Grazing

Despite my observation that the absence of farm animals and management has made Blacka a much more fascinating and enjoyable place, the dead bureaucratic hand of Natural England has insisted that farm animals are what it must have. This is their orthodoxy and they have not the recource to a more imaginative approach available to those who truly know and love the place. Yet their cattle grazing, slavishly administered by ther servants at SWT, has never been without problems. The alien beasts were supposed to be here in April but have still not appeared. Meanwhile deer, the wholly natural grazers, not dragooned or conscripted but simply doing what nature left to its own devices does on Blacka, are here this evening helping to balance the diverse needs of a landscape. A pity the artificial power lines compromise the wildness of the scene as much as the cattle would!