We can make a Difference Drought and Sheep: Is there a Link? A Youthful Perspective on the Dales ilJ.U Fii Sculpture Designsfor Raistrick Bench £1-50 33L Yorkshire Dales ji&Sm Yorkshire Dales Review No. 70 • Spring 2000 Drought and Sheep — Journal ofthe Yorkshire Dales Society Editors Colin and Flenr Spcakinan Is there a Link? hi Europe c/eserlificulioii aiu! its inip/icatious had consequences to many different civilisations, already been recopuised by the VS Couivutiou to leading even to the extinction of the peoples We can make a Difference Combat Desertficalion which was agreed in 1994. concerned. It i.s due to the denudation of the Yet eix'u a country like Britain with a temperate, existing vegetation (through defore.station and . or Eight years of campaigning, including attending a Green Lanes of the Yorkshire Dales (only a few maritime climate and a relatirely high rainfall can overgrazing), followed by floods, soil erosion, 13 week Public Inquiry, by our sister organisation weeks ago a cyclist was killed on historic Mastiles be at risk as Anne Samsom. Land I'se Project drought and local climatic changes. the Friends of the Lake District and by the Council Lane after falling into a rut caused by off-road OJJicer.of the Enrironment Agency. Xorth East In many areas of the British Isles the existing vehicles), but also help reduce the noise pollution Region. demoii.'^t>rites. for National Parks, (of which the Yorkshire Dales vegetation is already becoming denuded . Society is a constituent member), has helped wdiich trail bikes and off-roaders bring into the The process of desertification has occurred in many particularly in the west and upland areas. The main produce a major victory for conservation in our remotest areas. There are now few places left even parts of the world, often with devastating cause has been an almost four-fold increase in the National Parks. In 2005. a lOmph speed limit for in the Dales where you can escape the roar of the number of sheep since the power boats on Windermere will come into force, internal combu.stion engine. 1940s. During the Second ending the in\-asive scream of high speed engines Both the Windermere decision and the new hauling water-skiers along England's greate.st lake. World War there were 12 Cc^iuntryside Bill herald a new awareness that the The ban wall not be imposed for another five years, million sheep in Britain, countryside is there to be enjoyed, but that giving business and sporting interests time to today there are 44 million. enjoyment, especially in our National Parks and Ever since 1982 the relocate. AONBs. .should not put at risk the veiy qualities, population of this grazing This is an excellent decLsion for the Lake Di.strict, including the tranquillity of our wildest places, that animal has increased by and it indicates that the Government is at last people value most highly. an average of across taking protection of our National Parks seriously. the country as a whole, For decades the quiet enjoyment of the majority of Organisations like FLD. CNP and ourselves have a key responsibility to articulate the views of many, and in some areas \"isitors and manv local residents around many millions of caring citizens to both national increases of up to 79% Windermere has been ruined by the selfish and local Government bodies and agencies. We have been suggested. The activities of a small minority, causing huge noi.se must also offer our support when forward looking increase has been fuelled pollution acro.ss the entire valley. decisions are taken, to counter the often well by Common Agricultural What has this to do with the Yorkshire Dales orchestrated objections of single-interest pre.ssure Policy payments to Society ? Simply this. The Windermere decision groups. For example, we .strongly support North support the incomes of recogni.ses that the peace of our countiyside. and Yorkshire County Council's recent decision to upland farmers so that of our National Parks, is something which de.seives impose a Traffic Restriction Order on the badly they can continue to loc^k protection e\ery bit as much as the landscape. damaged green road over Pock .Stones Moor after these important areas .Members of the Society will recall our spat with between Wharfedale and Washburndale. despite of our national heritage. former Lakeland .MP Michael joplin. motor sport the protests of the off-road motor lobby. Headage payments ol devotee, who succeeded in getting the words betw^een £-30-ci:-40 per ewe. In this first decade of the new centuiy. there are ""cjLiiet enjoyment" eliminated from the 1995 on top of the market .some difficult issues facing our own National Park Countryside .