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Re: West Penwith heath project
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They (EH) have attended, then gone away and done nothing. They made some noises about setting the stones of the Tregeseal circle in concrete (over my dead body!). At Tor ~Noon, another HLS target area and a scheduled monument, several bits of work have been carried out without Scheduled Monument Consent. EH sent a warning letter, then did nothing. EH is simply not fit for purpose; neither is NE. It's high time both overgrown quangoes were dismantled, with their powers and funding devolved to the counties and regions which already have bodies resposible for the historic and natural environment.

5 years of HEATH/HLS in West Penwith have confirmed by darkest fears - we're back to the bad old days of "be given piles of money for turning beautful, ancient moorland into farming land", and yet we no longer have the number of herds we once had, and you'll see livestock in perhaps only ten per cent of pasture fields. At Carn Kenidjack/Carnyorth/Tregeseal, the grazier (who is not the landowner) is handed £20,000 a year by NE for simply opening a gate every now and again tto turn the longhorns out there, or to herd them back (although they usually go back of their own accord as the grazing's better in the back-up fields). They have not touched the scrub nor the bracken. and congregate where there is grass. At the stone circle they have both grass and nineteen handy scratching posts! The same applies to the Men-an-Tol (a different breed of cattle there - South Devon Reds, I think).

There are alternative "management" methods, but on that moor, small rotational burns and bracken control is all that's really necessary. In reality it's sustained itself extremely well for more than a century, with the help of very efficient grazers - rabbits.


Reply | with quote		Posted by craig weatherhill
6th November 2013ce
19:47

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Re: West Penwith heath project (Evergreen Dazed)

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Re: West Penwith heath project (Evergreen Dazed)

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