SWT's leaflet

SWT's leaflet was brought out at the recent RAG meeting. I'm not certain why. It could have been related to the 'interpretation' theme, and it's possible that SWT want feedback from local people about its content. Blacka Blogger is happy to provide some feedback. It would be nice to be able to say something more complimentary but it's usually best to be honest. I would say the leaflet is a bit of marketing for the wildlife trust and manages to be pretty misleading. My problem is working out who it's aimed at. I have suspicion it's more directed at potential corporate sponsors and others who need to be impressed; this might include local councillors as well who don't know the site or its recent history. For such people accuracy is not specially important. You don't need to see much of their paperwork without coming to the conclusion that SWT's main concern is their own image and how they can promote it with branding and marketing stategies. They long ago gave up trying to appeal to those who are Blacka's regulars who soon worked out that SWT's written reports are at variance with the way things are.

Just some of the oddities and misleading things about the leaflet:

1) The cover picture is meant to give an accurate impression of what Blacka Moor looks like and hence something of its special character. It shows birch trees on the moor. The problem with this is that SWT don't want birch trees on the moor. These and others have recently been cut down as part of their aggressive anti-wilding pro heather moorland agenda.

2) The pictures inside include one of cattle. This is really odd because there is no picture showing red deer, our largest wild animal, permanently in residence here. In fact the deer are not even referred to in the leaflet! This seems beyond belief. If there is one outstanding wildlife phenomenon on Blacka Moor it is the red deer. Their presence captures the imagination of visitors. Cattle meanwhile were put on the moor for the first time last year (amidst much criticism), had not been on Blacka for at the very least some 70 years before and have not been on at all this year!

Yet considerable SWT resources have been devoted to telling people what a wonderful feature of Blacka Moor these domestic cattle are. And here they are pictured in their leaflet. This seems unbelievable. Yet there is a reason for this apparent absurdity, one that SWT are shy about confessing to and which I will explain in a coming post.

3) I was for some time puzzled by the phrase "The Blacka Brothers" headlined in the text. I even started to think they had found reference to a family called Blacka explaining the derivation of Blacka Moor's name. Then the penny dropped and I realised that someone had thought that the monks who farmed at Strawberry Lee were 'brothers'. I may be the only one who was confused by this. But still it's even more confusing if you know that the 'monks' were actually known as 'White Canons', as were all initiates in the Premonstratensian order (founded in Northern France at the town of Premonstre) who built Beauchief Abbey in the 13th century.

There's another point about the leaflet that always rankles with some of us. Its title is 'Blacka Moor Nature Reserve'. Blacka is only a 'nature reserve' because SWT call it one. Reserves are properly designated in this country as either Local Nature Reserve or National Nature Reserve. This is neither, and there is a very good reason why. It is charitable land with a prime purpose for recreation and to act as a public open space. The covenant on the land makes this clear as does a recent ruling from the Charity Commission. None of this is referred to in the leaflet.