle a wildfire

should be equipped with adequate PPE. Larger

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landholdings should consider having a stock of PPE
available for more general use.

Equip­ment for fight­ing a fire Recom­mend­a­tion Equip­ment and machinery require­ments will vary

according to landholding's needs. It is recommended
that:
•	All landholdings should carry a stock of fire
	beaters, scrubbers or leaf blowers appropriate
	to their needs.
•	All landholdings should consider whether
	carrying a stock of fire fighting backpacks
	would be appropriate.
•	Land holdings over 1000ha should have ready
	access to a machine-mounted fire fogging
	unit.
•	All relevant estate staff should be familiar
	with the use of equipment above

Recom­mend­a­tion Sig­ni­fic­ant fire­fight­ing assets, includ­ing farm

machinery capable of transporting large volumes of
water, should be registered on the Community Asset
Register.

Action The Park Author­ity will work with SFRS to ensure

land managers are aware of the Register and how to
register assets.

Recom­mend­a­tion Min­im­ise dis­tances that fire­fight­ers need to travel to

replenish water supplies in a fire fogging unit and
consider how to ensure fire fogging units can access
all or most parts of a landholding

Train­ing Recom­mend­a­tion Employ­ers to ensure their staff who may be involved

in firefighting are adequately trained and certificated
for their role.

Recom­mend­a­tion Estates which do not con­duct muir­burn regularly

should develop alternative approaches to staff
training and familiarisation with firefighting.

The role of the Scot­tish Fire and Res­cue Ser­vice at a wild­fire 17

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Recom­mend­a­tion Per­son­nel who are likely to assume the role of WILO

should be familiar with that role and regularly
consider how they might put it into practice.

Com­mu­nic­a­tions at a wild­fire Recom­mend­a­tion All estates should be part of a com­mon radio

network with their neighbours

The role of an estate office in a wild­fire Recom­mend­a­tion Estate offices should prac­tice their approach to

wildfire response annually. This should take the form
of an annual drill where estate office staff practice
procedures around calling out neighbours, logging
firefighters in and out and liaising with estate
residents.

Land­hold­ings with no res­id­ent staff Recom­mend­a­tion All land hold­ings with no res­id­ent staff should give

permission for neighbours to access their land in the
event of a wildfire. Neighbours should be authorised
to take whatever action is required to effectively
tackle a wildfire.

Fire Groups and oth­er Col­lab­or­at­ive Mech­an­isms Recom­mend­a­tion Estates should con­sider being part of a form­al Fire

Group or some alternative collaborative grouping to
discuss wildfire preparedness.

Col­lab­or­a­tion and mutu­al aid Action The Park Author­ity will foster col­lab­or­a­tion on

preventing and tackling wildfire

Heli­copters and insur­ance Recom­mend­a­tion All land­hold­ings should devel­op a clear policy as to

who can call out a helicopter and when. Relevant
staff must be clear as regards the circumstances
when they are permitted to call for helicopter
assistance.

Recom­mend­a­tion All land­hold­ings should con­sider hav­ing insur­ance to

cover the cost of helicopter assistance at a wildfire. If
a landholding has an insurance policy, it must be
clear as to exactly what is covered.

Increas­ing wild­fire resi­li­ence with­in high fuel load areas 21

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Recom­mend­a­tion Land man­agers should con­sider managing

vegetation to reduce fuel loads at strategic points in
the landscape. All land managers should consider
how best to break up fuel loads with natural and
man-made firebreaks.

Recom­mend­a­tion Land man­agers should con­sider main­tain­ing and

enhancing natural firebreaks eg mature woodland,
wetlands, riparian corridors.

Recom­mend­a­tion Con­sider the pro­vi­sion of water for fire­fight­ing eg by

re-wetting, creating fire ponds or maintaining access
to natural water bodies.

Recom­mend­a­tion All wood­land land­hold­ings should main­tain thinning

operations and consider continuous cover
silvicultural techniques as opposed to clear fell and
re-plant. Care should be taken to reduce the
development of ladder fuels.

Firebreaks Recom­mend­a­tion Land man­agers should map nat­ur­al and man-made

firebreaks within the landholding. All firebreaks, both
natural and man-made, should be regularly
maintained to ensure they remain as barriers or
partial barriers to wildfire.

