August 19th, 2009
Damage to Dorset’s Green Lung
The Borough of Poole boasts many stretches of heathland, involving a size greater than 700 football pitches, which not only houses important wildlife, but brings great pleasure to the local community.
These sites provide green spaces which are the ‘green lungs’ of the town, contributing to improving people’s physical and mental health by providing places for informal recreation – walking, sitting, socialising and children’s play; breathing spaces to take time out from the stresses of modern life. Yet these beautiful areas have been subject to a recent spate of arson attacks.
A particularly bad fire in April damaged one-third of Talbot Heath in Poole. There were 20ft flames which the wind swept from one end of the heath to the other, destroying protected wildlife and wrecking the habitat of one of Britain’s rarest birds, the Dartford Warbler. It is believed that this land will not recover from this alleged arson attack for 10 – 15 years!
Because of the increasing number of these incidents desperate measures have had to be taken. These fires which happen with alarming regularity during the spring and summer months are at best started carelessly and at worst deliberately. The situation has got so bad that the Dorset Police are now offering a £250 reward to anyone who can provide them with any information on the perpetrators.