With ‘stop lines’ and ‘fire compartments’, fires in De Peel must remain manageable from now on

“That is not the intention,” says Lieke Verhoeven. With the same forester’s eye with which she sees sundew growing between the dominant pipe straw a little later, she discovers a cigarette butt deep in the Deurnsche Peel. She takes a picture and puts the remainder of the cigarette with her. It does not belong in the Natura 2000 area. Especially not during a bone-dry summer and with spring 2020 still fresh in the memory. In April of that year, what was described as “the largest wildfire in the Netherlands ever” raged. In five days, 710 hectares of nature went up in flames. It continued to smolder for another two months.

A wildfire management plan has now been drawn up for the Deurnsche Peel and the adjacent Mariapeel. That name says it all, according to Verhoeven. “The illusion is not that wildfires can be completely prevented in the future. It is more an attempt to make nature and people more resilient in the event of such a calamity. When the fire service responds to a fire in a house or building, everything is laid down in protocols. Everyone knows what to do. This was less the case with wildfires. The events of the spring of 2020 shook up those involved across the country.”

The two nature reserves lie against the provincial border: the Deurnsche Peel on the Brabant side and the Mariapeel on the Limburg side. This is one of the regions with the highest livestock density in the Netherlands. Many lampposts hang inverted flags as a protest against the proposed nitrogen measures. Both Pelen were also created through business activity. The last peat extraction stopped only in the 1970s.

The consequences of high nitrogen depositions are now clearly visible in the two Natura 2000 areas. Bracken fern and pipestraw are proliferating and leave less and less room for the peat mosses so typical of the high moor areas. This also has consequences for fire safety, explains Verhoeven. “Especially in times of drought, bracken and pipe straw ensure that the fire can spread more quickly. Damp swamp vegetation has an inhibitory effect. “Sphagnum moss can hold moisture up to thirty times its own weight.”

fire ladders

In the Deurnsche Peel and the Mariapeel, many of the special peat mosses have dried up completely. It is looking for places where there is still water and the frogs show their heads. The fire management plan includes reducing some of the bracken and pipe straws. Verhoeven also points out the birch trees along the central path through the Deurnsche Peel. “You think that a fire cannot get from one side of the path to the other, but through the trunks and the crowns – so-called fire ladders – the fire can still get to the other side. So it is wise to cut down a strip of trees along the path.”

That loss of greenery pays off in the event of a fire. With such ‘stop lines’, the nature reserve can be divided into ‘fire compartments’. “In 2020 there was little or no such thing, so that in combination with extreme weather conditions it was difficult to control the fire. If such lines do exist, the fire brigade can also extinguish the fire in other ways. Not only very offensive at the fires, but also defensive at those lines to keep the fire within a certain part.”

It means that fire trucks and contractors also have to enter the area. “That requires more, wider and sturdier paths that can hold the vehicles, places where they can pass each other and the construction of a few parking places, where wells are also dug from which fire water can be extracted.”

Such paths also have a downside, Verhoeven admits. “It also makes these areas more accessible to the public, while we want to keep visitors as much as possible away from a large part of the Deurnsche Peel and the Mariapeel, because of the natural values ​​and their vulnerability. More people also means more risk of fires.”

Sometimes the goals of nature development and fire control also go hand in hand. “Plans for raising the water level and restoring the raised bogs were already in place before spring 2020. This also prevents the fire from spreading easily.”

Also read: De Peel threatens to dry up: ‘We can no longer take water for granted’

The wildfire management plan follows criticism that resonated in investigations that the province of North Brabant had carried out after the major fire in the Deurnsche Peel. This showed that nature managers did not pay enough attention to fire prevention and communicated too little with regional and local administrators. (Provincial) administrators did not take sufficient account of the risk of fire when designing nature reserves. Verhoeven: “That is changing thanks to the measures proposed in the fire management plan. Everyone knows their duties and who can be contacted for what.”

Many people remain involved: in the case of the Deurnsche Peel and the Mariapeel, among others, two provinces, two municipalities, two fire brigades and two water boards. Anton Slofstra, commander of the Gelderland-Midden fire brigade region and portfolio holder for wildfires at the Netherlands Fire Brigade, finds it remarkable that in all this administrative pressure no one is actually responsible. He therefore advocates the establishment of a national authority. “It is there in every other area where there are major physical risks.”

Such an authority – almost comparable to the Delta Commissioner – should also have a long-term vision. “Because the fire risk changes with the climate and we are now making choices for the coming decades, sometimes even a hundred years.”

At the same time, regulations must be introduced, says Slofstra. “That is now missing, while you do have all kinds of regulations for all types of buildings in the field of materials, emergency exit doors and escape corridors. If I want to start a campsite next to a chemical company, that is not allowed. If I want to start that same campsite in the middle of a nature reserve with only one escape route, nothing stands in my way in terms of fire safety regulations.”

A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of August 15, 2022