Cre­at­ing man-made firebreaks Action The Park Author­ity to ensure that recommendations

and actions within the Integrated Wildfire
Management Plan are appropriately considered
within Planning policy.

Wild­fire and Com­munit­ies Recom­mend­a­tion Land man­agers should engage with loc­al farms,

crofts, community groups and local forums to discuss
priority assets, mitigation measures and emergency
planning.

Resource, mon­it­or­ing and review Action Review the Plan annu­ally with Cairngorms Upland

Advisory Group and Park Authority board
performance committee.

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1. Redu­cing the risk of wild­fires start­ing In Scot­land vir­tu­ally all sig­ni­fic­ant wild­fires are star­ted by human action, mostly acci­dent­al but some­times delib­er­ate. The most import­ant task in mit­ig­at­ing the risk of wild­fires is to reduce the chances of one start­ing in the first place. Wild­fire pre­ven­tion involves land man­agers assess­ing where on their land there is most inter­ac­tion between people and flam­mable fuels, it involves ranger ser­vices and patrolling, sig­nage and wider pub­lic edu­ca­tion, and may involve a fire byelaw and the pro­vi­sion of safe facil­it­ies for camp­fires and barbeques which can be used with landown­er permission.

2.1 Wild­fire risk assess­ment on a land hold­ing Com­plet­ing a Wild­fire Risk Assess­ment should be seen as the first step in the fire plan­ning pro­cess. Every land man­ager should risk assess their land hold­ing in rela­tion to wild­fire. The aim of wild­fire risk assess­ment is twofold:

1. It enables land man­agers to tar­get meas­ures which reduce the risk of igni­tion, for example identi­fy­ing where ranger patrols and sig­nage are most needed; and
2. It enables land man­agers to spa­tially tar­get meas­ures which may enable a wild­fire to be con­tained, for example firebreaks.

Wild­fire risk assess­ments identi­fy where people are most likely to start fires, for example at pop­u­lar camp­ing loc­a­tions and pic­nic spots; and where fuel loads are likely to be high, unbroken and con­tinu­ous. Areas of high risk are likely to occur where people inter­act most with high fuel loads. Mit­ig­a­tion to reduce risk should then be con­sidered a pri­or­ity at these points.

Wild­fire risk assess­ments then identi­fy the assets which are at risk. These may be build­ings, infra­struc­ture, nat­ur­al resources or places where people are likely to be. The vul­ner­ab­il­ity of each asset to wild­fire should be assessed and means of pro­tect­ing them considered.

When con­duct­ing a wild­fire risk assess­ment, land man­agers should con­sider neigh­bour­ing prop­er­ties, both in terms of fire spread­ing from a neigh­bour­ing prop­erty onto their own land and the oth­er way around.

Wild­fire risk assess­ment is not stat­ic. Fuel loads may change over time, as may the beha­viour of people. Assess­ments should be adapt­ive and car­ried out at least once every three years and not only at peri­ods of high fire risk.

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• Recom­mend­a­tion: Land man­agers should pro­act­ively risk assess their land

holding in relation to wildfire at least every three years or more regularly if
circumstances have clearly changed. To do this they should:
•	Assess high risk areas, where people are most likely to interact with high fuel
	loads.
•	Identify methods for mitigating the risk of ignition and the impact of wildfire in the
	event of one starting.
•	Identify all assets and features which could be at risk, and which are prioritised
	for protection.
•	Map assets and areas of high risk and identify means of protection.
•	Consider the wildfire risk management of neighbours and discuss risk
	management collectively.

An example wild­fire risk assess­ment tem­plate is provided in Annex 1.

2.2 Muir­burn Muir­burn which gets out of con­trol can lead to wild­fires. Advances in cut­ting and oth­er forms of equip­ment which enable firebreaks to be cre­ated more eas­ily are thought to have reduced the risk in some parts of the Park, how­ever, incid­ents do still occur. All muir­burn prac­ti­tion­ers should com­ply with all aspects of the Muir­burn Licens­ing sys­tem when it becomes oper­a­tion­al and all aspects of the Muir­burn Code which sets out how to con­duct muir­burn safely and appro­pri­ately. Under the Wild­life Man­age­ment and Muir­burn Act 2024, muir­burn prac­ti­tion­ers must ​“have regard” to the Muir­burn Code. Non-adher­ence to the require­ments set out in the Code can res­ult in a Muir­burn licens­ing sanc­tion. At time of writ­ing the Muir­burn Code has still to be finalised.

