Fire mixed with nature is nearly always a bad thing.

In pre-human times though, naturally started fire could prove to be really positive.

It cleared areas of old growth and allowed new and diverse communities to become briefly established as the burned area naturally succeeded once again into high forest.

Nowadays in this country especially, naturally started fire has to be among the rarest of things. So far, in all my years of working out in the natural world I don't think I could say I have ever encountered a naturally started fire.

The only real natural source of ignition I can think of is lightning. While this is certainly hot enough and in the scheme of things is reasonably frequent, I have never seen evidence of anything other than localised burning as a result of a lightning strike. This may have something to do with the fact that most lightning storms are accompanied by heavy rain.

For this reason, it is fair to assess that most fires started in the natural world are the result of man. Early in man's history fire was an essential tool.

It allowed our ancestors to clear large areas of land to enable the development of farming practices, which formed the cornerstones of our subsequent civilisation.

However, even with the small population our country then supported, this could not go on forever. As natural ecological resources began to dwindle the hard to control and destructive nature of fire was soon ruled out of widespread use.

Even land managers from Roman times started to look to the prevention of fire in wilder areas. This was not because they were conservationally enlightened, but they needed to protect what for them were important economic resources.

These days there is less economic importance attached to wild areas and as such the resources to capture offenders and resultant penalties for lighting fires has lessened.

One can only imagine what the penalty would have been for burning a medieval king's favourite hunting ride, but I assume it would probably be most painful. These days the act of lighting fires has become almost ridiculously easy. Not so long ago fire lighting would have been a skill taught, but these days for a few pence and the flick of a finger we make fire.

As a result, many of our nature reserves are under constant threat of fire. Last year when we had much drier conditions it is estimated that up to 60 per cent of the heathland nature reserve of the Rifle Range was damaged by fire. Things have recovered a little, but it will still take quite a few years of management before the scars have healed. In some ways I'm quite thankful that this summer has been a wet one. At least it has given this reserve time to heal.