^cl that e.stablished the new National value, ensure that there is Authority, and the Nidderdale JAC which will Park .Atithorities so that these anti-social activities require real political courage to solve - not only- no incentive for farmers to should n<n be challeiiged even in the heartland ot reduce the size (d' their protecting Green Lanes and dealing with complex flocks. The resulting oLir National Parks. acce.ss i.ssues. but such i.ssues as traffic management A sex'ere over-grazing has 'fhere i.s now a new Countryside and Rights ol Way and rural transport, and ways of supporting led to the denudation of .struggling Dales farmers with new and imaginative [Mil belore Parliament which will give a new many of our uplands and statutory right of access to mountains, moors, agri-environmental schemes rather than the current to all sorts of other heath, down and regi.stered common land. It will environmentally destructive headage payment problems, including soil not olfer unrestricted access, but will be subject to .sy.stem. Sokitions are never ea.sy and always take erosion, riverbank erosion important limitations respecting landowners' and time. But well informed, persistent support from (acc(Mx!ing to the National ovi Lipiers' rights. There wi ll also be better bodies like our own can help the agencies to find Ris ers .Authority , 199-- protection for sssis. wildlife, and intriguingly. a the right .solutions. new designation of i.OOO miles of public highway loss (if habitat and wliuh will be open to all traffic except motorised V'es. we can make a difference. disersitw (.lamage to vehicles (^oukl this new measure help prevent not lisheries. j^ossiiile changes Colin Speakman in h\'drolog\'. and the onh (he appall ing damage being inflicted on the socio-economic costs of dealing with these and a chain of associated Just as certain parts of the world exist on a climatic prol")lems. knife edge, so ecological communities may be poised between survival and disaster. In the Dales But how can this process of denudation lead to the problems of general habitat degradation Book Review desertification in the British Isles? Reduced rainfall through overgrazing are severe, but not yet does have serious implications for certain types of irreversible. Travel further west into higher rainfall consumption. Read or browse through the wealth \ egetation. particularly if it is already stressed A TASTE OF LEEDS by Peter Brears, areas and the problem worsens significantly. In the published by Breedon Books Publishing of recipes which have been adapted for our own through overgrazing. But can the loss of this Lake District the denudation process has in some Company, Breedon House, 44 Friargate, Derby, times: the book's large-scale format and numerous vegetation itself trigger a local change in the areas reduced upland turf (formerly heather and illustrations makes this a most enjoyable and climate (i.e. reduced rainfall), particularly over the DEI IDA, at £7.95 and generally available. bilbeny) to bare soil and scree, ripe for weathering appetising read. It is illuminated by Peter Brears summer months? There is increasing evidence to ISBN 1 85983 140 0. and erosion. In parts of Ireland the situation is breadth of experience, interest and enthusiasm. He suggests that summers are becoming dryer and beyond repair, for the soil (formerly protected by Much has been written about the whole.somene.ss is also an expert in his own right at recreating winters wetter, particularly in northern Britain. In vegetation) has been washed away from whole ol countiy loocl. but Peter Brears. a former curator some of those mouth-watering menus he describes "I'orkshire the 40% increase in the numbers of hillsides and catchments, devastating the fragile and cooking them in the palatial settings of some sheep over the last fifteen years has led to a serious oi Leeds industrial Museum and expert on historical upland eco.sy.stem in general and the fisheries in of our most famous stately reduction in the biomass of vegetation over the culinary matters proves that particular. The hillsides, after taking thousands of homes. uplands of the Yorkshire Dales. The heather cover years to su.stain vegetation and accumulate .soils, ■ has been sei-iously damaged and over large areas, c o o kI e r y ' ^ Fleur the combined root and shoot length of grasslands have been reduced to bare rock, which no doubt t r a d i t i o n s Speakman has its own implications for the local climate, water has been reduced to about three or four are at least resources and sheep farming. A fisheries lltustrcitUm centimetres. Rabbits have exacerbated the tightness as fas- _ shou y Leed^ consultancy APEM Ltd, has described the situation of this .s\\-ard. apparently thriving in the droughted c i n a t i n g Siyanihtes ict.iicb on the headwaters of the River Boyne as " quite conditions.