Action: All muir­burn prac­ti­tion­ers to adhere to the require­ments set out in the Muir­burn Code.

2.3 Man­aging for vis­it­ors and the poten­tial byelaw The Cairngorms are a pop­u­lar des­tin­a­tion with an estim­ated 2.149 mil­lion in 2023. Great­er pub­lic access has the bene­fit that wild­fires are likely to be more quickly detec­ted and repor­ted. How­ever, Cov­id-19 stim­u­lated a marked increase in camp­ing and the light­ing of recre­ation­al fires. Post lock­down, many vis­it­ors were camp­ing for the first

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time and had little or no know­ledge of the Scot­tish Out­door Access Code (SOAC), guid­ance on camp­ing and the use of camp­fires. The pop­ular­ity of camp­ing has con­tin­ued up to the present day with large num­bers of people camp­ing inform­ally and light­ing camp­fires at pop­u­lar sites such as Loch Mor­lich, Loch Kinord and the River Clunie near Brae­mar. This causes com­munity con­cern, par­tic­u­larly where camp­fires are being lit close to high fuel loads and to set­tle­ments. Large wild­fires at Can­nich and Dav­i­ot in the dry June of 2023 have added to those con­cerns. Sig­ni­fic­ant efforts have been made by the Park Author­ity, Police Scot­land and oth­er agen­cies to curb irre­spons­ible beha­viour, through edu­ca­tion ini­ti­at­ives and dir­ect requests.

The Park Author­ity launched a con­sulta­tion on fire man­age­ment, includ­ing the poten­tial intro­duc­tion of fire byelaws, in Feb­ru­ary 2024. A con­sulta­tion doc­u­ment out­lined three poten­tial ways for­ward: a no byelaw option, a byelaw at times of high fire risk, and a year-round byelaw.

The con­sulta­tion received a total of 1,664 responses which came from Park res­id­ents, vis­it­ors and land man­agers. Almost 80% of respond­ents thought a fire man­age­ment byelaw was part of the solu­tion to tackle wild­fire risk. There was no clear pref­er­ence on wheth­er there should be a year-round restric­tion on light­ing fires, or a restric­tion based on wild­fire risk. In Septem­ber 2024 the Park Author­ity Board decided that a sea­son­al byelaw, run­ning from 01 April to 30 Septem­ber each year, would be the most appro­pri­ate approach. The pro­posed byelaw requires approv­al from Scot­tish Ministers.

Any byelaw is likely to include exemp­tions where fires can be lit with landown­er per­mis­sion. This excep­tion might encom­pass organ­ised groups, for example Scout camps. Depend­ing on the cir­cum­stances, ded­ic­ated facil­it­ies for organ­ised groups offer a much safer and more man­age­able exper­i­ence, which reduces the risk of fires being lit elsewhere.

Recom­mend­a­tion: Land man­agers should con­sider when and where they might give per­mis­sion to organ­ised groups for fires to be lit.

2.4 Man­age­ment of recre­ation­al fires Cur­rently, activ­ity to man­age the use of recre­ation­al fires in the Nation­al Park is under­taken jointly by landown­ers / man­agers, the Park Author­ity and pub­lic sector

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part­ners includ­ing Police Scot­land. Many land man­agers will do this through site sig­nage, social media and face-to face engage­ment with vis­it­ors, using their own ranger ser­vices or oth­er estate staff. The Park Author­ity ranger ser­vice com­ple­ments this with addi­tion­al patrols at pop­u­lar sites where rangers provide advice to vis­it­ors and, where neces­sary, extin­guish fires con­sidered to be unsafe. Rangers also under­take patrols where they remove evid­ence of pre­vi­ous fires to try and reduce ​‘copycat’ behaviour.

