Design Your Own Landscape

If you had been around Kinder Scout last weekend you could have taken part in a "mass planting" to help 'regenerate' the decaying vegetation. This was organised by the National Trust. (see link) I was too busy planting potatoes and greens in my vegetable patch but even if I had the time I would want to plant something more interesting than cotton grass. Instead of taking the opportunity to completely rethink the appearance of Kinder and return it to something like it was before men started to exploit it the top down decision is to make it look like it was a hundred or so years ago.



Why not plant native trees? All over the High Peak there are the remains of long dead trees and when walking there I sometimes feel I'm about to trip over skeletons recently disgorged from old graves. Living trees would bring Kinder back to life better than boring cotton grass. Look what they've done for Blacka:

Afterthought

The National Trust will claim that they are following the policy laid down by certain all powerful conservationists in Natural England. This has determined that the treeless heath vegetation or ecosystem or whatever they call it now is so precious because certain species of creatures inhabit it. But it is an artificial landscape and the bulk of those creatures adapted in the past to the vegetation and the original species moved on or disappeared. If trees slowly reestablished the woodland then different creatures would move in. Who is to play God in this situation?