Urban Wilding as a Defence against Wildfires
What’s causing this increase in wildfires and how rewilding in and around cities can offer part of the solution.
Wildfires in and around European cities are becoming more and more common.
During the summer of 2026, wildfires broke out on the doorstep of several cities in France and Spain, including Bordeaux and Madrid, engulfing residents in dangerous smoke and prompting evacuations. Within cities like London and Sheffield, urban park fires also caused destruction.
When parks, farmland and forests dry out in the summer heat, a negligent cigarette butt, barbecue or firework can quickly lead to an uncontrollable inferno, risking lives and destroying homes and businesses.
In this article we explain what’s causing this increase in wildfires and how rewilding in and around cities can offer part of the solution.
How rewilding reduces wildfires
Much of the media coverage of the wildfires has rightfully blamed climate change for the increased intensity and frequency of the fires. This is especially obvious in parts of northern Europe and the UK, which have not been considered prone to wildfires until recent years. But the changing climate is only part of the picture. Droughts and heatwaves increase the likelihood of vegetation drying out but they are not the only factor. How land is managed also plays a huge role in wildfire risk.
Rebecca Wrigley, CEO of Rewilding Britain, makes this clear, stating: ‘Drained moors, commercial timber plantations and artificially dry landscapes are the real tinderboxes across our countryside. Decades of damaging drainage have squeezed the land dry, and an obsession with an unnaturally tidy landscape has created hyper-flammable monocultures.’
Landscapes across Europe are often more susceptible to wildfires due to centuries of human management. The good news is that we can reverse this trend.
Rewilding projects are demonstrating their ability to resist drought and wildfires. The Guardian reported how the Holnicote Estate in England has remained a lush green while the surrounding countryside was parched brown by successive heatwaves this summer. This is the result of a rewilding project that welcomed water back on to the land by renaturalising rivers and creating wetlands, allowing the landscape to store water during droughts.
Another key factor increasing wildfire risk is the ‘defaunation’ of our landscapes: the loss of important animals that influence fire risk. Natural grazing by large herbivores – like wild bison, ponies, horses and hardy breeds of cattle – has decreased in Europe over the centuries, resulting in a build up of flammable vegetation across huge landscapes. In Spain and Portugal, reintroducing wild herbivores has proven to be an effective way of mitigating wildfires by reducing the vegetation build up and maintaining open, biodiverse ecosystems.
Rewilding land turns degraded monocultures into complex, moisture-holding ecosystems that are much more resilient to fire. The same can be true for urban green spaces.
Taking the lessons into cities
Many urban parks in Europe are managed as monocultures of mown lawn. Once these lawns dry out in the summer – an increasingly common site across the continent – the parched brown vegetation is primed for ignition. In these conditions, a negligent cigarette butt, barbecue or firework can quickly lead to a grass fire.
The classic urban park with closely mown lawn and neatly lined trees is a product of 18th Century landscape design. Over the centuries, we’ve replicated the approach so much that it feels normal and unquestioned. However, with more and more of these traditional parks going up in smoke each year, it’s time we embraced a new approach. One that is more resilient, biodiverse and wild.
And urban wilding approach follows the same logic as successful rural rewilding projects: restore habitats, bring water back on the land and, where possible, reintroduce missing species. With this mindset, every urban park has potential to be a future nature reserve with ponds, wildflowers, regenerating trees and recovering biodiversity. These wilder parks hold moisture, staving off drought and providing cool refuges for people and wildlife.
You can see proof of this each summer. In London, pocket forests planted by SUGi have remained green and alive amidst a sea of dry grass. The 6-year old Forest of Thanks in east London required no watering – it is essentially self sustaining thanks to the dense and diverse mix of tree species growing together.
Research backs up the anecdotal evidence. A study of 26,000 wildfires in Spain found that native broadleaved woodland was the landcover type least associated with wildfires at the edge of urban areas. Whereas commercial timber plantations of pine and eucalypt species were the most prone to fire. Real habitats are inherently more resilient than monocultures.
Urban beavers – like those in London, Munich and Vancouver, to name a few – manage complex wetlands that hold water like sponges through the summer. We can see beaver's wildfire resilience in action from their cousins in North America, where beaver wetlands act as essential fire breaks and refuges during seasonal forest fires. Beavers could act as nature's firefighters for European cities as their populations continue to expand and we learn to co-exist with them.
The careful use of livestock in urban parks can mimic those wild herbivores in Spain and Portugal, reducing the build up of dry vegetation and stimulating fresh plant growth. For example, Cambridge has allowed local farmers to graze their animals on the city’s central common for centuries. Cows have recently been introduced to a wilding project in London called Wild Tolworth, showing how this can work in urban parks.
We also need to rewild the edge of cities, where fires on agricultural land can destroy suburban homes and businesses. Historic ‘Green Belt’ policies have been successful in some cities at preventing unchecked urban sprawl. It’s time to consider a ‘Wild Belt’ – a buffer zone of rewilded land around cities that will mitigate wildfires and boost biodiversity near to suburban neighbourhoods.
An example of how this could look is the Zuid-Kennemerland National Park in the Netherlands. This publicly accessible rewilding project directly adjoins the cities of Haarlem and Ijmuiden and includes European bison, Konik ponies, fallow deer and Scottish highlander cows. It shows how wild nature can thrive on the doorstep of densely populated cities, providing an incredible asset for local residents.
However, none of this should be taken as a one-size-fits-all approach. A core tenet of rewilding is that it is locally-specific. For example, an approach that works well in the UK may be totally inappropriate in Portugal. Parts of southern Europe have been living with wildfires for centuries – what is changing is the frequency and intensity – and successful rewilding projects need to build on the local knowledge that already exists in these places.
Planning ahead for resilient cities
One thing is for certain: climate change is here and wildfire risk will continue to increase each summer. Let’s take preventative action and embrace a wilder future for our urban parks and green belts. If we start working with nature we’ll find enormous benefits beyond wildfire mitigation: recovering biodiversity, flood resilience, and opportunities for nature connection and education.
At Urban Wilding Hub, we’re building a movement for wilder cities. It starts with sharing knowledge, provoking fresh thinking and advocating for a new approach to urban nature.
Join our Wilding Partners community to get involved.