To com­ple­ment this dir­ect engage­ment activ­ity, the Park Author­ity also under­takes com­mu­nic­a­tions activ­ity around fires both loc­ally and with nation­al part­ners. This includes pre-arrival activ­ity through the media and pop­u­lar social media chan­nels, pro­mo­tion of a leaf­let that is used by the Park Author­ity rangers and part­ner ranger ser­vices, and Scot­tish Out­door Access Code com­pli­ant signage.

If the byelaw is approved, the ranger ser­vice will con­tin­ue an approach based on friendly engage­ment with the pub­lic and will seek to inform and edu­cate. The byelaw will hope­fully deter most people from light­ing fires in the first place and will strengthen the abil­ity of rangers to deal with situ­ations where people refuse to put fires out.

Action: If the byelaw is approved then the Park Author­ity must ensure there is adequate resource, includ­ing train­ing, to make its use effective.

2.5 Wild­fire danger rat­ing assess­ment For much of the year there is little risk of wild­fire under cur­rent cli­mat­ic con­di­tions. Fuels are damp and plants con­tain suf­fi­cient mois­ture to make them fire res­ist­ant. How­ever, when fuels dry out, Wild­fire Danger Rat­ing Assess­ments are made by the Scot­tish Wild­fire For­um and peri­ods of Very High Risk or Extreme Risk are com­mu­nic­ated to a wide range of stake­hold­ers includ­ing the land man­age­ment com­munity via email. The Scot­tish Wild­fire For­um is led by Scot­tish Fire and Res­cue Ser­vice (SFRS) who com­mu­nic­ate Very High and Extreme Risk to the pub­lic through social media. This mes­saging is amp­li­fied by a range of agen­cies and indi­vidu­als. Land man­agers will sim­ul­tan­eously be mak­ing their own inform­al assess­ments of fire risk as they observe weath­er and fuel con­di­tions on their own land.

The cur­rent Wild­fire Danger Rat­ing Assess­ment sys­tem works well and is well received by land man­agers and agen­cies. It is based on good sci­ence and warn­ings are

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effect­ively and rap­idly com­mu­nic­ated. How­ever, the sys­tem is not robust as it is built around one key indi­vidu­al. A pro­ject plan is now being devised through the Scot­tish Wild­fire For­um to build a more robust sys­tem with great­er human capa­city. Cru­cially, know­ledge of how to use and inter­pret European Forest Fire Inform­a­tion Sys­tem (EFF­IS) data should be spread among more individuals.

The Scot­tish Wild­fire For­um plays an import­ant role in dis­sem­in­at­ing the Wild­fire Danger Rat­ing Assess­ments to land man­agers and oth­er pro­fes­sion­als asso­ci­ated with man­aging wild­fire risk. There is also a need for clear mes­saging to mem­bers of the pub­lic. Clar­ity of lines of com­mu­nic­a­tions is cru­cial in any new system.

Action: The Scot­tish Wild­fire For­um to devel­op a more robust sys­tem for devel­op­ing Wild­fire Danger Rat­ing Assess­ments by spring 2026.

2.6 Com­munity com­mu­nic­a­tions groups for wild­fire inform­a­tion The Roy­al Soci­ety for the Pro­tec­tion of Birds (RSPB) have set up a What­s­App group for the com­munity around Nethy Bridge and Aber­nethy. This is used exclus­ively for trans­mit­ting fire related inform­a­tion and con­tent is over­seen by the admin­is­trat­or accord­ingly. People mes­sage if they see smoke or someone set­ting up a barbe­que in a vul­ner­able area. Rangers and oth­er estate staff can then respond rap­idly if required. Such a group could be used to organ­ise resources at a wild­fire and to ensure only the appro­pri­ate amount of resource is deployed on site. This com­mu­nic­a­tions group is a use­ful ini­ti­at­ive with the poten­tial for a wider net­work of such groups. Should land man­agers and com­munit­ies be inter­ested in set­ting up sim­il­ar groups, the Park Author­ity will facil­it­ate and sup­port their establishment.

Action: The Park Author­ity to identi­fy com­munit­ies where there is interest in set­ting up fire com­mu­nic­a­tion groups and then to facil­it­ate and sup­port their establishment.

