This is what Sheffield Wildlife Trust and some of its simplistic supporters would like people to believe. They tell people this is Friends of Blacka Moor policy without reference to our actual views. They have an agenda which is to discredit any opposition in as personal a manner as is possible. Anybody who disagrees with their plans lays themselves open to this kind of misinformation campaign. It's a well known trick in political and debating circles. First redefine your opponents position in terms chosen by yourself then show how unacceptable it is. It works particularly well with 6 year olds which is why it has such appeal to SWT.
The truth is something more complex and demands a rather more advanced mental age (15 or so?). It demands that you acknowlege two things. One is that there is an overwhelming natural momentum to regrowth of tree cover. Second that there has been a tremendous benefit in wildlife and visual terms to to nature having gone its own way over the last 75 years.
But the views and the openness of certain parts of the site are best retained unobtrusively with the light hand of a manual maintenance regime by a dedicated site worker, occasionally backed up with a blitz from a few volunteers. This is infinitely more suitable to the site than the importation of a herd of bovine heavyweights supported by many thousands of pounds worth of hideous barbed wire and the consequent trashing of footpaths.
While some parts of the site do revert over time to woodland a manual management regime can easily keep this to the right sort of open woodland with trees well spaced and views retained. The picture above shows that this is not that difficult.
I may once or twice have said that if it was a choice between reversion to woodland and management by an outfit like SWT, I know which I would choose.
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