Absenteeism

What most distinguishes management of the moors over centuries is the status of the absentee landowner. He has typically been a member of the aristocracy owning huge expanses of land and the moors were only useful to him as a shooting estate which he turned up to at most several times a year with plenty of ammunition and a few choice guests. There were occupying workers, gamekeepers and sheep farmers who helped keep the land in condition just right for grouse to thrive. But the landowner himself was rarely seen He preferred for his daily surroundings the pleasanter prospect of a landscaped parkland with a mix of woodland, lakes and open green spaces between.

The publicly owned moors around here today are not that far from that situation. There are no gamekeepers and we don't often see national park rangers. The sheep farming is done from a remote farmhouse some 20 miles away by road so understandably little is seen of the farmer except when he turns up to do the sheering and garish daubing of his flock. (Just as SWT have been using up stocks of banned herbicide, the farmer has been using up a job lot of make-up obviously obtained from studios of Disney, or maybe a horror film production unit)

The managers at SWT are also rarely in evidence unless there's some half hearted accountability exercise coming up soon: such as a visit from NE, an application for another grant regime or even a coming RAG meeting. They prefer the comfort zone of the office and the satisfying schedule of meetings and reports. At one of these meetings* an SWT manager told the Sheffield Moors Partners something interesting:
"when reviewed (the SMP Master Plan) the Blacka Moor Management Plan would dovetail into the SMP masterplan; this had been agreed at the Reserves Advisory Group."
(My italics).
But then they will probably alter the minutes to reflect that. As I've said before SWT's Blacka Moor Reserve Advisory Group meeting is where Sheffield Wildlife Trust advises the few members of the public who turn up about what it's going to do. They are also not beyond telling us what we think.

* SMP Steering Group 12th May 2012.