2.7 Sig­nage and oth­er com­mu­nic­a­tions mater­i­al There are sig­ni­fic­ant com­plex­it­ies in com­mu­nic­at­ing with the pub­lic around the dangers of wild­fires. The fol­low­ing ele­ments should be con­sidered when cre­at­ing sig­nage and oth­er com­mu­nic­a­tions materials:

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• A sig­ni­fic­ant pro­por­tion (27%) of vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park come from overseas

and a majority of those will not speak English as a first language. The need for
both simplicity and consistency of message will, therefore, be paramount.

• There are over 150 dif­fer­ent land­hold­ings in the Nation­al Park, ran­ging in size

from under 100 hectares to over 40,000 hectares. Whilst the Park Authority will
be coordinating work in this area, it does not own any land within the National
Park. A common approach or framework for wildfire signage – and wider
messaging – will be required that balances individual partner brand requirements
with the need for absolute clarity.

• The audi­ence for this mater­i­al is extremely var­ied, from long-dis­tance vis­it­ors to

local residents and workers, making it very difficult to predict the 'order' in which
information is processed. Visitors also use a wide range of tools to inform their
visit, from third-party websites and social media to on-site signage and ranger /
staff interactions. Rather than treating these different communications channels
in isolation, they should all be considered as part of a single workstream.

• Giv­en that the pro­posed ​‘no fires’ peri­od coin­cides with the busiest parts of the

visitor season, any signage / communications requirements will need to be simple
to rollout and easy to implement for partners on the ground. Similarly, there needs
to be a simple and consistent means of notifying partners of any changes as they
arise, to avoid mixed messaging in different parts of the National Park.

• All sig­nage and comms mater­i­als will need to sit along­side exist­ing SOAC

guidance, Wildfire Danger Rating Assessments, etc. and avoid mixed messaging.

In devel­op­ing sig­nage and oth­er mater­i­al for wild­fires and poten­tial fire byelaws, the Park Author­ity there­fore pro­poses a three-stage pro­cess, informed by close col­lab­or­a­tion with part­ner estates, Non-Gov­ern­ment­al Organ­isa­tions (NGOs) and oth­er pub­lic bodies.

First, part­ners across the Nation­al Park and across related agen­cies (eg Vis­itScot­land and NatureScot) will identi­fy a long­list of key loc­a­tions and / or chan­nels to deliv­er wild­fire mes­saging to tar­get audiences.

Second, a simple com­mu­nic­a­tions frame­work for wild­fires, under­pinned by best- avail­able evid­ence on influ­en­cing vis­it­or / audi­ence beha­viour will be developed. This frame­work will not be designed for any one chan­nel or plat­form but instead will be adapt­able to everything from a face-to-face con­ver­sa­tion to a road­side sign.

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The final stage will involve the cre­ation of chan­nel-spe­cif­ic mater­i­als based on the above frame­work, includ­ing but not lim­ited to: • Road­side sig­nage • Part­ner sig­nage (incor­por­at­ing part­ner brand­ing) • Scrip­ted ele­ments to guide face-to-face con­ver­sa­tions • Video mater­i­als • Social media and oth­er digit­al advert­ising assets • Media lines and key mes­sages • Face-to-face event materials.

Work­ing with exist­ing for­ums and part­ner­ships, includ­ing the Cairngorms Man­aging for Vis­it­ors Group and the Nation­al Vis­it­or Man­age­ment Coordin­a­tion Group, newly estab­lished com­munity com­mu­nic­a­tions groups, land man­agers, oth­er busi­nesses and organ­isa­tions with a role in com­mu­nic­at­ing with vis­it­ors, will help ensure the effect­ive coordin­a­tion of inform­a­tion and a dynam­ic, adapt­ive approach.

Action: Park Author­ity and part­ners to devel­op and man­age a simple, coordin­ated mes­saging frame­work, which can be eas­ily adap­ted for use on-line and oth­er forms of media.

Action: Park Author­ity and part­ners to provide ranger sup­port, sig­nage and com­mu­nic­a­tions to rein­force respons­ible beha­viour mes­saging and the imple­ment­a­tion of a byelaw.

