Misunderstood Change

Derek A. Smithson

A landowner’s representative explained to me that my petty vandalism, an expression of disapproval, could have very serious consequences.  He had the wisdom to widen the conversation and I’d like others to hear the things I learned.

We talked of an industry with a more serious risk from uncontrolled fire than any other.  The loss of life would be large, because of the loss of future generations.  It is the industry that preserves the habitat of many species on the North Yorkshire Moors.  It is the grouse rearing, preserving and killing industry, whose bi-product is preservation of the moors and many other species that live there.   Urban people like me don’t see the serious risk from moorland fires in the way we can see the risk from fire in the local chemical industry.   Some peoples’ lives are at risk from fire in these chemical plants and the equipment would take up to five years to replace.  The people working on the moors have the fires of 1935 and 1960 in their minds where no amount of money can repair the damage done.  It requires hundreds of years of natural regeneration.  A period of time beyond my mind to grasp.  The loss of life in these fires must have been enormous but the value of non-human lives is not easily reckoned.

My disapproval of roads damaging the natural beauty is put into perspective by some better realisation of the size and complexity of the moor preservation and grouse killing industry.  Like I.C.I. and B.S.C., the moors need access roads for fire fighting.  No one builds roads for three or four days shooting each year.  One does build them as fire breaks and for access.  The access needs to be from the centre of the estate, not through other people’s property on the perimeter.  One of these centres is at Bransdale for an estate which extends from Farndale to Bilsdale and a long way south of the Lyke Wake walk.  Anyone thinking of taking steps to stop grouse shooting must accept responsibility for the costs of fire precautions or risk the loss ofthe North Yorkshire Moors for ever.  And I must learn another way to dissipate my unreasonable anger at changes I don’t understand.