Thursday 11 March 2010

Criminal Vandalism ?


Sheffield Wildlife Trust have been gradually cutting down more and more mature trees. The situation now is that the place will soon be unrecognisable from what it was several years ago. I try to be moderate in expressing my views but I have to say that this is a total disaster for a place I care for deeply . The character of Blacka is intrinsically related to the way that nature has gone its own way. What SWT are doing is imposing their will on the place. It's actually much worse than that because much of the destruction of natural growth appears to be utterly random, as if the office bound managers are stuck for something to occupy their central sites staff so they send them off to cut down a few more trees on Blacka.
I find this all acutely depressing. God knows there's precious little in our landscape that's free from the interference of vandals and philistines and those who are just empty headedly following their own inclinations. Here we had something special, very special. Not much of it is left. Walking in the fringe woodland recently after heavy snowfalls was a wonderful experience with very little influence from man. Everything around one was the result of natural forces. A few minutes with a chain saw means that will not be there to be experienced next winter. What goes through the minds of those wielding a chain saw? One of the worst aspects of the machine age is that it can destroy in minutes what nature has taken scores of years to create.



1 comment:

Mark Fisher said...

This is sickening and perverse in the extreme. Publicly owned land turned into the plaything of the conservation industry. Gutless Sheffield City Council for negligently allowing this to happen. It seems we are all powerless in the face of this corrupt dogma - and it is corrupt because it has no public mandate.