Conflicting solutions in bid to conserve moors
Heron was tireless in his defence of the West Cornwall landscape, a landscape that is given remarkable scale because it has the Atlantic Ocean for a neighbour and with it, the ocean's vast, overarching skies. The moors and cliffs of the north coast of the Land's End Peninsula are particularly cherished. Any form of mechanical intrusion – fences, new buildings, military exercises – on such freewheeling openness was anathema to Heron. He said: "Although there is a feeling of tremendous space, the landscape is really minuscule. Even the smallest of changes stands out a mile."
Like Heron in his time, generations of Cornish people and legions of visitors feel the same about the uncultivated coastal cliffs and moors that straggle down the granite spine of the Land's End Peninsula.
These are not the limitless open spaces of Dartmoor or the Scottish Highlands. Yet, these small patches of open country fill many people with an exhilarating sense of freedom and Cornish identity. Their sweeping acres are punctuated by some of the most enthralling ancient monuments in Europe. Their peripheries are marked off by the granite engine houses of Victorian mineral mining that are a part of the scenic landscape in a way that no modern equivalent could ever be.
Patrick Heron, were he alive today, would probably have been at the forefront of protest over the current project for stock-proofing substantial areas of the Penwith moors and coast with gates, fences and cattle grids. This is proposed in the name of Natural England's Heathland, Environment, Agriculture, Tourism and Heritage Project (HEATH). The HEATH project is Europe-wide, but partners within Cornwall include Natural England, the National Trust, Cornwall County Council, Penwith District Council, the RSPB, Cornwall Wildlife Trust and the Eden Project. Worthier company would be hard to find in the name of modern "environmentalism".
HEATH states that grazing cattle on open moorland will improve the moorland biodiversity. Other advantages claimed are that grazing will keep lesser-known archaeological sites clear of scrub and will improve access for walkers. Opponents allege that the HEATH project has far more to do with maintaining cash subsidies to landowners, environmental organisations and farmers when Defra's environmentally sensitive areas scheme ends in 2012.
An intense focus of the current debate about HEATH has been the dramatic, sweeping moorland of Nine Maidens' Common above Penzance, one of the few open areas in West Cornwall that is a true common, with historic public access. At its heart is the Late Neolithic-Bronze Age stone circle of Boskednan, the Nine Maidens of popular romance. Adjoining Nine Maidens Common is the National Trust's Carn Galver property.
Until a few weeks ago, cattle grazing schemes were on the cards for both areas. The schemes require a mix of fences, cattle grids, access gates and, of course, free ranging cattle. Nine Maidens commoners, who would implement any cattle grazing, require permission to install stock-proofing from the Secretary of State for the Environment. Vigorous opposition to the entire HEATH project focused initially on the Nine Maidens Common and was led by the author and artist Ian McNeil Cooke and the rapidly formed Save Penwith Moors group. Two weeks ago, the Nine Maidens commoners baled out of the scheme because they felt that fencing requirements would be too excessive.
The National Trust's plans to graze Carn Galver are going ahead however and work on installing cattle grids on the B3066 St Ives to Land's End coast road at Bosigran is now under way. Jon Brookes is the National Trust's countryside manager for West Penwith. Mr Brookes and the National Trust take the brickbats with the bouquets. But any perceived misunderstanding of the fine details of conservation particularly frustrates Jon Brookes and his colleagues, all of whom are professionals with a scientific and ecological view of landscape and environment that for them is the starting point of any debate about land use.
Local people, artists, photographers, writers, country lovers and tourists focus perhaps too lovingly on the visible landscape. We enthuse about it endlessly. And for Jon Brookes all of this is a given. He feels the same way, emotionally, about this beautiful and inspiring landscape. But his first duty – and his deep-seated concern – is for the hidden Cornwall beneath our feet, the astonishing biodiversity of heathland, tumbling coastline and rocky tor, the threatened often truly minuscule "wildlife" that makes Cornwall's beauty more than scenic eye candy.
The problem with the fine details of biodiversity is that it is not sexy from a media point of view. Much is unseen.. However, to support the more visible excitement, a healthy biodiversity is essential. The most recent scientific surveys have identified that in the past 19 years nearly 40 per cent of important habitats on Carn Galver have either diminished in biological value or have been invaded by such relatively sterile species as gorse, bramble and bracken. Uncontrolled, deep-searing wildfires have destroyed some of the most fragile first-base elements of biodiversity, such as bog moss wetland.
The same study reports that rare mosses, liverworts, filmy ferns and lichens have diminished overall and in some cases have disappeared from the moors altogether. Wildflowers such as Heath Spotted Orchid, Milkwort and Tormentil are also under threat. The underlying mosaic of biodiversity is diminishing and those backing HEATH claim that their aim is to halt the damage and instigate some kind of recovery by introducing cattle grazing.
Such grazing, and the trampling that goes with it, HEATH claims, will limit further bracken spread and will open clear patches in the partly sterile undergrowth, which cattle will fertilise with dung.
Most opponents of cattle-grazing share concerns about species-loss and any decline in biodiversity.
Ian Cooke has lived and worked within the Nine Maidens area for over 30 years and has a distinctive grasp of the area's natural and archaeological value. But he and his fellow campaigners feel that the grazing scheme is an intrusive step too far.
"Local people and visitors love the moors," he said, "precisely because they are unfenced and cattle-free. If cattle grazing with fencing goes ahead on linked areas of open moorland in West Penwith, then the very reason so many people visit the area will be removed. If the scheme goes ahead, that wonderful magical feeling of freedom while walking the moors will be lost – probably for ever."
Ian Cooke's warnings about the stark visual and physical intrusion on open country of barbed wire fencing and gates can already be seen at Roskestal Cliff near Porthgwarra. Here, above Pellitras Point, an old granite wall has been sandwiched between two lines of post and barbed wire fencing punctuated by access gates. For some, the fencing is a modern equivalent of the wall itself, or even a necessary protection of the wall from HEATH cattle. To others, the fencing is grotesque, a visual blot on the natural granite.
It is in breaking down the pragmatic and emotive fences between such conflicting views that may bring progress towards conserving West Cornwall's landscape, its underlying biological richness and its openness to leisure for all. We owe it to the landscape itself, or all that the future may hold is a sterile beauty in the eye of the beholder.
An ancient stone wall sandwiched by fencing near Porthgwarra
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