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Main Boards => News and Articles => Topic started by: ninthace on 13:36:38, 22/01/20

Title: Soil Erosion in the Lake District
Post by: ninthace on 13:36:38, 22/01/20
This story featured in the BBC news today https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-51183134 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-51183134).  I think one of the take away points was the need to reconsider current grazing practices on the uplands.
The transmission also covered attempts to regenerate the peat bogs in the North Pennines AONB to alleviate flooding and to radically reduce carbon release.
Title: Re: Soil Erosion in the Lake District
Post by: richardh1905 on 15:22:40, 22/01/20
Indeed - a dramatic reduction in grazing is needed. And the fells would be even more beautiful if their flanks were draped in native woodland.
Title: Re: Soil Erosion in the Lake District
Post by: Skippy 2019 on 22:43:12, 22/01/20
Indeed - a dramatic reduction in grazing is needed. And the fells would be even more beautiful if their flanks were draped in native woodland.


I think you will find on the fells over grazing is not that rife! You would get in a song and dance if the erosion caused by human feet was discouraged or even curtailed.
 
The farming fraternity actually keep the Lakes alive.
Title: Re: Soil Erosion in the Lake District
Post by: ninthace on 10:54:46, 23/01/20

I think you will find on the fells over grazing is not that rife! You would get in a song and dance if the erosion caused by human feet was discouraged or even curtailed.
 
The farming fraternity actually keep the Lakes alive.
  The fells as we know them are largely a man made landscape.  There is over grazing but we do not recognise it because it has been that way for a long time.  The natural vegetation most of the Lakes is various types of deciduous forest, depending on the soil structure and micro-climate, rising to conifers, birches  and scrub higher up.  The lovely short sward and absence of trees is courtesy of the sheep.
Title: Re: Soil Erosion in the Lake District
Post by: richardh1905 on 11:03:06, 26/01/20

I think you will find on the fells over grazing is not that rife! You would get in a song and dance if the erosion caused by human feet was discouraged or even curtailed.
 
The farming fraternity actually keep the Lakes alive.

Sorry but I strongly disagree - in their natural state, the flanks of the fells would be clothed in native woodlands, a much more diverse habitat than sheep scalped grass. Overgrazing by sheep prevents this, quite literally a dead hand upon the Lakes.
Title: Re: Soil Erosion in the Lake District
Post by: richardh1905 on 11:09:19, 26/01/20
..that is not to say that I am against some sheep on the fells, or even cattle. Controlled grazing can improve diversity - a few cattle are allowed to graze on Hampsfell to stop the hill becoming covered with brambles and blackthorn.
Title: Re: Soil Erosion in the Lake District
Post by: jimbob on 11:21:40, 26/01/20
Maybe if we all took tree seeds, hazlenuts, acorns, apple cores etc and deliberately dropped them when we were out walking we could reforest unused areas and create areas of useful carbon capture.

There is a guerilla treeplanting movement who have been doing this for a while, they show which varieties to plant so as not to inundate areas with bad varieties (rhodedendrum e. G.) and how to acquire the seeds and tips on good places to spread them.

Loads of info out there for example.

http://www.treehealthcare.co.uk/guerrilla-planting/ (http://www.treehealthcare.co.uk/guerrilla-planting/)
Title: Re: Soil Erosion in the Lake District
Post by: richardh1905 on 13:59:35, 26/01/20
Interesting article - but I would not advocate guerilla planting in nature reserves and other environmentally sensitive areas as the introduction of other species could have unforeseen consequences.

I was helping out in some woods yesterday where Lancastrian Whitebeams grow - this species does not exist outside the limestone areas surrounding Morecambe Bay.
Title: Re: Soil Erosion in the Lake District
Post by: jimbob on 14:15:46, 26/01/20
The particular article I posted did have those warnings. Others actually name species that are non invasive and extremely easy to get the seeds such as Hazel, crabapple and wild cherry. I like the idea of giving them the two chances which I give the plants in my allotment, either to grow and be eaten or not to grow and leave space for something else.