Wild Or Nor Wild?

When people start talking about landscapes and wildness we come up against a lot of confusion as regards words and definitions.
Is it natural?
Is it wild?
Wilderness?
Artificial landscape?
Man-made landscape?
Britain's countryside is overwhelmingly influenced by human interaction. This leads some to say that being natural or wild is a non-starter so best forget about it. Managerial conservationists are particularly prone to be dismissive of those who want things to be "natural". They do after all earn their living controlling nature. But they are not always honest in their approach to these questions when dealing with the non specialist members of the public who simply want some places to be "more natural".

Are we being unreasonable in wanting certain places to be allowed to go their own way? Even if nowhere in Britain is true wilderness, it is nevertheless true that 'naturalness' is a factor in our response to land and that we are constantly making judgements about our favourite places being more or less wild.

Blacka - wild and soft

Sometimes the misconceptions are startling. For example I've heard the view expressed that while Blacka is lovely, Burbage Moor is 'wild'! In fact of course Burbage is thoroughly artificial vegetation controlled by sheep and burning while this part of Blacka has gradually wilded over the last hundred years. Still lovely for all that.