Wilder By Design (1): a kind of field trip.

A two day conference organised by Ian Rotherham of Sheffield Hallam University was held last week. I could only attend on the first day. Still there's quite a lot to say and might have been more if I'd been able to go on the second day. I believe this conference was an attempt to wrest control of the debate about managing upland landscapes in Britain, a debate that has taken off after the publication of Monbiot's book** although other strong voices had kept it going for many years before that. At its most simplified the debate is between those who want more land free from human intervention and those for whom human intervention and management is essential everywhere. For some that's the 're-wilders v the 'cultural landscapers' though it's been defined many ways.

These are a few observations. As this is a blog and not an essay or an article they may come across as random. But then there was quite a bit of randomness about the day at Sheffield Hallam (SHU). By the way SHU is a big modern campus with lots of expensive equipment and facilities.There's clearly been a lot of money sloshing about and it must be run as a major business. That's worth remembering; apart from anything else because money is a big influence on what goes on there; that's not a radical statement, just the way things are in 2014.  You can't assume that there's anything less of a money making concern about Ian Rotherham's department than there is about farming, grouse shooting  and various tourism ventures and that influences at least some of what he says about conservation issues; how much I'm not qualified to judge. But Rotherham is a local man and he makes much of  local perspective so that should chime to an extent at least with what this blog tries to do. There should be some common ground when it comes to the blight of top-downing and remotely based decision making. Still, the proof of the pudding ........

There were other presentations that had interesting aspects to them in the day's programme but it was Rotherham who was taking the lead and he was on his home turf.

There were several things said by Ian Rotherham that caused me to reflect but I'll return to those later. For this post I'll keep to the field trip.

Much of the latter part of the day consisted of a field trip to Blacka. At least that was what I had been led to expect. When is a field trip not a field trip? Perhaps when you only step onto the site itself as a kind of afterthought. Because we stood on the track listening to one man's interpretation. Ian R comes across as a pleasant even affable man and he's a mine of information and anecdote, strong on local history and past land use. His papers, books etc mark him out as just the fellow to front the cultural landscapes wing of the debate on what the future of our big public spaces might be. That though is only one side of the question so I would have thought that we might have been given the chance to get out onto the various parts of Blacka and draw our own conclusions; not that I've failed to do that myself over the years. Eventually we managed to get 50 yards down the slope to stand near the bog and listen to a lot more from the same source. Then we were off to two nearby roadside vantages and again it was a question of standing still listening to the same voice giving his perspective. I felt a bit cheated. Here am I looking for more bottom up landscapes and I'm being subjected to a top-down interpretation. I think by now I know where he's coming from and which side he's on. The presentation was top-down and the message was too. Were we meant to think that the problem is that the wrong people are at the top?

More to come .......

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** Paperback version coming out next month.