22 April 2022

Sustainable farming around Haweswater and Mardale Common

Miles King has written a review of Wild Fell by Lee Schofield on the excellent A New Nature Blog. He doesn’t post often now, apologising unnecessarily, and I’m just happy to enjoy the content he does create. It’s a bit of an old school blog - excellent writing and a place where one feels reasoned debate can be had without degenerating into a slanging match. Bookmark the blog, visit regularly, and enjoy.

The book, Wild Fell is on my to-read list but I wasn’t sure about it. The review has convinced me. I think I vaguely thought it was advocating for the status quo and I’m now not quite sure why I thought that. Kings says:

Almost everyone (dare I say even James Rebanks?) now accepts that there are too many sheep in the Lake District, and that has been the case for many decades. So it’s very inspiring to read about a large scale project where reducing the sheep numbers (and also changing the times they are out on the commons) is actually happening — and how quickly the land and its nature is responding.

I find it hard, running on the Howgills nearly every day, not to be depressed at the effects of sheep on the uplands. King has covered this a fair bit in the past and there are some links in his review. I need to read this book and Mardale Common is not too far from here for a quiet run sometime soon.


Previous post
There is an excellent short article in the FT today by Hannah White covering some of the detail around the consequences of Johnson’s lies and the importance of the ministerial code. There is an excellent short article in the FT today by Hannah White covering some of the detail around the consequences of Johnson’s lies and the
Next post
If you are wondering what the hell a dead cat is, in political parlance, then read this excellent article by Sam Freedman on the Substack, Comment is Freed. If you are wondering what the hell a dead cat is, in political parlance, then read this excellent article by Sam Freedman on the Substack, Comment