Fire-Work

This and similar patches, all more or less rectangular, are positioned  irregularly across the open section of Blacka. They are the conservation industry's equivalent of one of the uglier features of a grouse moor. Heather is managed on grouse moors by fire; i.e. burning patches of the older growth  to stimulate the production of young shoots which are part of the diet of the game birds. In winter plumes of smoke arise  from these hills. As far as landscape goes that always looks unnatural and sometimes grotesque. We might hope for something better from conservation organisations but never underestimate their capacity to justify the unattractiveness of over-management, even trying to persuade us how nice it looks. With them fire is not the means but the excuse: the actual work is done using tractor and cutting machinery. Hence the way the heather suddenly stops and is replaced with grass etc. They keep the senescent leggy heather but say they need the cut rectangles as firebreaks - just as unnatural and almost as ugly as what happens where grouse get shot.

The area in the picture stands out from the rest of the hill and can be seen as far off as Ringinglow and places beyond where a viewpoint can be reached.

But they still justify with claims that young heather returns to the cut places. In one or two spots within the grassy area there is heather - and it's infested with the heather beetle.

I wonder how they persuade themselves this is sustainable.

Gathering

Later August is when to see the small birds gathering, job completed. Likely members of the busy groups are warblers, whitethroats, pipits and stonechats. 

A leafless dead tree may get them thinking of  bleak days to come, and time to be preparing for somewhere else.

Too Dear

Well, actually four altogether this morning and who gives a damn for speling these days? Two here anyway.  But why so few? There should be more.

After their welcome return in the last 12 years the notion of a Blacka Moor without deer or the prospect of seeing them doesn't bear thinking about. My observation has always been that it doesn't bother many conservation people and farmers much at all. Fortunately some do care but how much influence do they have? The overwhelming majority of the public want to see deer and many of those would also extend that to other genuine wildlife while having no interest in seeing cows and sheep except on proper farmland and in dedicated fields.

But numbers is an issue. While seeing sheep and cattle regularly where I don't think they should be - on a nature site - I have seen very few deer. And when I have it's always been the same small group. The decline in sightings started in 2014 - before the RSPB set about their cull of 60-70 deer a few months ago. So what's going on?

Visiting Blacka ten days consecutively I estimate you might see deer once. That compares with regular daily sightings at many times in the previous ten years. There is some hearsay evidence that farmers and people employed by them have been active in shooting them. Not all farmers would approve but it doesn't need the agreement of all. And many people like using their weapons of destruction egged on by campaigns waged by the Countryside Alliance and associates.

That is one reason I opposed the RSPB's cull. It created a climate of opinion in which deer were seen as undesirable and fair targets; many gun owners don't need that but some would be encouraged.

We await the comprehensive report which must surely be forthcoming from the Sheffield Moors Partnership on the recent cull and its impact on deer numbers and distribution.

To think that all we might have to look forward to in coming here is a view of what we might see on  farmland anywhere:

...... enough to bring on clinical depression.

The Frack Belt?

Whither the Green Belt now?

It looks as if we could see some battles over the possible end of Sheffield's Green Belt now the government has published plans to open up all of Sheffield and Chesterfield for companies to explore for shale gas.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/18/1000-sq-miles-england-opened-up-fracking-new-round-licences

Much of the land we look out on from this viewpoint is in the licence area.

Sheffield seems to have been 'favoured' compared to many other areas as can be seen in the map at this link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/454338/Onshore14thHRAv5.pdf

So far, it looks as if the Peak Park has been spared. But for how long?

I've always thought that the National Park could have put itself in a much stronger position  to argue against further industrialisation. But instead it has soft pedalled and compromised. Now the philistines will be at the door.

Art and the Bilberry Pie

It is a truism that great art demands not only great imagination but also preparation and attention to detail.

Michaelangelo, so it is said, devoted much time to appraising the blocks of marble in the quarries of Carrara in Tuscany before his masterpieces took shape in his imagination.

So it’s appropriate that those who contemplate baking a pie in August should first stake out the moors in April. The hours spent observing and simultaneously nourishing the imagination are vital for the creative process to flourish. An experienced piesmith will already have some idea where to find the myriads of small red flowers typical of early spring on Blacka.

Even so, this is no guarantee of a crop in the exact location after midsummer. The flowers are essential but just as important are the bees, hoverflies and other small winged pollinators. And they only work at their best in ideal conditions, which are an absence of wind, rain and cold. If any of these prevail for a length of time they will do what we all do, stick to sheltered parts. The result may be that all the more exposed flowers go for naught. This year that did not happen and a good harvest materialised.

The conscientious practitioner of the pie-making art will make regular inspections during the growing and maturing season noting the appearance of good numbers of near-hidden green berries. These berries should be clearly visible come late June when closer to final colour. A taster will tell you that they are not yet at their best and sweetest. That will come in most years at the end of July.

