Prohibition

Sheep and cattle have been removed from the pasture area for more than a week now, temporarily bringing to a halt their role in prohibiting the growth of trees in this part of Blacka. I wonder what's happening about NE's recent conversion to 25% tree cover? I'm sure the intention here in taking the stock off was not to give the land chance to recover from the impact of large quantities of livestock dung, amazing amounts for an area like this, perhaps the beasts had been working overtime. I guess the farmer's own priorities determine what happens whatever is said about conservation. Which makes it odd that SWT have chosen this time to stop the paragliders and hang gliders from using the land after many years when their activities were tolerated.

This is interesting in a number of ways. First the notices put up claim that it's an important site for certain protected bird species. You have to be careful with these conservation industry workers. They do not exactly say that these species have been nesting here previously and from my observation that would be untrue anyway in the part of the site that the hang gliders use, a tiny part of the pasture area.

I've previously challenged the claim that Blacka is 'an important site for upland breeding birds' - stated several times as justification for its SSSI status. The problem here is that these wildlife and conservation characters are empire builders and use designations like SSSI and others to gather territory unto themselves in a ruthless land grabbing exercise. They use their comparatively modest specialised knowledge to bamboozle relatively ignorant bureaucrats and politicians into granting a status like SSSI with precious little if any consultation. All the time the land in question is utterly artificial, top down managed and with hardly a tree to be seen, in fact a typical bit of farmland where nature definitely comes a poor second.

The other interesting thing here is that the Charity Commission has recently ruled that recreation should take precedence over conservation, where there is a conflict . That could not mean that absolutely any recreational activity should be allowed, it just means that you can't stop something that's an established practice purely for conservation reasons.

The hang glider people are annoyed. This one could be very interesting!