The Conservation Prison - Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life - page 215

What does this mean? I checked with the trust: invasive and undesira-
ble species are native trees, such as rowan, sallow, birch and hawthorn,
returning to their natural habitat. Even in the ravine, the plan insists, no
more trees than already exist should be allowed to grow.
Another document published by the wildlife trust stated that cattle
were to be kept on the grassy part of the reserve 'until there is an aver-
age sward height of 10cm'. 3 The trust revealed that 'to maximize the
impact of the cattle, the grassland was strip-grazed'. This apparently,
is how nature should best be protected in what this organization calls
its 'flagship' reserve. 4 It is by these means that, at great expense, it
sustains the ambience of a nuclear winter.
So why is this happening? The answer is like the Ouroboros, the
snake swallowing its own tail. When you have followed it all the way
round you find yourself back where you started.
The stated purpose of this brutal management regime is to main-
tain the heath and bare bog it contains 'in favourable conservation
status' (it is failing dismally, but let us put that to one side for now).
The plan points out that 'the site is artificial, having been created as
the result of human activity following the removal of trees during the
manufacture of lead'. It was kept treeless, before it became a nature
reserve, by the farmers who burnt and grazed it. It must, the manage-
ment plan insists, remain this way, fixed in time like the old sepia
photograph it resembles. But nowhere is the obvious question asked
or answered: why?
I had lunch in Welshpool with three people from the Montgomery-
shire Wildlife Trust. I found to my surprise that they were in sympathy
with much of what I said. So why were they managing the reserve like
this? It was simple, they told me: that was the law.*
'We are given these targets and sites are designated for them. We're
seriously in trouble if we don't abide by them. We wanted woodland
to succeed naturally up the gulley [the great ravine at Glaslyn]. We
want to fence it off and let it happen. But God have we had trouble.'
When I spoke to the chairman of the Countryside Council for
* 'If we don't abide by the criteria, we are breaking the law. We are told what the con-
dition of the site needs to be. We're delivering exactly what we're obliged to do. There's
no negotiation.'