When I met the local Public Rights of Way officer on Blacka in April to talk about problems on paths we looked at this footpath which earlier in the year was much drier.
The Sheffield Wildlife Trust reserve officer came with us. I drew attention to the fact that, in 2007 before the first appearance of cattle, across its whole length it never got wider than eighteen inches (45cm). In that first year the cows walked over it constantly and this led to the grass fringes which had previously grown tall during summer, getting cropped to the ground, and the path becoming rapidly wider. There’s really no room for contradiction about this as I watched it happen day by day. And the Sheffield Wildlife Trust officer in April did not try to deny it. Now two months later a paper has arrived from Sheffield Wildlife Trust with notes written as minutes of that site meeting. This has some of Sheffield Wildlife Trust’s notorious hallmark ‘afterthoughts’ just one of the irritants that come from dealings with SWT: things that were not said are reported as if they were and others that were said get ‘interpreted’. One of these afterthoughts implies that deer might be just as responsible for the chronic widening of the path as Sheffield Wildlife Trust’s cows!!! This is such total nonsense that it stimulates numerous questions. Why would they say this when it’s demonstrably wrong? What game is being played? What kind of management does this lead to? Usually we would simply call this being in denial. But when you think about it, it tells you just how little Sheffield Wildlife Trust know about the wildlife on Blacka. And even about their own cattle. That is assuming they believe what they themselves say.
I’ve watched deer moving over Blacka Hill perhaps scores of times and can honestly say I’ve never once seen then walking along this path. Traversing it, yes a few times. Rather than walking along man made paths they much prefer to walk through tall vegetation like bilberry bracken or leggy heather. I’m not exactly sure why but they do. But this is only to say what most people know who have spent any time at all looking at deer.
The cattle particularly in that year but also to a lesser extent in other years mostly went along the path. Walking along man made paths is something which cows habitually do. That year they ate the grass at the sides and in doing so further trampled the heather at the edges. This broke up the tall leggy heather stalks encouraging more grass to come through and the path in consequence became more of a track than a path but also unacceptably soggy - even remaining damp during long dry spells. Even the apologists for heather could not be happy as the heath is receding as the sog advances.
This year the cows have been here again and the evidence is there including cropped grass stems and their generous deposits.
This is about afterthoughts, but it also gives a foretaste of what any evaluation of Sheffield Wildlife Trust’s 2007-2011 management plan will turn out like. If it’s done by SWT we know what to expect. But we can hardly trust anyone they contract the job to. They will produce what the paymaster wants. The reason why wild animals behave as they do and domestic animals also can be a conundrum. Not so with SWT. Their motivation in one respect is plain. If they tell us what we know to be wrong it means they have an agenda of sorts which they insist must be allowed to continue on its way. The truth is neither here nor there.
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