Today I went down to Pegwell Bay. I go here often but on the 19th of April there was a fire, a fire that appears to have been arson. Arson at the time of year when birds will be preparing their nest for breading and insects will be in abundance. I thought carefully before going down because I didn’t want to disturb the land while it is trying to regenerate so I stuck to the concrete path. I used additional lighting to make it feel more like a forensic image than a typical landscape.
The smell of wet burnt grass was the first thing I sensed when still some way off the site of the fire. It looks like the fire has taken about 1/4 of this vital Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), the land left behind is very fertile so hopefully it will recover. When they find the scum responsible I hope it takes considerably longer for them to recover.
This area is also under attack from development by the National Grids Sea Link project and from what Rachel Reeves has said in parliament today (pushing for more fossil fuel production in the North Sea and relaxing planning for green energy developments, the latter on the surface, a good idea but it will disregard nature over profit) and her obvious disregard for nature in general it is a sad time for the environment in the UK.