Devastating Dorset nature reserve fire

This video is about a male Dartford warbler (Sylvia undata).

Dorset fire devastates crucial wildlife site during breeding season

Up to 200 firefighters battled to save homes from the blaze, which is feared to have set back wildlife in the area by 20 years

Steven Morris

Friday 10 June 2011 16.10 BST

Conservationists say wildlife will take at least 20 years to recover after a fire devastated heathland in Dorset.

It took almost 200 firefighters to prevent the blaze at Upton Heath in Poole from reaching local homes.

But they could not stop it wreaking havoc at one of the most important wildlife sites in England at the height of the breeding season.

One police officer said it looked like the heath had been hit by a nuclear explosion and some wildlife volunteers wept as they scoured the site looking for animals and birds that had survived.

Upton Heath is home to all six native reptiles and a nesting site for birds including stonechats, nightjars [see also here] and Dartford warblers.

EU cuts could hit some of Britain’s rarest birds: here.

July 2011: A sharp decline in Dartford warbler numbers on East Devon’s heathlands has prompted fears for the rare bird’s future. Dartford warblers are found only on heathlands in the UK, and became almost extinct as a breeding bird here in the Sixties: here.

Nightjars thriving in North Yorkshire’s Forests: here.

July 2011: The elusive nightjar – under threat of extinction just 40 years ago – has once again returned to North Yorkshire’s woodlands in record numbers: here.

August 2011: A controversial plan to extend a Kent quarry has been called in for public inquiry. The application to extend the quarry into Oaken Wood near Maidstone would, if passed, see the destruction of an area about the size of 30 football pitches of irreplaceable ancient woodland: here.