1. Improv­ing the effect­ive­ness of fire­fight­ing when a wild­fire occurs Estab­lish­ing a stand­ard­ised, high level of pre­pared­ness on all land­hold­ings is key to respond­ing effect­ively to a wild­fire, with fire plans for indi­vidu­al land hold­ings being an import­ant ele­ment. Pre­pared­ness also involves hav­ing appro­pri­ate equip­ment, train­ing for staff who might respond to a wild­fire and mod­els of col­lab­or­a­tion and com­mu­nic­a­tion between those who attend a wild­fire. The role of an estate office can be cru­cial in a wild­fire and this role has a train­ing require­ment. The use of heli­copters, includ­ing the author­ity to request heli­copter assist­ance and adequate insur­ance to pay for heli­copter costs, are all import­ant issues to consider.

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3.1 Estate fire plans Wild­fires are high pres­sure events which test plan­ning sys­tems and decision makers. There are mul­tiple vari­ables involved, includ­ing loc­a­tion, ter­rain, wind, weath­er and fuel load. Wild­fires may devel­op quite rap­idly and there is lim­ited time to refer to a pre­script­ive plan. When fight­ing a grow­ing wild­fire, trained, exper­i­enced indi­vidu­als are required, who are able to make decisions about what resources are required and how those resources should be deployed.

Whilst detailed writ­ten plans are unlikely to be used when deal­ing with the incid­ent, the plan­ning pro­cess is crit­ic­al. As the basis for all fire man­age­ment plan­ning in the Nation­al Park, it is strongly recom­men­ded each land­hold­ing has, at least, a basic Fire Plan which includes the fol­low­ing: • Basic prop­erty inform­a­tion: the own­er, their con­tact details and the contact

details of key personnel.

• Inform­a­tion on neigh­bour­ing prop­er­ties and their con­tact details. • A map show­ing prop­erty bound­ar­ies, ren­dez­vous points, access roads, locked

gates, bridge ratings, fire ponds or water supply points. This map should be on a
standard Ordnance Survey (OS) background at a scale of 1:25000 or 1:50000 so
is understandable to all.

• Grid ref­er­ences (or What3words) for the loc­a­tions of ren­dez­vous points with

sufficient parking.

• Instruc­tions on who to call out if assist­ance is required. On large estates this will

start with the estate's own internal resources but should also include neighbours,
members of a Fire Group if applicable and Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
control room. Call out lists and contact details should be updated annually.

• A list of rel­ev­ant equip­ment held by the estate, its ser­vi­cing require­ments and

checklist of when last serviced.

• Instruc­tions on who has author­ity to call for heli­copter assist­ance if required.

Con­tact details and oth­er inform­a­tion in the Fire Plan will change. Each Fire Plan must be updated annu­ally or when inform­a­tion changes. Review dates should be noted on Fire Plans. Fire Plans should be shared with SFRS.

Recom­mend­a­tion: Every land­hold­ing should pre­pare a basic Fire Plan, as described above, which is main­tained and reviewed annu­ally and shared with SFRS. An example fire plan is in Annex 2.

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Scot­tish Forestry will ask applic­ants to pro­duce Fire Plans with most Forest Grant Scheme Applic­a­tions. Where rel­ev­ant, the Park Author­ity will ask applic­ants to the Cli­mate Adapt­a­tion Fund to have a Fire Plan.

Action: The Park Author­ity will sup­port SFRS in main­tain­ing a register of estates and land­hold­ings with Fire Plans.

3.2 Per­son­al Pro­tect­ive Equip­ment Per­son­al Pro­tect­ive Equip­ment (PPE) is essen­tial for those fight­ing a wild­fire. The spe­cif­ic PPE require­ments may vary depend­ing on the tasks being per­formed, but any­one involved in fight­ing flames should wear the fol­low­ing PPE: • Fire res­ist­ant cloth­ing which does not ignite or melt when exposed to flames. This

often takes the form of a fire-resistant boiler suit and is best in bright colours to
maximise the chance of being seen by others in smoke or poor visibility.

• A face shield which pro­tects the face from radi­ant heat, and which pro­tects the

eyes from ash and dust. This may take the form of a Perspex shield. Face shields
can leave ears and neck exposed to radiant heat and firefighters should consider
how best to cover those when close to flames.

