Farming a vital part of moor’s landscape

ONE of the great pleasures of exploring moorland Dartmoor over many decades has been the sight of flocks of sheep, and herds of cattle and ponies.

Occasionally you might see a farmer on a quad bike with his dogs, checking on the beasts. This experience connects you immediately to hundreds of years of human interaction with livestock and vegetation in a wondrously deep sense of continuity stretching back to prehistoric times.

Anton Coaker has at last joined other voices in challenging the policies of Natural England (We must stop Natural England ‘insanity’, March 9) which threaten this way of life. His advice to write to your MP in protest is sound but, as a longstanding member of the Dartmoor Commoners’ Council, he must know that he and his fellow graziers have the authority to halt this process.

The Dartmoor Commoners’ Council was established by Act of Parliament in 1985 with the specific duty ‘to take such steps as appear to them to be necessary and reasonably practicable for the maintenance of the commons and the promotion of proper standards of livestock husbandry thereon (including the assessment of the number of animals which can properly be depastured on the commons from time to time)’.

This statutory remit gives the Council every right to challenge Natural England, in the courts if necessary. So far as I know, members of the Council have never been asked how many animals they think should be grazing the moor and yet, collectively, members of the Commoners’ Council represent the greatest body of experience and knowledge about hill farming, far exceeding anything Natural England could claim. They know, for example, where the best grazing grounds are, when it is best to put animals out on the moor, and where swaling to control vegetation is needed.

Natural England suffers from a myopia that blinds them to the foolishness of their decisions. The core problem lies with the out-ofdate criteria used in the designation of SSSIs, which are concerned only with the natural environment and which take no heed of cultural elements in the landscape, or hillfarming practice and society as a whole.

Fashionable mantras of rewilding and rewetting must be rejected, despite easy seduction when money is offered. Natural England is a misnomer – it encourages a belief that management of the countryside depends on curating nature, when in fact culture and nature have for 10,000 years gone hand in hand on Dartmoor and elsewhere. Let us hope the Dartmoor Commoners’ Council will grasp the nettle and defy Natural England’s arrogance.

Tom Greeves Penzance, Cornwall