Fair-Weather Conservation

The Conservation Comedy is a subdivision of the Bureaucracy Farce that panders to those who control the land base of our countryside, holding it back from realising its potential for natural beauty. All is about jobs and money. the conservation economy is related to the farming economy and the interests of various entrenched rural groups. After a while each new employee at whatever level gets so they can't see beyond the office view. That's helped by spending most time inside the office grappling with budgets and grants and reports and going to meetings and conferences which get more remote and infested with self congratulation as the career progresses. Organisations like the National Trust, RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts are intriguing. The latter are supposed to be autonomous but I'm as sure as can be that all key policies are set centrally and support mechanisms are so constructed that responsibility is only partial for blunders and mistakes. That erodes local accountability. Nevertheless they have 47 Chief Executives!!! .. and goodness knows how many other senior postholders who contribute to this overweight phenomenon. One particular essential is a publicity and communications manager in each trust, whose duty it is to present each cock-up as a great achievement.

A long time ago I tried to resolve a dispute with SWT by making a plea that they should put aside top-downism and remote decision making by ensuring that at least one high ranking officer in the local organisations actually spent most of his/her time on the site. My argument was that only by actually getting to know a place really well  in all conditions and all seasons could you begin to understand what's special and valuable about it. Senior people were essential because the ignorance of even these post-holders was alarming. they should get to know the ground itself before relying on the judgement of others and policy documents.

I've noticed, as have others,over the years that the appearance of these senior people in the organisation on the site are few and far between and are almost invariably when conditions are absoultely spiffing - i.e.in the middle of a longish fine spell in summer or when the heather is just coming into flower. Their jobs are office jobs yet they claim expertise which is questionable and make key decisions -although that may be the privilege of those in London - though they've now relocated I believe. A few years ago Nigel Doar responded to one of my posts -it clearly exposed a sore spot - with a long rambling self justification and thinly disgiused resentment at my blogging. In reply I asked him a simple question - how often had he himself been on Blacka in the previous year? He didn't answer.  Although the question rankled with him: About a year later he volunteered in another context that he had been up to Blacka with his children - of course he had had time to by then.

Anyway senior SWT staff turned up on Blacka this week - a lovely day for it. And I believe I saw one of the trustees in passing too. My problem with this is that you get a completely distorted picture of the place by only coming when conditions are like they are. The things that look fine now don't look like this for 90 percent of the year; and the same could be said of the things that look less good now. For example paths that are quagmires for most of the year are no trouble at all now. On the other hand bracken has minimal influence for most of the year but is now in some places a barrier to walking.