I live within a walking distance from Snowdonia NP boundary. There are really only several places that get crowds of visitors, most of the park is deserted. But obviously, it is not wild, it is land used for sheep grazing and it has been like that for hundreds of years. Recently on a hike, I saw a project where they isolated some land for research on biodiversity when the sheep don't have access to it. It's high enough, too high for bracken or the ponticum rhodos. So some activities for greater diversity are happening.
It would help if we looked after the wildlife we already have. The Environment Bill 2021 was finally passed after a 2 year delay due to Covid. Hidden in it is a statement that all major building developments have to have plans to uplift the biodiversity by 10%. I have had to point this out to the local planning department. Its OK to stick a bit of hedging and a couple of trees on what was previously a derelict factory site, now being used as a brownfield site for flats. However a species rich site with 15 Biodiversity Action Plan species including 5 types of bat next to me is about to be further damaged. They have already taken out 300 tonnes of mature trees. They want to take even more out, some TPO'd and they think that putting a bit of hedging in will suffice. Not on my watch it won't.
Everyone wants to save the Pandas and Rhinos in other countries, what about our native species on our doorstep?
It's true that many of the wider public don't understand that what they think of as natural landscapes are in fact heavily managed. In many cases, just leaving it to go wild would be equally problematic, we would end up with scrub, gorse, & bracken taking over. As always there's no, one easy answer.
Diversity is always the answer - i.e. not one answer but many. Not 'or' but 'and'.
We need good quality agricultural land to produce home grown food and we need wild spaces that are not actively grazed or ever ploughed. We need forests and scrub woodland and managed plantations to produce timber and coppiced woods and hedgerows. We need chalk downs and peat bogs and scrub cover on our hills. We need natural ponds and meadows and salt marshes and reservoirs in our valleys. We need natural streams and rivers and flood plains and we need flood management structures. We need trees in our towns and cities and we need people living and working in our countryside.
National Parks and living landscapes, farms and nature sanctuaries
and and and
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
The Environment Bill. There's about to be a new housing estate near us. The developers have done their environmental surveys, and concluded they can't get to the original number of biodiversity units +10%. So they are going to pay into a fund, with the intent being to pay for extra biodiversity somewhere else. Except the County Council has already allocated those potential funds to build a bypass road, and since there is no legal restriction on that money, they are allowed to do so.
Posts
But obviously, it is not wild, it is land used for sheep grazing and it has been like that for hundreds of years.
Recently on a hike, I saw a project where they isolated some land for research on biodiversity when the sheep don't have access to it. It's high enough, too high for bracken or the ponticum rhodos. So some activities for greater diversity are happening.
We need good quality agricultural land to produce home grown food and we need wild spaces that are not actively grazed or ever ploughed. We need forests and scrub woodland and managed plantations to produce timber and coppiced woods and hedgerows. We need chalk downs and peat bogs and scrub cover on our hills. We need natural ponds and meadows and salt marshes and reservoirs in our valleys. We need natural streams and rivers and flood plains and we need flood management structures. We need trees in our towns and cities and we need people living and working in our countryside.
National Parks and living landscapes, farms and nature sanctuaries
and and and
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Can't they just harvest the bracken for making good peat-free compost?
Or am I missing something?
Bee x
A single bee creates just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime