Sh*gged…

Day 138 #365DaysWild

Derbyshire walking is always special. This time a walk from Crich to Whatstandwell and return taking in Bullbridge to walk beneath the bridge built for the 'gang road' at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Crich Lane to Whatstandwell, Derbyshire

Just like the bridge in Bullbridge, the British landscape is entirely man made. Ain’t nothing natural about it.

The agents of landscape change at the hand of man are frequently sheep. The total number of sheep and lambs in 2022 was 33 million. And rising.

Sheep are not native to these islands and their grazing habit prevents the natural succession of scrub to shrubs to trees.

The consequence of the bowling green grazing of sheep frequently leaves a landscape bereft of wildlife.

The writer George Montbiot describes the consequent barren and denuded landscape as being ‘shagged by sheep’.

Which shouldn’t be construed as anti-sheep or shepherd. But it is to ask whether the balance between sheep and nature has been appropriately struck…? And if not, why?

What is clear is that farmers’ representatives have powerful influence over decision-takers that other lobby groups can only dream of. So much so that environmentalists joke that the Dept for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is really an acronym for Doing Everything Farmers Representatives Ask.

Farmers and landowners have the ear of government and their lobbying must be the envy of the fossil fuels and betting industries.

So many examples of this…

The culling of badgers following bovine TB pressure from farmers and landowners without any scientific case to justify this killing.

The pollution of watercourses from effluents arising from intensive rearing of chickens, pigs and cattle.

The degradation of soils leading to deposition of silts and phosphates in rivers and eventually the sea.

The unregulated intensive monoculture of grouse moors, the illegal killing of birds of prey including hen harriers.

Since Brexit, the UK has failed to ban 36 harmful pesticides outlawed in the EU. We know in whose interest this is..

Currently in the news is gamebird licensing. The shooting lobby group cunningly named Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust was called on for information by ministers in preference to taking the advice of Natural England or DEFRA staff. 

But organisations like the National Farmers’ Union don’t speak for all farmers or landowners. It is possible to farm profitably and sustainably with nature - not against it. 

Herdwick sheep in the Lake District can be
reared profitably and sustainably

Here’s hill farmer James Rebanks

‘Being a farmer in Britain right now is like being trapped in the back of stolen car driven at high speed by a driver who’s high on drugs and oblivious to the obstacles ahead... and all the time shouting absolute gibberish at you from the front seats’ .

So, as I gaze across our nature-depleted ‘green and pleasant land’ I am left wondering how much better it could be for wildlife and people… If only the balance of influence was shifted from powerful vested interest that dominate our countryside towards nature..

Not all landscapes have to be ‘shagged by sheep’.