Unfavourable

To understand just how we get to the situation where totally unnatural landscapes are deemed to be superior to natural landscapes you need to learn about the vested interests involved. The Moorland Association gives a fair guide to this. When we first gasped with disbelief all those years ago that conservation industry people could describe a naturalising landscape as in unfavourable condition we didn't know who sets tha criteria. Well this may be 'public land' but it's the private vested interests who drive the agenda in policy making. You have to ask how many of the senior employees of Natural England and the conservation organisations have links with farming and the shooting industry.

The picture on the Moorland Association's website is interesting. That's unfavourable condition. That means it's not boring wall to wall burned heather fit to provide young shoots for grouse chicks. The glories of a landscape where nature recovers beauty and some dignity are just what they don't want - because they only have eyes for what they can shoot. And it's those natural beauties we are more likely to find here. But only if we defend them from the philistine tendency.