Past Their Best

It’s always a moot point with Sheffield Wildlife Trust whether what they do comes from being cynically devious or plain gormless. Someone experienced in dealings with them claims it’s usually the latter, sometimes the former and best to assume a weird mix of the two; then went on to say they think there is some advantage in being perceived as incompetent. (Think about it).

The latest evidence that this organisation still exists is to be seen this bank holiday weekend in a number of notices erected on the moor and detracting from the natural beauty that we all like to enjoy. But that is one of their trademarks:

A4 laminated notices scattered around natural sites which are never taken down but left to fall and be found in the vegetation months, or even years, later in a state of decay.

You feel glad they didn’t bring them on in a supermarket trolley.
It’s a sign of their love for the place – alongside the fact that nobody will see them patrolling and protecting the site they lease - to defend the wildlife at holiday times when the public may be expected to show up in numbers.

The notice does the job – it makes a show of informing people when something undesirable is about to happen, so they can say they’ve conformed with legal requirements. But in such a way that no concession is made to the public’s ability to read or understand what they say or are up to. You have to go down on hands and knees to read the map and it isn't user-friendly anyway.

It’s about bringing heavy vehicles on to Blacka and spraying and cutting bracken – a perfectly natural native plant. They’ve decided to do it because they get money from organisations to do it – organisations like Unnatural England which is in the pocket of the wealthy grouse shooting lobby – they hate bracken because it doesn't help them breed more ground nesting birds to shoot. The grouse moor owners have lobbied determinedly to have the ban on this chemical spray removed with some success; not surprising when some of them are actually in the government.  Now SWT and National Trust and others are shamelessly taking advantage of that and the sundry grants available to go in for more intrusion in what should be a natural publicly owned site.

Bilge about Bilberries:

Once they decided to do it they look around for reasons to justify it in the eyes of the more gullible sections of the public. So the notice reads:

Priceless is the sentence:

"This'll take place when the bilberries are past their best, as requested by bilberry-pickers"

Should we call this bilge or be kind and say mendacious nonsense?

'Past their best'? The bilberries are close to their very best now and will continue to get sweeter in September. SWT have always intended to spray in the last week of August and will not allow any considerations of  public or wildlife to change that.  But do they care that their ignorance is exposed? Or even know, as they do not value the site for itself but for what they can get out of it. And 'requested by bilberry pickers'? Who are they? It's as if there's a definable group of bilberry pickers set up to be stakeholders. But Friends of Blacka Moor members who've picked more bilberries on the moor than anyone else have not even been asked about it. It's tempting to say that it's not the bilberries that are past their best but SWT; except it's hard to think of a time when they were at their best. Best is what they can get away with.