Fences and Fence Sitting

The lack of guts and ambition on the part of the conservation industry has now been criticised by TV presenter Chris Packham. Those of us who've criticised organisations like Wildlife Trusts, RSPB and National Trust for failing to stray outside a cosy comfort zone  may be getting a high profile ally. It's the concentration on empire building and consequent attempts to be all things to all people that is beginning to be exposed as shallow and even cynical. Who needs friends like the Countryside Alliance, the Game and Conservation Trust, the BASC, and their supporters?

According to Packham

We want more action from Britain’s conservation leaders, not the fence-sitting and ineffectual risk-avoidance that have contributed to the mess we’re in now.

Amen

Quoted from this article in The Guardian referring to Chris Packham's column in BBC Wildlife Magazine:

He accused the charities of selectivity over which species they chose to protect and said they were “hamstrung by outdated liaisons with the ‘nasty brigade’ and can’t risk upsetting old friends” in the rural and shooting communities.

One now wonders how long he will continue as a vice -president of the RSPB. Their once head of conservation Mark Avery resigned some time ago and now comments independently.
It is the ambivalence of our local branches of RSPB and Wildlife Trusts that has constantly surprised me.
They seem intent on fence sitting on the key issues and don't know whether real wildness with the inconvenience that goes alongside its potential for  magnificent and inspiring wildlife experience will be quite 'nice' enough for their more docile supporters.

Does Packham I wonder support the RSPB's plans to shoot foxes on the Eastern Moors and their caving in to a very small group of locals who want more deer shot? It's time the public were made aware. Much of this comes from the compulsion to manage the landscape. An example is close at hand: You decide to impose a hay meadow in a field, not a decision from the ground up. It means treating the ground harrowing etc, then sowing wild flowers. You then just go away and leave it. Astonishingly a group of stags come along and enjoy themselves. Solution: shoot them.

Now SRWT plans to fence in* certain parts of Blacka's woods to keep deer out, despite numbers being small. No plans however to put deer fences around the border with farmland where these beautiful wild animals sometimes stray only to get shot by trigger happy neighbours.

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 * It seems these are to be 4m by 4m control areas. This, they say, aims to identify whether, and to what extent, deer browsing affects regeneration in the woods. I can't but think this is another project that could equally be done by careful observation. There must be money in it somewhere. Nothing however must be allowed to proceed at its own natural pace. People might get the idea that these office workers are unnecessary.