Should there be any difficulty finding berries in an indifferent year, look down near the ground and try taking some of the bracken out; bracken only comes through after the bilberries have flowered and the fruit has set so it might be covering the best fruit.

Picking bilberries was always a labour of love. The smallness of the berries and the nuisance of the midges and flies if you stayed in one place for more than a couple of minutes meant that only the most determined bilberry lovers ever managed to gather enough for a medium sized pie even in a good year. But that was before this device became generally available.

It’s simplicity itself but worth more to some of us than many an item of fashionable technology. The berries are scooped up and remain in the well prevented from spilling out by a ridge which means you can go on collecting. Once the trick is mastered you can gather a good supply and be off the moor before the local midges have sent for reinforcements.

While this accelerates the harvesting quite a bit of work needs to be done in the kitchen. Amongst the berries there will be various dead leaves, bits of fern, a sample or two of the flies and other biodiversity and some unripe fruit. The fruit may also be wet if you’ve harvested early. Some find this stage rather boring and onerous. All I can do is describe my own procedure: I tip the fruit etc onto a tray covered with kitchen towels and allow to dry out.

After an hour or so separate the berries from the unwanted matter.

The sorting takes a while but is better sitting comfortably at the kitchen table than bending over in wet vegetation on the moor being attacked by midges. And it can be a pleasantly satisfying activity, if you remember to put on a CD: experience suggests it takes just 13 minutes 42 seconds which is exactly the time taken on a recording of Bach’s Chaconne for solo violin. Art comes into every stage of the process. Alternatively try Burl Ives singing “I don’t know why she swallowed a fly …” which will have to be played through two and a half times – not quite so appropriate unless you've, well … 

If freezing the fruit don’t wash it first.
 
As for the recipe, most people use a mix of apple and fruit and most also have their own way with a fruit pie, though, like all artists it pays to experiment before settling on what works.

Pastry making is for those who take the art very seriously. It’s worth it but it’s extra work. Some will remind us that Michaelangelo didn’t make his own marble and many of us today use pastry from the chilled cabinet in the supermarket.

That leaves more time for  pastry decoration, and that's where we move back from the Renaissance to the Gothic. There are tremendous artistic opportunities here, from bosses and corbels, even fan vaulting and grimacing gargoyles.

It's disappointing I can't illustrate with an example of the Decorated style of the Gothic. That shown here here lacks the necessary flare to make an impact on posterity.

But I swear it tasted good. Which is more than can be said for David from Florence.

Returned

At one time there were no trees here. That was when Blacka was part of a shooting estate. But once grouse moor management ceased that was the opportunity for natural vegetation to return. By the beginning of this century a thriving copse was here. Then the wildlife trust came along and cut down the trees.

Now they have begun to return. For how long?

Spraying and Shooting

It's not just the shooters who arrive by helicopter on the moors, a pity they have to tread on the ground at all really, their shoes might get dirty. The local conservation managers also use them to spray those growing things they don't like. The last time I saw this was on Houndkirk Moor over the road from Blacka.

SRWT are not taking the aerial route. Instead they have chosen to get contractors to use tractors (must be a ditty in there) with the usual Asulox. Notices have been posted to this effect. This is as predicted, a habit they've formed in August over the years. They usually leave a mess. What else when heavy tractor wheels make their way across the ground covered by bilberry, heather and bracken itself.

No opportunity to scrutinize this procedure in advance at any user-group meeting, so some questions will need to be emailed to the managers.

1 How much will this cost?
2 Where will the money come from?
3 What is the name of the contractor?
4 What is being done to ensure that there is no compaction of the ground and unsightly collateral damage?
5 Will the contractor return later to remove the dead bracken or will this be removed by SRWT?
6 Who will be supervising the contactor on site?
7 What measures are being taken to prevent damage to other species in the area, e.g. other ferns, and ..
8 Has a survey of plant species in these parts been undertaken and if so may we see the resulting list?
9 What is being done to remove logs and remains of trees felled in a previous operation here?

Some other questions will not go away.

For example: how come resources can be found for doing this to bracken on a part of the site where people generally do not walk - indeed it's made difficult by being behind barbed wire! yet at the same time resources cannot be found for the much less resource intensive task of keeping bracken from encroaching on public rights of way - and this on a site designated as a public pleasure ground??

There is indeed a legal obligation for the landowner/ land manager to keep paths clear.

Another question that must challenge the conservation management:

Is it not very odd that bracken, a wholly natural and native plant, is receiving this treatment while at the same time Himalayan Balsam, an acknowledged invasive and alien species is flowering nearby unhindered? The government itself says landowners have a responsibility to "prevent invasive, non-native plants on your land spreading into the wild"

Picture taken yesterday.

Non native invasive plants are still here despite the claims made in SRWT's Blacka Moor Management Plan and my repeatedly drawing attention to them. But these never-explained anomalies are what we have come to expect. Soon the balsam will be shooting and spraying small seeds in all directions to continue its spread. More jobs for the industry I suppose.