Fog, Clarity and Transparency

The winter threatened to just go on. By Christmas all expectations were for more of the same. As it's happened so far, the first weeks of 2011 have been not unusual: strong winds at times, plenty of mildness, some cold mornings with fine sunrises and now fog. Straining the eyes to see through the murk is what the early morning walker on Blacka is used to.

Not much clarity elsewhere either. I've asked the National Park and the Eastern Moors Partnership to comment on whether they are planning to cull deer (or indeed are already doing so). So far nothing has come back. Rumours are heard occasionally but this one had a bit more about it. The National Trust, the rumour said, had done a census of the deer around White Edge, Bigmoor and Longshaw and there are too many to sustain the landscape.

I agree totally with Mark's comment. These wild animals are on a huge area of publicly owned land which can easily sustain animals that many people see only rarely. Why should deer be killed while at the same time the managers are bringing in cattle?

Free From..

A beautiful morning but constant reminders that 5 years ago Icarus asked us what it was about Blacka that we most valued. When it came to my turn I replied that there were many things and it was hard to choose. But, anxious to steer towards the key things at issue, I said that my local supermarket had an aisle called Free From - usually gluten and other allergenics. Blacka itself had for many years been free from farm style management, farm animals, farm fences and farm clutter. Well in combining all the ideas into an overall consensual vision this one hit the buffers at the start. The conservation workers in another group got rid of that ruthlessly with no chance for me to rescue it. Now this morning, 5 years on, the freedom is different. We've had the freedom of the conservation people to erect fences and walls, and put plenty of sheep and a number of cattle in the pasture land through the winter as well as summer. They've had freedom to defecate where they can find a space and have made a bid for their freedom, escaping onto the moors, where a group of sheep have been for a week because the fences have not been properly maintained. Even one of the highland cows had broken out this morning.
And there's been the freedom to leave farm clutter and litter around - this morning's being a ruminant's food bag prettily displayed in a tree.

It's odd how touchy the conservation lot get when you point out that sheep have escaped. When I mentioned sheep getting over the fence more than a year ago I was told the ones I had seen were from another farmer. Oh no, said I, we saw them get out. No couldn't have been they said. And the warden at North Lees who's about as unreconstructed as they come was quite ill tempered about it. It's something to do with the conservation industry having a sketchy relation with the truth.

Who Goes There?

Deer move about a good deal. For this reason you can't really say how many there are. It's easy to double count. And many observers seem unable to avoid exaggeration. Even SWT ask me how many I think are on Blacka. I assume this is because they would like to be able to write a section in their next management plan which they can use to make some sort of calculation (in Livestock Units per Hectare or some such abomination) that then justified putting X numbers of cattle on the moor for X months in the year. I refuse to do this because I refuse to be involved in farm-style management to any degree. Anyway the evidence just doesn't begin to make sense. How will my recording of deer being in a certain place on a certain day just when I happen to be there be any guide to what they may be doing at 3 am or tomorrow evening?

Even if it was possible to be utterly certain of their every movement I would still not want to be party to any management of the deer or where they are. Blacka's best aspect is its unmanaged status - that is now increasingly threatened and there will soon be no part of Blacka that I can say has the quality I look for: freedom from intervention.

Public Register

When does consultation mean consultation? Mostly it's a matter of going through the motions. Organisations with no genuine commitment to transparency. openness or decision making through consensus try to put in place certain procedures and words or phrases they hope will cover their backs in the event that something will be challenged in the future.

The Sheffield Wildlife Trust application for funds from the Forestry Commission should be easy for people to read and comment on. A notice displayed on Blacka Moor indicated that those wishing to comment could do so via SWT's website through the Public Register. Leaving aside the fact that most people know nothing about the Public Register but might think in reading this that proper procedures were being followed even if they didn't follow this up themselves, in fact no link was available on SWT's site even for those who searched for half an hour. This was still the case this morning.

A persistent search through the FC's website at last revealed the documents. You need to go to the FC's Public Register here:

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-6DFKDW

and then to click on the words Register of Grant Schemes and Felling some three lines down, then click on East Midlands on the map that comes up. You should then see some half way down the words Blacka Moor. Next to that is the number 24690. On clicking on this the application should come up. You may read the case report and then make comments. Good luck.

Alternatively you might decide that nobody's going to take any notice and make a cup of tea instead. But in doing this you would be deciding that the Coalition Government's commitment to local people deciding what should happen in their area is worthless. Perish the thought.

Baronial Points

The top crown points on the antlers suggest to me that this is The Baron. He's the one who ruled over the herd of five to seven hinds during the autumn. Other stags have come and gone numerous times since then but none with quite so impressive a show of headgear.

What's in a Number?

Being naturally sceptical I become even more suspicious when people quote statistics. Everything depends on how data is collected and by whom; and on who is interpreting the data and what is being left out. But the blog mechanism here tells me that 'hits' on this blog now number over 20,000; they are apparently 'unique hits' meaning it can't be the same person again and again. Nor can it be me as there's some kind of 'cookie' or other that prevents visits on my computer being registered - and I know that's true: I've tested it by logging on a dozen times and the numbers stayed the same.

It all leaves me a bit puzzled as I've always used this blog as a way of talking to myself. Who can they be? My working assumption is that most are those who don't like what this blog says but feel they have to check regularly on whether a new post mentions them or is in some way threatening to their job or way of life.

Whoever you are you are welcome to comment.

Polluting

The domestic ruminants have presumably no more room on the pasture land to deposit their faeces. The sheep have broken out, looking for new places to pollute. Along with the highland cattle which contribute even more excrement to the grassland they have achieved saturation point, making everything there most appealing for the potential picnickers looking for a site in spring. A call should go out to all gardeners to bring along wheelbarrows. A small charge could be made going towards a fund to finance the removal of Blacka's barbed wire.

Is there a condition known as Oviphobia? Sheep are Ovis aries. Or is there a better word?