I have just finished George Monbiot’s excellent Feral, but
have had a tint of sadness since. My perceptions and sentiments towards the
British countryside have been altered, what I believed to be sublime is now
just a brutal manmade landscape.
There is clearly still beauty in the rural environment, but
this is subjective. Is this beautiful landscape defined by the idyllic visions
of 19th Century pastoral existence, or is it the beauty that was
unrestrained several thousands year ago when a totally different scale of flora
and fauna existed.
Monbiot unleashes some devastating stats on how this
environment has been decimated by humans. Arguably what is left does not
resemble closely the original terrain. Britain has the lowest forest …
The deck is stacked against the rewilding project. Land is
distributed to a small landowning class who are resistance to wild animals. The
farming lobby is influential within government. The British public have a fixed
vision of what the British countryside should be. We also have a hysterical
media who exaggerate any issues around “wild cats” such as the “Beast of
Bodmin”.
But humans have an innate condition that connects them or
makes them long for the wild. The wild cat stories are symptomatic of this. There is an excellent early chapter on the
numerous tabloid stories of sightings of supposed large cats like panthers and
leopards. There is absolutely no evidence that these exist in the British Isles
but our desire to re-connect makes many residents believe in the possibility.
The main body of Feral though is about the merits of
rewilding. The loss of original flora and fauna is quite staggering from when
humans first crossed the English Channel. We now hold a fraction of this
abundance. The proposal is to reintroduce wolves, lynx, beaver and lesser known
species of bird and small mammals. The benefits in terms of the food chain,
educational and wildlife tourism are great, arguably outweighing the risks to
livestock and farmers livelihoods.
Particular criticism of current conservation policy goes to
the Cambrian Mountains and British sheep farmers. The desolate landscapes that
are revered as finest British upland have a false appeal according to Monbiot.
The landscape has been chewed down into a monoculture of scrub and short grass.
Wildlife that could flourish has felt a knock on effect from this pared down
flora.
I had a look at the Sussex Wildlife Trust website after
reading this to see what the practice was. Wildlife Trusts have their own
grazing policy that encourages this. Have we become accustomed to the benign
view of sheep grazing to see this as typical British landscape? There is a lack
of imagination perhaps on what the countryside could be. The Woodland Trust see
sheep and trees as being harmonious and having benefits.
