New Housing Development for Burbage and Eastern Moors?

Will Barratt, Bellway, Bovis, Redrow and Persimmon be planning to put housing on the moors?

Not as fanciful as might be thought. According to a government minister they may shortly be targeting boring countryside:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/greenpolitics/planning/10135739/Build-on-boring-fields-says-minister.html

Well the empire builders are already there so a precedent's been set. Maybe they will put a fun fair on it to keep the developers at bay. Or there's scope for a muddy pop festival surely?
Wind turbines painted in psychedelic colours as a project for disaffected youth?
Nothing would surprise me.  Leave it to the managers.

Now see this.

Family Resemblances

Walking along reflecting that it's the surprise encounters that are the joys of wilder land as opposed to rigidly controlled expanses of heather. Bracken provides opportunities for many surprises.

Up pops a head. This looks like our handsome young stag now approaching his first birthday. A confident chap who knows his rights.

But as other heads appear the question arises which is his mother - the one that has been so devoted over the last months?

Well not this hind; she has her youngster alongside. Such a mild maternal face.

In fact the one we're looking for is still in supervising mode. The expression on the face gives it  away. That sense of indignation. This is our home. Mind your manners.

Making Nature Do As It Is Told.

From the new book by George Monbiot.

Conservationists sometimes resemble gamekeepers. They regard some of our native species as good and worthy of preservation, others as bad and in need of control. Unlike gamekeepers, they don't use the word 'vermin' to describe our native wildlife. Instead they say 'unwanted , invasive species'. They seek to suppress nature, to prevent successional processes from occurring, to keep ecosystems in a state of arrested development. Nothing is allowed to change: nature must do as it is told to the nearest percentage point. They have retained an old testament view of the world: it must be disciplined and trained, for fear its wild instincts might otherwise surface.The result is back-to-front conservation.

I actually believe the links between conservationists and gamekeepers are very strong. All starts from the top in this industry and who do you find when you look for the person in government responsible for what they call 'wildlife conservation'?  A grouse moor owner and employer of gamekeepers!

A Management Industry

There has been no Blacka Moor Advisory Group meeting since October and no message to those on their advisory group mailing list. There has been no word about their new management plan nor their Higher Level Stewardship. Cattle grazing, their daft fixation was expected to continue from Spring but so far no cows – and how thankful we are for that! Where are the managers? What are they scheming? Important consultations were supposed to happen last year and half way through this year have still not been mentioned. Flags should not be waved yet nor street parties planned. Any idea that they may have decamped like an itinerant community are sure to be just wishful thinking.

Management relies on keeping key information close to its chest. So the rule is: don’t tell the public until  ready. Speculation is pretty pointless but happens anyway. Are there serious staffing problems? Has the funding dried up? Has word gone out from those higher up that the whole strategy must be revised? Are they scared that they have been rumbled? Has the rising tide of national questioning led to a secret defensive manoeuvre being hatched. Would any of these surprise us?

We’ve mentioned here - many times - the activities of the wildlife conservation industry with varying levels of bewilderment, annoyance and even amusement. But maybe we should see it less as a 'Conservation Industry' than as a Management Industry much as it is across the rest of national life and the economy. It’s hardly at all about conservation less still about wildlife but a hell of a lot about management. That is the only way to understand what we’re up against. 

Management is their job, managing is their business: managing public perception, damage limitation, financial matters and all that goes with it. They are a group apart from the particular niche they are working in separable from what we might think as the ‘core business’. It’s a desk job with a primary focus on public relations run by people whose mission is to control everything but most of all to control what the public thinks of them, hence the need to control the flow of information.

Morning Entertainment

Flight Times

Walking in the woods can be noisy. Though it's at its best when no aircraft are overhead. Sod's Law makes that the best singing is at the same time each morning just when the planes are going over.




These woods can be dark in places but are always interesting.

Young oaks are growing under the pines and there is also holly and occasionally yew or smaller rowan with some rhododendron. Fallen branches need to be negotiated and the floor is occupied with abundant bilberry and ferns.

Bilberry here is a resilient shrub hitching a lift sometimes high up on alders in epiphyte behaviour. Other wood floor plants can be seen copying this.

Herd and Solitary

Red Deer are sometimes referred to as herd deer as compared with Roe Deer which are territorial. Both are genuine native animals. It's true that the red are often found in larger groups but experience on Blacka has demonstrated that they are quite as likely to wander round in small groups of two or three and even completely solitary.

This time of year hinds may be heavy with young and often you may see just one solitary animal. Three times this morning a single hind was seen. As to whether this was three different deer or one or two seen in different places, I pass.

Even now there are still a few signs of the winter coat clinging on as the seasonal red colouring takes over.