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00:00Hi there, my name's Andy, I'm the Mid-Cornwall Reserves Manager for the Cornwall Wildlife Trust.
00:05As many of you will have heard, unfortunately, residents in Downs, one of our nature reserves, was set on fire last night around 8 o'clock
00:12and spread across the site, burning well over a quarter of the nature reserve.
00:17This is not the first time this has happened and we are extremely disappointed and upset that this has happened again.
00:24It has untold damage to the natural nature reserve itself.
00:28We have our own herd of native breed ponies on site that were there at the time.
00:33I was out last night, they were extremely upset and spooked by it.
00:38They were dealing with over 15 foot flames, smoke billowing across.
00:42They were extremely upset and I'll be heading out later today to remove them from site.
00:46But alongside that, there's other impacts. Obviously, everyone's seen the warm weather we've been having.
00:51There were nesting birds out there, skylarks, meadow pippets, adders would have been emerging as well, slow worms.
00:57There's untold damage across the site and this is not the first time it's happened.
01:01The people who are doing this know what they're doing, they're timing it at this time of year
01:06and they're doing it with a misguided sense that they're helping manage the site, keep on top of cause.
01:13But this extent of burning is not productive in the slightest.
01:18It negatively impacts the habitat, it negatively impacts the species that we're trying to manage and sustain on that site
01:25and it is so frustrating to be in front of you today saying that this happened again.
01:31It's small numbers of individuals doing it.
01:34I'm thankful to say and I'm very thankful to the local people that did help with last night
01:39allowing us access from neighbouring lands and informing us that this was being done on our site as well
01:46and of course the emergency services that went out and put the fire out.
01:52I'm really sorry to be having to do this video this morning.