Already We Don't..........

I hope I've already made it clear that all the local conservation people are in bed together, sometimes literally. National Trust is complicit in what happens on Blacka and the various organisations have come to some kind of agreement via what they call the Sheffield Moors Partnership though how far this has got is not clear. If they all had anything like an inspiring vision for natural landscapes this would not cause concern but tragically their dull, unambitious plans seem only designed to secure dreary farmed landscapes generously littered with cow and sheep faeces. Natural beauty and natural wildlife comes a poor third to comfortable jobs and agri-environment grants. A minute or two up the road from Blacka is a Longshaw, the National Trust's Country Park, once a shooting lodge and estate and managed as farmland. Their trailer displays a message (above). Do the local conservationists listen to their own messages?

NOW YOU SEE IT (2010)

NOW YOU DON'T(2011) after conservation industry's sheep grazing

NOW YOU SEE IT (2010)

NOW - after conservation industry's cattle grazing

In relation to the example of Bog asphodel above, I've had my attention drawn to happenings at Silchester Common in Hampshire. A management review remarked that livestock were implicated in the loss of Bog asphodel ... " increasing the number of livestock alone is not a viable option as trampling is already affecting the Sphagnum in the mires and overgrazing is also a problem with some species. The most notable example of this is Bog asphodel ... which has had a marked decline".
The important point about this is that we have warned of this but the the conservation industry is peopled by those who do not listen.
See
http://www.silchester-pc.gov.uk/silchester_common_detail.asp?suppress_tools=yes&evps=14&evco=675