• Fire res­ist­ant gloves which pro­tect hands from radi­ant heat and from direct

contact with hot surfaces such as the metal handle of a fire broom or scrubber.

• Boots that will res­ist heat while per­mit­ting safe walk­ing in rough terrain.

Firefighting may involve close proximity to vehicles and All-Terrain Vehicles (ATV)
and consideration should be given to protective toe caps to reduce the risk of
injury. However, steel toe caps can heat up when close to flames and there is a
balance of risk to be made here.

• Wild­fires gen­er­ate a lot of smoke and fine par­tic­u­late mat­ter. It can be dif­fi­cult to

avoid some smoke inhalation when fighting a wildfire. It is highly unlikely that
estates will equip staff with respiratory gear as this is expensive and requires
specialist training. However, those fighting wildfires may feel more comfortable if
they wear masks over their mouths and nose.

There are dif­fer­ent roles for people at a wild­fire, and many will not be exposed to heat, smoke or flames. How­ever, wild­fire is unpre­dict­able and unex­pec­ted flare ups may occur. In gen­er­al people attend­ing a wild­fire should wear clothes which are vis­ible, and which do not eas­ily ignite or melt. Nat­ur­al fibres like wool are reas­on­ably fire resistant

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and provide mod­er­ate pro­tec­tion against heat and flames. Leath­er gar­ments can also give good protection.

Recom­mend­a­tion: Indi­vidu­als who might have to tackle a wild­fire should be equipped with adequate PPE. Lar­ger land­hold­ings should con­sider hav­ing a stock of PPE avail­able for more gen­er­al use.

3.3 Equip­ment for fight­ing a fire All sig­ni­fic­ant land­hold­ings in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park should have some basic equip­ment with which to fight fires. At the least, each estate should carry a stock of fire beat­ers or scrub­bers which can be used to tackle rel­at­ively low flame heights. Leaf blowers have become a rel­at­ively recent innov­a­tion in fire­fight­ing and can be highly effect­ive in many con­di­tions. As these are multi-pur­pose machines, they may be a good value option for estates wish­ing to build a stock of fire-fight­ing equipment.

Fires in very dry con­di­tions can be extremely dif­fi­cult to put out by beat­ing, scrub­bing or by leaf blowers and these require the applic­a­tion of water or anoth­er wet­ting agent. Hand oper­ated fire fight­ing back­packs can enable rel­at­ively small volumes of water to be brought to a site quickly and can help tackle small fires or re-igni­tions. Large wild­fires need to be fought with large volumes of water. One of the key tasks of a man­ager when tack­ling a large wild­fire is to ensure that a steady sup­ply of water can be applied to the fire via ATV moun­ted fire fog­ging units. Fire fog­ging units are extremely effect­ive in fight­ing fires with flame lengths of up to three meters. Fire fog­ging units need to be con­tinu­ously replen­ished so the devel­op­ment of a chain of water where fire fog­ging units can be filled either from nat­ur­al water sup­plies, from fire ponds or from bow­sers is a key task in fire­fight­ing. In the absence of suit­able water bod­ies, land hold­ings with access to farm machinery should con­sider what equip­ment might be used to trans­port large volumes of water to the vicin­ity of a fire so fire fog­ging units can be con­tinu­ously replen­ished. There are a range of fire fog­ging units on the mar­ket, and these can be car­ried by a range of ATVs.

• Recom­mend­a­tion: Equip­ment and machinery require­ments will vary accord­ing to

landholding's needs. It is recommended that:

• All land­hold­ings should carry a stock of fire beat­ers, scrub­bers or leaf blowers

appropriate to their needs.

• All land­hold­ings should con­sider wheth­er car­ry­ing a stock of fire fighting

backpacks would be appropriate.

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• Land hold­ings over 1000ha should have ready access to a machine-moun­ted fire

fogging unit.

• All rel­ev­ant estate staff should be famil­i­ar with the use of equip­ment above.

Recom­mend­a­tion: Sig­ni­fic­ant fire­fight­ing assets, includ­ing farm machinery cap­able of trans­port­ing large volumes of water, should be registered on the Com­munity Asset Register.