The Woods and 'The Open'

"Oh so you're the people who want it all to be woodland?" said some youngish people who had recently been talking with Annabelle the SWT manager, someone who  likes to put a partisan spin on things. My response was, as usual, to say that we simply want the site to be free from human control and to be allowed to express its own nature. If that means more trees, then so be it. I love trees and greatly dislike the dishonesty of managers who describe managed land as  'wild' or even 'wilderness'. When that land has begun a process of 'wilding' because of the absence of serious human intervention over many years bringing benefits not seen elsewhere it is the height of insensitivity and irresponsibility to go ahead with an anti-nature process of destroying native trees and then to institute a plan to make it more like farmland - when it has been farming practices over the last century that have caused the loss of so much valuable wildlife. When the organisation responsible is a charity dealing with wildlife and has the word wildlife in its name it is reprehensible.

Birch trees are native wildlife and those who destroy them have failed to appreciate what wildlife is and the value it has. If they can destroy natural growing trees they can easily destroy birds and mammals. I'm waiting apprehensively for news about their plans for the deer. The managers abhor the uncontrolled; they themselves are most likely the sons and daughters of farmers who have never thought it could be questioned that it is their birthright to control everything that grows and moves in the countryside.

The red deer came onto this land in response to the increased tree cover which had distinguished Blacka from nearby moors. Looking at the deer you cannot but notice that it is the unmanaged parts that appeal to them most. All that vegetation the conservation freaks seek to control and even destroy is their focus of attention. At this time of year deer are usually to be seen eating whatever greenery they can find - bramble and fern and others.

There is a lot of this  'impurity' in the heather much to the distaste of the conservation wallahs who should really be called gardeners; lots of stuff that the Heather Trust, Moorland Assocaion and other shooters hate to see because it compromises their weird idea that there is some kind of perfect pattern of heathland.

The deer come out of the woods to scoff this, often doing it at night to be discovered by the early morning dog walkers and others who stroll out to watch the sun rise. And it's fun to watch their elegant forms lit up by the early light of day.

But better still to find them in their secret parts of the woodland, to most people inaccessible but just needing a bit of persistence; and deer tracks are quite easy to follow, the animals having a natural instinct for finding the best gradients.