Dynamic or Repressed?

Loose use of words usually means woolly thinking, not that surprising among those who spend their time working with sheep (or those who advocate sheep farming to manage landscapes). But to describe the Eastern Moors and places like Burbage as dynamic suggests an attempt to persuade oneself in the face of overwhelming evidence. We have ourselves described Blacka as dynamic because here the growth and change in the vegetation has been wholly driven by those plants and animals that thrive here at this point in time rather than being dictated by office priorities and other top-down agendas. The moors are, to be accurate, repressed and sad because the exploitation of man has taken the spirit out of them. The idea that some of this dreary environment should be categorised by Unnatural England as in 'favourable condition' while Blacka is 'unfavourable' is frankly laughable. Where are these people when you want them? NE should have been alongside me in late May when the finest and most inspiring birdsong was creating sounds of bewitching and intoxicating quality in the wild birch woodland of Blacka. Every section of the orchestra was represented, willow and garden warblers, blackbird, song and mistle thrush, cuckoo and pigeon, rooks and pheasants. Where was the conservation industry then? Well perhaps listening to the scoldings of red grouse or more understandably the call of the curlew. But atmospheric as that may be it is no match for the sheer creativity from the virtuosi of the new woodland. And of course the weight of paperwork and hours of form filling per square metre put against the respective outcomes would be instructive. Now don't start thinking like managers.