Lads sorry slow to follow up cheers for the words directed towards me tis all very very complex. We loose skills, an expertise, very relative to the land when rural communities feel the bite of what some call progress. There is only one really important word in all this and that is sustainable. I don't personally feel sheep are the best use of uplands, not terribly enamoured with how they affect the hills. that said............ I'd find it much harder stopping the subsidy to a hill farmer scraping out a living than the fella with well ya know hundreds/thousands of acres.
An ecosystem isn't a fixed entity even without our our intervention there is always an ebb and flow of species within it. yeah I guess without man we should be largely covered by woodland bar altitudes above tree line. Maybe the species count would be more diverse Just the sheer numbers we have an adverse effect on might well nullify diversity of habitat! . We have created many wonderful habitats heath moor water ....... our farmland can be one. The problems is our somewhat dare I say lazy attitude to food production monoculture is always going to be a fight against nature.But we are clever and make DTT and on and.......
Technology, civilization is moving so fast We need folks living on the land ,but there is one key word for me in all this,their actions must be sustainable. I think we need to think bigger than eccomonics, ie money. We need to muse what we can sustain.
Close to me a lovely man had a dream of a legacy he could leave to us........................... So far they have knocked in a couple of million trees their little infant wood is three and a half thousand acres or so. I'm blessed to be watching some mad form or rewilding myself.
I can't say I can get the hours in the field I want............... but what I can see is jaw dropping . It's utterly stunning the sheer volume of life,when all the sprays stop It's amazing how fast nature is coming back. Fills a country boy with hope!!
Be cheers for the squiggle pics
Maybe it's something in having a species at home that makes it more ordinary but you need to put a serious head on those guys and have some fun.......................... so jealous
Jerry, we are too many, we have to manage what we have left, habitat wise. .................we need people whom have their environment in their soul. Sadly my words to express that are lacking. They have skills relevent to where they live,an'some
I don't have an answer for your sheep farmers me I'd be searching for an alternate revenue stream to sheep if I was blessed to have a hill farm .
My first job out of school was in forestry, I got to work with two guys that retired that year two 65 year olds.I was 19. Not only could those old sods do 3X more than 3 kids who were not going to be out done by an old codger(humbling) their knoweldge of woodland management was astounding. As we dig ourselves ever deeper into the mire we are loosing skill sets. The very ones that have potential to help us . That's how I see those sheep farmers relative to the uplands.
Oh and god forbid I'd come between a Welsh guy and his sheep
it's just not cricket