Saturday 26 June 2010

Grassy


The pasture enclosure is grassland and has been grazed for many years with sheep owned by various graziers. Numbers of sheep have sometimes been large. Something's happened this year and there have been long periods with no sheep followed by a small number of sheep and now total absence once again. This has left the area with much long grass which I find a really welcome change. I've always enjoyed vegetation 'going wild'. I also welcome the scarcity of sheep excrement. Some places in these edge of Peak District grazing areas have for many years reeked of sheep droppings and for that reason of limited appeal for recreation. Why this should be so I don't know. Many grassy areas in other parts of the country have been far better. There's an attitude here that wants to force livestock grazing down people's throats. So there's almost never a time when you can get onto it to have a picnic or lie down without knowing you're sharing it with sheep or cattle or both along with their abundant waste produce. The usual defence of the grazing by the managers is a statement that it would all turn to woodland if the sheep were not there. My response to that is - well let it happen. If it's no good for recreation because of the livestock then why are you fighting nature?


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