The act of camping on land that is not yours and where you do not have permission from the landowner / landmanager is, in law, a civil matter of trespass.
For every fire and whatnot that appears on my socials and on my blog (that the Eastern Moors Partnership team have found) there are dozens and dozens of friendly conversations with campers that are, in law, committing trespass but, after a chat with a ranger and there being no evidence of fire or intent to have one, they’re left in -situ to enjoy a leave-no-trace night in their tent, hammock or bivvy.
However, once you light a fire you are in effect damaging the land upon which you are trespassing. That is a criminal matter. Once the risk from the fire has been extinguished you will be ‘invited’ to leave and not return for 72 hrs. Rangers are allowed to tell you to leave. Most people do because otherwise the police are called and it gets messy.
But i would like to raise an important point (which reared its head again this evening). Whatever excuse you give us for being unable to leave is not going to wash. You came to this landscape and lit a fire. The rangers neither invited you nor asked you to light it. So, being too drunk to drive, being under the influence of drugs, being tired, being with small kids, being miles from home, not having money for the bus, having a medical issue or begging us to stay and promising that you won’t light the fire once we’ve left …. none of these will wash. We’ve heard hundreds of excuses. Light a fire or have the clear intent to do so and it’s adieu. Cheerio. Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
You’re going. You’re not being allowed to stay because it’s your kids first big adventure camping out with fire. Perhaps you ought to have read the National Park website or the BMC wildcamping advice before bringing them.
That position stands for everybody.
Oh, and fire neither knows nor cares how well you made it. We don’t let people that think they made a ‘really safe fire’ stay whilst asking others to leave. Nope.
And the second point is (generally speaking) you can’t walk down the High Street carrying an axe. Or a bush saw. Or a folding saw. It is an offence (except for a few clearly defined purposes). So on the off chance that either South Yorkshire or Derbyshire police officers are out on patrol with us and they find you in the woods under Millstone with a chuffin’ big axe (or other implement designed for felling or chopping wood), you’re facing something far far more serious than being asked to leave the woods. Have a read of Sections 139 and 139A of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
If you’re a really experienced woodland skills / forest schools instructor you probably ought to know that you need permission to light fire in woodland (and you’re almost certainly not getting permission in the Peak), and the rules around axes.
We try to be helpful. We’re almost all volunteers. The legislation on fires in the landscape is easily accessible. Read it. Please don’t try to bargain with us. And if in our fire patrols we find items that are ‘illegal carry’ in law, we take that very seriously indeed.
Two large campfires in bone dry woodland tonight. The first of which the Fire&Rescue Service had been out looking for, before we found it with the drone.
Another midnight finish for the team.
Large swathes of the Peak District and Pennines have suffered wildfires today. Don’t be a dick.