Cup Fungi

Now's a good time to look out for odd kinds of fungi on old wood. these cup fungi are only one of the many that are around on Blacka.
There are even still some waxcaps in the pasture land.

SWT Plottings - An Update

In July SWT excluded a number of local residents who are regular walkers on Blacka Moor from attending their so-called public consultation meetings. I am one of those excluded. They knew this was anti-democratic and they expected to be criticised for it. So they invented a pretext for their action. They made up a story, one which was a total lie, that those people they did not want at their meetings had behaved impossibly badly to the extent of being aggressive to other people at the meeting they had held in June. There is not a shadow of truth in this. They compounded this disgraceful act by communicating the lie to local councillors and the local MP, apparently in order to warn these public figures to expect complaints. They have caused considerable offence in taking this action and few of the people involved ever want to go near any of SWT’s staff again.

Now it has become even clearer exactly why this unfortunate organisation decided to do what they did. They did not want to have an open and intelligent discussion about their plans for Blacka over the next 4 years. They knew that we have definite views and that these views are well founded and based on regular use of and observation of the site over many years; they also know that we have been able to challenge successfully some of their own ill thought out ideas in the past.

It is now abundantly obvious and should be brought to the attention of visitors to Blacka Moor and other local residents that SWT are not to be trusted.

Reference to the minutes of their last meeting – in September but the minutes only circulated in December illustrate this again. They are intending to increase the number of cattle on Blacka Moor next year and they will probably be older cattle. This exposes what Friends of Blacka Moor believed all along – i.e. that when they were claiming that the opponents of grazing were being unreasonable in objecting to cattle grazing because there were only 11 heifers, this was only the thin end of the wedge. They will increase the numbers, slowly at first but we fear a continuing year on year growth in livestock numbers. We have no doubt that when Sheffield councillors were asked to grant a lease on the land to SWT they would never have agreed to do so had they known about their plans. We believe that on an area as large as Blacka a required number of beasts to do what SWT say they want would be nearer 100 – a number of course which would be unacceptable to users and others and a number which would cause considerable damage to the character of the moor and the fabric of its paths, its bilberries and many other problems.

Being Kind

Ever a sentimentalist Blacka Blogger has strung up a small bird table for our seasonally hungry feathered friends. This is near an entrance to Strawberry Lee plantation.

So far the most persistent visitors are a robin and a great tit.

More Water

After another day of relentless downpours, the morning is as noisy as it gets on Blacka. Getting close to the torrents cuts out all sounds other than the roar of water. This feature below "electric terrace" I see as more of a cascade than the falls in the previous post. As Blacka is a designated public pleasure ground I feel there is an excuse for a little sensitively done landscape engineering here - not much, certainly not enough to compromise the wildness of the atmosphere here. Just the clearing of two or three trees which impede the view of the water from above and perhaps a little levelling below the edge to make a good site for picnics.

As for the power line nearby which gives us the name "electric terrace" that should also go but that may take some time. The campaign should start now.

Watery Walk

Those who rarely venture in the area to either side of the Lea Stream may not have yet discovered that this is where SWT's pet cattle spent a lot of their time during the summer. The evidence is clear to see. A once charming path formed by only human feet and the occasional imprint of a wild animal is now unpleasant to walk over, testing the wax on your boots when wet and threatening ankle damage when frosty.

The falls are in pretty good form at the moment although not up to the drama of certain days in July.

The rain over the last days has left many paths like streams and the streams like torrents.

The Lea Stream can be a mere trickle during a dry or even a normal summer but this year has more than once enjoyed itself with lots of showing off.

A number of paths appear and then disappear in this secluded part of Blacka.

More Likely Lichens

Lichens come into their own when other organisms become seasonally dormant.

The show of lichens is likely to be greater than in the years when J.G. Graves first gave Blacka to the people of Sheffield which was before the smoke control legislation came into force from the 1940s on. Certain species survived better under the conditions than others which had a very low tolerance of sulphur dioxide.
This powdery grey covering (below) is on the lone beech just to the east of Cowsick.

The hopes that a few of us have to see more of the beech seedlings develop into trees here are likely to be dashed by the intrusive management of SWT who will continue with their "we know better than nature" policy of bringing in more and more livestock to eat up all unwanted growth.

Managing the Vegetation

It is a commonplace on this blog that I think the local conservationists are utterly misguided and that they have not been honest with the public about their intentions. The recent 'minutes' of an on site meeting reveal this in a number of ways. This kind of mix of vegetation is what they would like to return the site to. It's quite nice but totally artificial, no less so than the garden in a public park. This is actually part of the fire break from where they cut the long leggy heather mechanically a few years ago. There is now a pleasant collection of cowberry with some younger heather and bilberry. But the work that was necessary to develop this has been a complete negation of the sense of wildness which some of them claim to value here. After it was cut hundreds of small trees, mostly birch, started to appear and were quite tall until only weeks ago. An army of helpers had to be recruited to cut them down..........

..............and later to burn them...............

Meanwhile there is a profusion of the leggy heather all over the moor, all 'out of condition'. It is slowly being colonised by trees a mix of birch, rowan pine and oak. The conservation people think that this is bad and needs managing. Can one trust people who first of all cut the fire breaks, then had to cut back what grew afterwards, then say they will have to have cows grazing in perpetuity to stop the regrowth of birch? (..........exit sadly shaking head)