The information is out there its knowing where to look here are two good starting points http://www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/Special/sssi/search.cfm http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/
Decades of conservation destroyed in days. By...
- Thread starter JonathanD
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@Jonathan I don't agree that
"Wheels have already been set in motion to professionally embarrass whoever made this decision. That is as much as we can hope for realistically."
is the limit of what can be realistically hoped for. And the rest of my post (including the video) lays out something I think that can to a large extent be done and not just hoped for. Even if there was no push for legislation the makes the registering of such actions available as internet data there is still a hell of a lot that can be done with the type of information usage described in the video.
@nuggets
If you re-read a bit more carefully, if they have to log what they are doing before it is done, then that's how you alert before it is done. Just like you can book a taxi or pizza on the internet, that taxi or pizza is known as information before it actually happens.
None of us agree with it. But it is all that will happen. Most of the time, you don't even get that.
But it isn't. The same as stopping the new high speed railway cutting down ancient forests and SSSI's. It isn't changing. Not when ££ and human developement come before conservation. You can slow it, but you can't stop it.
I don't think you ever will but its making sure the mitigation work is done to try and lesson the damage done.
where the good old days, when you could just turn up with a torch bearing, pitchfork waving mob, and lynch those responsible, Oh well i surpose it became another victim of made H&S laws. 
On a serious note though, someone should have their
for this and some sort of public accountability. Does the National Trust receive any public funding, If so a FOI request on all future actions can be made. and hopefully this sort of thing can be at least monitored before it happens again.
On a serious note though, someone should have their
for this and some sort of public accountability. Does the National Trust receive any public funding, If so a FOI request on all future actions can be made. and hopefully this sort of thing can be at least monitored before it happens again.
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greensurfingbear
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I've certainly scrub bashed a few sites and cleared areas but nothing as large as that area in one go and certainly not with consulting surveys or asking people in the know! When I was assigned my reserves I didn't undertake any major work until I'd been there a year just so I had a rough idea of what I was dealing with. It gave me chance to read up on the management plans and meet the people who had visited the site for years undertaking one survey or another.
Seeing stuff like this occurring without proper consideration really boils my blood!
Orric
Seeing stuff like this occurring without proper consideration really boils my blood!
Orric
Agreed, but I've been told that mitigation work had allegedly been carried out. I've not seen the report on this area, or know by whom. The local ARG have been involved with this area in depth and the head bod is an old friend of mine. Mitigation work has also been carried out on several other sites were the same thing happened and with far worse devastation you see here. The current system has loopholes, and that ultimately needs to be addressed. Heathland management pits one species best interests against anothers. Do you chop down all the trees to make habitat for ground nesting birds, or do you protect the trees to protect the canopy nesters? The truth is, our countryside is so fragmented, we will lose species en masse as we try to preserve these little islands of green. The natural balance has been lost, and when we intervene, we have to discrimminate. Sadly, reptiles are not cuddly red squirrels, otters, nightjars or barn owls. And this particular reptile is venomous and mostly feared as it has the capability to kill dogs and even humans. It will always have that to comprehend wih before anything else, and even now, many dog walkers kill them on sight. A very vocal woman down south in Dorset has even got her own group together that condemn adder conservationists as a real and present danger to kids and walkers by protecting these pointless and dangerous creatures. I kid you not.
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The habitats are so finely balanced that when things are done with out any apparent thought that is when the problems occur. I can see the base thinking behind it but just not the right way of going about it. I was told right a the start of my Uni course you are about to be taught a subject that we do not know all the answers for. Habitat management appears to work better with the little and often approach.
It's true. You can see the utter disgust sometimes when I tell people what I do for a living. Some people have pity and ask in a sympathetic tone as to how on earth I ended up doing that. I have to jump on Emma and put her in a headlock before she verbally decks the person. Sometimes I don't, and bask in their resulting and ever diminishing stature
xylaria
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
you would think good practice would be standard practice. We have just got permission to use a woodland that is reclaimed forestry. Small sections of the planted spruce are felled , the wood processed and made best use of, and native trees planted in thier place. The project has run for 15 years and I must say the woodland is outstandingly diverse. The little and often approach works. I have seen gorse been managed in the same way, where you wouldn't know it was been managed. Small gaps were felled into the large stands, what needed to be burnt was burnt. The gaps let other species have a chance, and promoted new growth, the burnt areas sprung new growth and some brillant fungi.
I am really horrified at what they have done. They really need to be held to account.
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Looks like I was wrong. Serves me right for using second hand information.
Thanks for the correction
I jst saw this quotation in another thread. Somehow it seems to fit in here:
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
Even burning an mowing can have devastating effect on invertebrates even when done in a controlled way Grazing is a method that can be fine tuned and produces a sward mosaic which is ideal especially for things like butterflies which are as fussy about habitat and food source as a Pander.
I cain't speak for the UK environment but some plant species are fire dependent. Many of our pine species won't germinate unless activated by fire. But you're correct it can be devastating to invertabrates.
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