The row about the National Trust and the Borrowdale farm will seem very odd to those of us who know what the NT is doing here. The arguments have been portrayed as being about the Trust wanting to rewild the landscape while sheep farmers (and the sainted Melvyn Bragg) want it to stay the same - i.e. sheep wrecked, because that kind of desolation is what they are familiar with - in other words 'heritage'.
The many comments that I've seen have been either from farmers and their supporters or from people who strongly support rewilding - seemingly a growing tendency. A fair sample of comments below the line can be viewed at this article.
Unfortunately rewilding is not what the NT wants to do. Their intentions may be to remove sheep from many hillsides but I very much doubt we'll be seeing lots more trees in the uplands of the lakes. Their work will be very interventionist and the stuff that makes conservationists secure in their jobs, not the wonderful self determination of nature that happened on Blacka before the wildlife trust got their hands on it. And will they be installing lots of fences, like they have on Houndkirk and Burbage and Wimble Holme Hill? If so maybe the Lakes lovers are less likely to be as supine as locals here.
No comments:
Post a Comment