Friday 12 November 2010

A burning issue

Forget the heavy rain falling and the gale force winds. Our letterbox walks are becoming more and more affected by fire, or more importantly, the after effects of fire. We are still several months from swaling season - the time when commoners can legally burn the moorland to improve grazing, and WITC has said before that we support responsible swaling. Recent seasons have been notable by the number of out-of-control fires. Burning in strong winds, without adequate facilities to fight the flames.

Then there is arson. Idiots flicking cigarettes out of car windows. Then there is the amount of litter on the moor causing ignition. We are finding more and more damaged letterboxes due to fire, like the one photographed here on the slopes of Leedon Tor (which we obviously removed as a 'litterbox'). WITC is also seeing more and more land struggling to recover from being burned. What we need are fire-proof boxes - ammo cans, for example. It makes even more of a case to carry letterbox repair kits.

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