Upland Farming - the River’s Problems & Solutions
Grazing sheep on Plylimon by James Allan. CC creativecommons.org
For millions of years, as both ice and river, I created and shaped this landscape, which has been home to humans for just 12,000 years. People brought sheep to graze my uplands just 4500 years ago. Only recently has your grazing begun to harm the land where my rains fall and my waters are born.
Where once was woodlands and deep peat soils, more and more domesticated grazing animals have been kept. Over the years, little by little, the native rainforests of the hills were changed into grasslands and moorlands.
In less than 100 years there has been a 500% increase in the number of sheep. Today there are so many animals on the hills that they compact the soils and prevent my rains filtering into them.
High places have high rainfall. Without trees covering the hills, their rich rainforest created soil is washed away, leaving just the rock and thin mineral soil. The hills are hard places for humans to farm. Upland farms are the least profitable farms, making farmers reliant on government benefits called ‘agricultural subsidies'.
To increase their income upland farmers keep as many sheep as possible; today there are too many hooves on the hills. They crush the soil, squishing the spaces between soil particles where air and water live, compacted together the soil cannot absorb the rain as it falls. The rain, which can't be absorbed into the compacted soils, rushes down the hills, and causes huge floods to everyone living close to the river channels.
In nature, herds of grazing animals follow weather patterns, eating and trampling the soils, then moving on and not returning until the following year. Wild animals don’t graze the hills in the winter, they only visit in summer, grazing high places where the strong winds help keep away the flies.
Offa's Dyke passing through blanket bog by Roger Davies. CC creativecommons.org
The Wye’s Solutions
Stop draining and over grazing, the uplands need to return to their diverse natural state. To be lightly grazed by many different species, this would restore their soils and habitats. Until recently the uplands on which my rains fall, were made of blanket bogs, rainforests, heathlands, lakes, woodlands and meadows, not just bare grassland, moorlands and sheep.
When human interests are balanced with the needs of other species, everybody thrives.
Cheap meat and government benefits are no way to make a living. Upland farmers could bring back their cattle and reduce the number of sheep they keep. Diversify their income, embrace wildlife tourism and develop markets for venison. Why is it only in the Scottish uplands people pay £1000s a day to shoot deer?
Wildlife tourism would draw people to Wales, just as it does everywhere else in the world. The return of native species like White tailed eagle, beaver, lynx, White storks and European bison could rejuvenate the failing rural economy and provide new opportunities for local people. The Welsh Rewilding Alliance is aiming to boost the rural economy and encourage young people to stay in rural Wales by creating meaningful, enjoyable job opportunities through rewilding and the return of Wales natural heritage.
New and honest food labeling schemes could enable people to choose food that does good in the world, and understand the precious habitats protected by grazing fewer animals. Supermarkets could dictate the environmental protection they require their suppliers to uphold.
Without labelling and regulation, profit driven markets dictate prices through supply and demand - no matter the consequences for all things outside of the market. These "externalities" include all of nature. Clean air, safe soil, floods and river health cannot be regulated by market price.
I am the rain that falls, the river that flows, the floods that destroy, all of these are "externalities" of your markets, victim to the profits of the few.
