Ground nesting killjoys

At least badgerbonk pays for his annual pass and isn’t moaning about car park charges that fund the forests like so many on here do, since I withdraw the git comment, bit hash.

preserve and protect everything.

conservation

Personally, I think that the biggest errors are when land managers are unable to distinguish between the two things

car park charges that fund the forests

I think that what makes people really angry, is that most of it isn’t!

The bottom line is that we can not preserve and protect everything. A whole industry seems to have been built on ‘conservation’ and any common-sense seems to have fallen by the wayside.

Why is it not common sense to give you an area to cycle in and an area for the birds to breed in ?
What exactly makes more sense to you ?

Apparently I’m in the 2% that make their living from the land, and a lot of this thread is shockingly funny, some people know as much about land and conservation management as I do about IT systems*. Explains why dealing with the public can be so hard sometimes, they are detached from the real, living world.

*I don’t work in IT

cinnamon_girl
What’s not common sense about using ponies to keep heathland as heathland?

The alternative is groups of volunteers going out and pulling up the newly growing trees while they’re still small enough to deal with pretty easily.

The trees being clear felled isn’t devastation, but the creation of heathland areas for nesting birds.

To be fair i’m from Sheffield with the Peak District on my doorstep, so don’t know how things are in the south east, but surely it’s only a part of the woodlands which has been clearfelled?

I’m with Dave. One of the most pathetic and depressingly ignorant things I’ve ever read.

As mountain bikers (and hence presumably lovers of the outdoors) we shouldn’t be complaining about seasonal restrictions for stuff like ground-nesting birds. It’s not like there isn’t plenty of other riding to be had around the Thames Valley.

(but that’s different to broad-brush banning of riders from parts of forests all year round)

One of the most pathetic and depressingly ignorant things I’ve ever read.

Blimey! Hasn’t anybody on this forum heard of satire?

What’s not common sense about using ponies to keep heathland as heathland?

Yes, in theory it sounds like a good idea but I need to come back to my phrase ‘high-density housing’. Unfortunately the local yoof thought it would be fun to not only terrorise the ponies and cattle but also to break down the wooden fences and gates.

We then move on to those ‘local characters’ who think the animals need feeding. 😆

My personal feeling is that this was the wrong area to introduce animals for grazing.

Oh my god.
Almost lost for words TBH.

Some staggering ignorance on display here from more than just the OP.

CG – for someone that was only a week or so ago was jumping on the “cut’n’paste opinion bandwagon” over Amazon and Google I’m sitting here in disbelief. I really do hope you don’t mean what you say because if you do you’re become a sad and bitter individual.

I can’t open this thread again. I’m out.

Blimey! Hasn’t anybody on this forum heard of satire?

😆 Some of my posts were certainly a wee bit over the top. 🙂

That’s one of the saddest things I’ve read on here….

+1

I thought the same when i read the OP too.

I usually try and keep my posts on here calm and balanced, respecting the right for all to have an opinion.

in this case though I will simply say – OP, you are a prat and should not be allowed out in public

I didn’t think I was trolling when I started this thread, but having checked the definition I guess it’s not surprising that that’s the way it has been taken by some. My intention was to start a debate not a hate-fest and, in that former respect, this thread has been a success as it has certainly exposed some wildly polarised opinions and triggered some lively discussion.

In my defence and to give some balance – I am not an evil person. My closest two friends are both devout Christians, albeit of slightly different varieties. I am saddened when I see road kill, I rescue spiders from the bath and put them out in the garden (some might say that’s cruel as they’re obviously domesticated) and I don’t try to kill flying insects purely because they are in my space. I hate seeing abandoned supermarket trolleys in my local canal, and I am sickened by our government’s lack of the moral strength to carry out necessary but unpopular policies. I see everyone driving around in overly opulent boutique vehicles that waste vast amounts of fuel lugging around electric motors for functions that could quite easily be carried out by a little human muscle, or air-conditioning systems so that they don’t break into a sweat if the temperature should ever creep above 20 degrees. I provide counselling on a voluntary basis to cancer patients about to undergo surgery, and I make charitable donations by monthly direct debit as well as into numerous pub rattle-cans. I’m not 100% bad!

However, I am opinionated, cynical, selfish and probably a little too flippant for most people’s tastes. I consider these to be positive attributes and wouldn’t have it any other way. Unfortunately, like everyone else, I do fall into the trap of instinctively believing that kittens are cute and that cockroaches are repulsive, I am self-analytical enough to realise that these are redundant emotional responses and I try to resist them.

Anyway……..I only started getting a little more serious about biking last January, and Swinley provided the catalyst. Over the months I explored (i.e. got hopelessly lost) the whole area and devised a route that not only took in the main named trails, but also some well-established but less well-known single track to link these all together – I’m not tearing across open heath land. It’s a big safe playground for all of us and now the majority of it is being put out of bounds and I’m sulking. I like the idea of the new improved trails, but I also want continued access to the less anaesthetised, more natural paths.

I really have no time for these birds, and I am neither ashamed nor embarrassed to declare the fact. If they became extinct tomorrow it would be a bit of a shame, but it wouldn’t all be my fault. Despite some of the hate on here, I’m not trying to organise a posse of like-minded bikers to meet up next nesting season to rampage across the forest armed with shotguns and killing jars.

To the protectionists on here, you have your views and I can see your reasoning, particularly on the point regarding complying with international conservation laws. But – I personally disagree with them; surely Swinley Forest is primarily a lumber farm and recreational area, not a zoo?

This is all just my opinion, and this is a forum. Will I die?

I struggle with long sentences

Sigh.

I thought about writing a structured and reasoned reply but instead I’ll just go and beat my head against a wall.

surely Swinley Forest is primarily a lumber farm and recreational area, not a zoo?

Why can’t it be all three?

Will I die?

Almost certainly!

OK – it seems we’re done here. Let’s get back to something really worth talking about……….

OK – it seems we’re done here. Let’s get back to something really worth talking about……….

I am saddened when I see road kill, I rescue spiders from the bath and put them out in the garden (some might say that’s cruel as they’re obviously domesticated) and I don’t try to kill flying insects purely because they are in my space.
& you’re a hypocrite & I’m out too.

You actually read it …beginners mistake