A mountain has been burning 13 miles from the Grange Project for two weeks. Wales has just gone into drought after receiving 8% of its average July rainfall, the driest July in 190 years. Just under 22,000 hectares have burnt across the UK so far this year, more than the whole of 2022, with most of the summer still to come.

This is a special episode, recorded quickly, to try to understand what is actually happening.

Tom is joined by James Hitchcock, Rewilding Advocacy and Policy Lead for Rewilding Britain in Wales, and Alex Crawley, co-director of Grazing Management and a Nuffield scholar who studied wildfire in France and California. Both arrive from different starting points and both refuse the easy answer.

Because there is an easy answer doing the rounds, in two versions. Restock the uplands and graze down the fuel load. Or rewild, rewet, and the landscape stops burning. Neither survives contact with the detail.

What the conversation gets to instead is more useful: not all fuel loads are equal, spring fires and summer fires are different problems, rewilding sites are genuinely more vulnerable during their transition years, and almost every wildfire in Britain starts with a person.

Chloe joins Tom afterwards to pick over what the interview left out, including the effect on people, the standing grass on their own land, and whether "wildfire" is even the right word.

Chapters

[00:00] Welcome to a special episode, and why the gap since the last one

[03:04] Setting the scene: a mountain on fire 13 miles away, and what 220 hectares means in Grange Projects

[05:20] Why are we seeing more wildfires now, or are we?

[05:22] Alex on whiplash weather, soil moisture and winter vegetation build-up

[06:20] James on fire danger modelling, the first UK mega fire, and degraded habitats

[11:29] What the Met Office projects for 2050, and why it may already be out of date

[12:58] Fire is not a natural process in Britain

[15:34] Shifting baselines, and the day Tom walked away from his flail mower

[16:47] Arson, barbecues and the culture that needs to change

[18:15] Triggers versus conditions: who is getting the blame

[18:49] Alex on wildfire being used to fit ideological narratives

[20:07] James on why it is not either/or, and where beavers come in

[25:17] What Alex learned in California: goats, sagebrush and ladder fuels

[28:51] The vulnerable years: firebreaks as insurance for a rewilding site

[32:31] Mapping wet firebreaks and joining them up

[34:50] Who insures a nature asset that burns down?

[37:23] What France tells us about reactive spending

[39:17] Final thoughts from James 40:18 Final thoughts from Alex

[41:02] Tom and Chloe reflect on the interview

[52:00] Political courage, and a thank you to Catherine Fookes MP

[53:09] Is this the moment the climate crisis becomes real to people?

About the guests

James Hitchcock is the Rewilding Advocacy and Policy Lead for Rewilding Britain in Wales, and the first full-time person the organisation has had working in the country. He has over 20 years in the environment sector, from site management through to senior leadership, and was previously CEO of Radnorshire Wildlife Trust, where he led the rewilding of Gilfach in the Marteg Valley.

Rewilding Britain: rewildingbritain.org.uk

Alex Crawley is co-director of Grazing Management Limited alongside Emily Crawley. The business delivers contract conservation grazing across around 25 sites, restoring habitats on behalf of partners including Natural Resources Wales, the Wye Valley National Landscape and Severn Trent. Alex is a Nuffield scholar and studied wildfire management in France and California.

Grazing Management: grazingmanagement.co.uk

Both James and Alex have been guests on the Wilder Podcast before. Links to their previous episodes are below.

Facts and figures mentioned

• Wales received 8% of its average July rainfall in July 2026, the driest July in 190 years. Drought was declared across the whole of Wales on 30 July, following England
• The Blaenavon fire covered around 220 hectares of bracken and gorse at its peak, roughly seven times the size of the Grange Project. It had been burning since 19 July
• Just under 22,000 hectares have burnt across the UK so far in 2026, more than the total for the whole of 2022
• Around 50,000 hectares burnt across the UK in 2025
• Wales recorded roughly 3,450 grass fire incidents last year, of which around two and a half thousand were started deliberately
• There has been approximately one wildfire in the UK officially recorded as started by lightning
• Wales has around 50 beavers. Scotland has well over 1,500
• In California, targeted grazing runs at roughly 250 goats on one acre for one day, at around £750
• The Met Office projects hotter summers with less rainfall by 2050, with high fire risk days doubling against the late 20th century average

Resources and links mentioned

• Rewilding Britain: https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/
• How rewilding reduces wildfire risk (Rewilding Britain): https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/why-rewild/benefits-of-rewilding/how-rewilding-reduces-wildfire-risk
• Rewilding Britain policy briefings and responses: https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/about-us/what-we-say/policy
• Grazing Management: https://grazingmanagement.co.uk/
• Welsh Rewilding Alliance / Cynghrair Ailwylltio Cymru: https://www.rewildingalliance.cymru/
• Wild Cymru: https://www.wild.cymru/
• Wild Cymru wildfire report: Protecting Wildlife from Wildfires and Illegal Grassland Burns: https://www.wild.cymru/wild-cymrus-wildfire-report/
• Wildfire Wise, the Wales Wildfire Board campaign: https://www.mawwfire.gov.uk/eng/campaigns-and-consultations/wildfirewise
• Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust: https://www.nuffieldscholar.org/
• Alex Crawley's Nuffield scholar page: https://www.nuffieldscholar.org/scholars/2025/alex-crawley
• The National Emergency Briefing: https://www.nebriefing.org/
• The National Emergency Briefing open letter: https://www.nebriefing.org/open-letter-keir
• Palisades Fire, California, January 2025 (CAL FIRE): https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2025/1/7/palisades-fire
• Wildfire risks to UK landscapes (POST briefing, UK Parliament): https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pn-0717/

Related Wilder Podcast episodes

• Ep. 047: Monmouth Floods, the previous special episode on a live climate event
• Ep. 026: What have the Wildlife Trusts ever done for us? with James Hitchcock
• Ep. 036: "It's the how, not the cow" with Grazing Management. (Alex's previous ep).

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