A thread on why nature conservation needs to go underground...

Yesterday, while I was kneeling in the grass putting tree cages together, I heard the sound of running water coming up through a hole in the soil, probably dug by a mole. I grabbed a spade and started digging. Two feet or so down, the spade hit a flat stone with a hollow thud, the sound of running water now louder from below. I dug around it, to find the stone was interleaved with two others, making it hard to lift.

Having grown a bit sick of the silly conservation vs farming narrative, last year I started on a series of articles about farmers doing great things for #nature in #Cumbria. I didn't do one on @herdyshepherd1, but thankfully, I had lots of other farms to choose from. (THREAD) First up (unsurprisingly) was @wildhaweswater, where I'm lucky enough to work as site manager. We are hoping to show how sustainable upland farming can work alongside ecological restoration. We're learning lots in the process. @Natures_Voice leeschofield.co.uk/farming-with-n…

Today I decided to return to Young Wood, one of the @lakedistrictnpa's most fascinating ecological fragments. It doesn't look like much from the road outside our house, 3 miles away across the valley, just a fuzz of green on the side of Bowscale Fell. There was lots of good stuff on the way. First, I walked through @cumbriawildlife's Eycott Hill nature reserve. The planted juniper scrub and broadleaf trees are thriving, escaping their guards in places. A young wood, in sight of Young Wood.

This is the sort of article that sparks righteous indignation at both a lack of compliance and at the failure of government to enforce its own rules. However, this is a more complicated picture than first meets the eye... (THREAD)
theguardian.com/environment/20… Since WW2, farmers have been encouraged and incentivised to intensify food production. At the same time, consumers have paid less and less and for their food.

Took a wet walk through some first class WOOD PASTURE on the shore of #ullswater this morning. Here's a thread to explain why it's such a fantastic habitat, and why we need more of it. On the face of it, wood pasture is just a field with trees in it, but it's so much more than this. When well managed, with the right level of grazing, wood pasture is one of the richest habitats we have. In fact, it's more than just one, it's a habitat mosaic.