Arthur Smith OBE MA The following quotes are from the former President of Lincolnshire Naturalists Union Arnold Smith from the late 1960's and early 70's. He was a gentle and great advocate for nature both in Lincolnshire and beyond. What attracts me to his approach to conservation is that he perceives man as part of the environment. The desire to uproot rural economies and revert back to a pre-industrial landscape without compromise or consideration to the social sustainability of people is a great weakness of today's environmental lobby who too often ask for sacrifices of others they will not make themselves.
Arnold Smith was no push over, but he respected the conflicting needs and challenged and worked with people as appropriate. We can all learn from him. When reading his quotes consider the era as being one when we have seen some of the most destructive farming practices and that farming has moved on from this in many ways, although too many do not recognize this.
"Conservation - a word increasingly used and often imperfectly understood - has been succinctly defined in our context as the wise use of those resources which constitute the major elements of our natural environment: air, land water and wildlife. In this, the second most densely populated country of Europe, we are acutely aware of the problems of doing out the land, water and other resources to support our growing numbers and our high material standards."
"The new materials and techniques the chemist has put in the hands of the Lincolnshire farmer have enabled him to dispense with rotational systems that dominated English agriculture for 200 years. It is quite impossible to reconstruct the appearance of Lincolnshire before the first farmers of the New Stone Age began the long process of destroying the wilderness and converting the land and its resources to human use. There is no habitat in Lincolnshire which can truly be described as natural unless it be the sandy and muddy foreshore of the coast. Even those are affected to some extent by man's activities. Most plants and associated animals in Lincolnshire have survived in or colonised habitats which man has modified to a greater or lesser extent. The full effects of the loss of grassland, including park land in Lincolnshire are impossible to assess, but undoubtedly have been far reaching. 18th and 19th century ploughing and enclosure of the Wolds and Lincoln Heath eliminated nearly all heath and downland. 600 years prior to this it was grassland intensively grazed by sheep and rabbits. On chalk grasslands the reduction of the rabbit population since myxamotosis has undoubtedly aggravated the problem of vegetation control. The 20th century need for sand and gravel has created many new areas of water and marginal vegetation. Man-made wetland habits such as gravel pits and reservoirs can provide some compensation for the loss of fenland and marsh. As recreational use of areas of water are not necessarily incompatible with wild life, the claims for conservation need to be strongly urged. In this country, especially a county like Lincolnshire, wild plants and animals are closely and constantly affected for better or worse by the ways in which man uses land. "
" Even protected reserves are affected by the land use around them such as lowering water tables, felling woods or chemical and environmental pollution. Protected reserves should not only maintain habitat conditions but should also, as far as possible, counteract harmful external factors."
"Maintenance of habitats often means arresting the vegetation succession at a particular seral stage. Sometimes this means finding an effective substitute for grazing animals, sometimes it means the continuation of a near obsolete agricultural or silvicultural practice. If wildlife in any variety is to survive on our farmlands there will have to be a deliberate development of habitats within them.. "
"Variety of habitats was a by-product of older farming methods. Even on the most intensively cultivated farms there is still room for wildlife habitats. Much can be done to develop a new landscape that will be compatible with and expressive of modern scientific mechanized farming yet will be pleasing to look at and still rich in wildlife."
You see an entirely different understanding in his words to today's anti-farming stance focusing on nature depletion. In these words I see an understanding of the complex needs of man and the human's place in the environment. Sadly I feel this is now overlooked, misunderstood or in worst cases zealously opposed to the point of extremism today.
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