Secret Places (2)

This sylvan view is easily found but when the eye follows through to the bottom of the slope where the Lea Stream, or Lee Syke, winds along, a path appears which is often overgrown.

It needs to be emphasised that this scene with ideal attractions for summer visiting songbirds, warblers and cuckoos would look nothing like this if the present recommended management from Natural England had been followed over the last 70 years. What makes Blacka Moor unique is that it has not been managed for farming or grouse-shooting. Nature has gone its own way and is still doing so. And of course it will not remain as it is now if nature is allowed to stay in control.

Should that panic us into severe intervention? Or are we grown-up enough to accept that things change and that natural evolution in some places should be allowed?