Wildland or Farmland ?

A group of sheep burst through the fence more than a week ago and have since spent much of their time near the bottom gate gazing longingly at their colleagues in the enclosure and wishing they knew how to get back. Current practice in hill sheep farming seems to mean that they will just have to sort themselves out. Sooner or later there will be an incident with a dog and irresponsible dog walkers will be blamed.

A recurring theme in the disagreements between SWT and regular walkers here has been the question of trust. Why don't they trust us they say, we've given them much of what they want and still they don't like us. Disingenuity is applied with a trowel. One just has to look at what they say and what they do.

Blacka Moor we said is valued for its wildness. What you want to do is contrary to that spirit. Farmification, over management and top down control: Barbed wire, gates fences walls, grazing animals, agricultural subsidies, poisoning vegetation you don't like, Single Farm Payment etc. etc. Nonsense, they said, you're paranoid. The Icarus consultation called for the land to be wild with minimal intervention. Only a few months later they were writing articles in local periodicals celebrating the farm animals that once lived in Strawberry Lee Pastures and praising the cute highland cattle they were just about to bring into the site. But for a wildlife trust never a word about the wild animals, such as deer, whose activities are alien to management plans.