Defra’s uplands Animal Farm - sheep bad, bisons and wolves good

[HolzKopf]

Read in today’s paper that Environment Minister Ben Goldsmith says “millions of sheep have stripped our uplands and valleys of its green mantle”

The suggestion is to replace the woolies with (quote) the return of “the four keystones” for the uplands, “the native cattle (or their wild predecessors the aurochs and the bison), the pig (or its ancestor the wild boar), the beaver and the wolf”

Wildlife corridors and woods around every town......

Too long in lockdown?


HK

 

[Treemover]

This will be fine until urban folk start loosing pets.

 

[M-J-G]

There are less upland sheep than ever.

Wolves kill anything they want, my German friends are always posting pictures on social media of calves and foals that have been killed.

If sheep will strip the uplands let's see what pigs will do.
The won't stay in the uplands, they'll end up in lowland crops destroying them and many wildlife habitats too.

Ben is stupid, don't be like Ben.

 

[HolzKopf]

We'll build a wall - a big wall - it'll be a great wall - and it'll keep all those pinky piggy-wiggies out

And the farmers can pay - we'll make 'em pay......

 

[Whitepeak]

Read in today’s paper that Environment Minister Ben Goldsmith says “millions of sheep have stripped our uplands and valleys of its green mantle”

The suggestion is to replace the woolies with (quote) the return of “the four keystones” for the uplands, “the native cattle (or their wild predecessors the aurochs and the bison), the pig (or its ancestor the wild boar), the beaver and the wolf”

Wildlife corridors and woods around every town......

Too long in lockdown?


HK

Isn't the natural habitat for those species open woodland, not heather moorland?

 

[Swarfmonkey]

Ben Goldsmith isn’t a minister, let alone the Sectetary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs.

He’s just a very rich environutter gobshite who spent his way to a non exec director role in DEFRA by making a sizeable donation to Gove’s constituency office (nothing like an old fashioned cash bung, eh?). If it wasn’t for family money he’d be brassic, as his business ventures have been less than successful.

Frankly, he should be nowhere near any government department!

 

[andybk]

lol pigs in the uplands , 12 months to strip delicate shallow soils , that end up in the streams and rivers ,yea good one sounds like another shiney arsed expert on 50 grand a year

 

[deleted user 837354]

Releasing wild pigs or boar is an act of utter lunacy. They will cause environmental damage the likes of which will never be repaired. And fudging bison and wolves? That is a pish take. The first walker in the fells or highlands that gets savaged by a pack of them and it will be tears then. They are dangerous apex predators. They will not stay in the remote parts of this country forever. They will wonder around human settlements and start attacking pets, livestock and people if food is scarce. Ask the Americans about them.

Why not throw in huge birds of prey and bears? Yeah predators that will take out and kill most sized of dogs and cats? Ideal.

 

[HolzKopf]

Here's the article, cut and pasted as it's behind a paywall
They've now changed Minister to 'a board member'

ENVIRONMENT

Swap sheep for bison to save uplands, hill farmers told
Christopher Hope
CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

HILL farmers should swap their sheep for cattle, pigs and bison to save the country’s uplands, a senior Government adviser has said as ministers launch plans for a new trees strategy.

Ben Goldsmith, a board member of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said replacing sheep with cattle would restore some of the most beautiful parts of England.

It came as Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, the environment minister, launched a plan for woods to be established around towns and along rivers to create wildlife corridors. Mr Goldsmith wrote in the Farmer’s Guardian this week: “Across most of Britain, especially in our upland landscapes, intensive farming is simply not viable without subsidies. The environmental cost of trying to make it work has been catastrophic. Millions of sheep have almost entirely stripped hills and valleys of their green mantle.”

Mr Goldsmith called for the return of “the four keystones” for the uplands, “the native cattle (or their wild predecessors the aurochs and the bison), the pig (or its ancestor the wild boar), the beaver and the wolf”.
Thomas Binns, the NFU uplands forum chairman, said: “To suggest hill farming as ‘intensive’ is simply wrong.”

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