As I regularly do I am once again expressing my honest opinions using this blog as an extension to twitter. It concerns a company called Lowther Forestry.
This company, Lowther Forestry, has a twitter account and they tweeted this.
" Lowther-Forestry
@LowtherForestry
Sunny day jobs checking of a disused quarry in the Yorkshire Dales National Park to ensure that there is no growth of Ragwort.
#quarry #ragwort #clearance "
This quite properly attracted attention of conservationists.
Lowther Forestry's Twitter profile states.
"Providing a full range of landscaping, fencing and forestry solutions for over 40 years. Working with nature, technology and people. "
Conservationist Bill Ellson queried this asking:
Replying to
@LowtherForestry
Why are you 'ensuring' that there is no growth of Ragwort?
And he got this incompetent and ignorant piece of false news in reply.
Lowther-Forestry
@LowtherForestry
Replying to
@BillEllson
As it is harmful to grazing animals and an offence to allow it to seed on to neighbouring boundaries.
This of course is a piece of completely false and ignorant bunkum. It is just plainly wrong.
Grazing animals avoid ragwort unless starved into eating it except things like sheep and goats which are so immune that it is difficult to poison them. and the law does not say it is an offence to allow ragwort to seed, that is just nonsense.
You can find what the law on ragwort says on my main website.
In response to a flurry of responses they posted this.
"
Lowther-Forestry
@LowtherForestry
Replying to
@Ragwort_horses
and @BillEllson
We are just responding to the clients request on this one.
This isn't what they are doing they are not just responding to clients. They are also putting false information about one of our most ecologically important wildflowers on to the internet and passing it around. They are encouraging damage to the environment. They are also running down their own company's reputation!
Let's be honest about it. There is a biodiversity crisis on this planet. We are in the middle of what scientists call the 6th Great Extinction where the ecological systems of the earth are being damaged. Ultimately it will, if it continues, make the Covid 19 pandemic sound like a Sunday afternoon vicarage tea party. Encouraging it to continue and worsen its ultimate effects on human welfare is profoundly anti-social. Ragwort hysteria is a serious issue as it interferes with the process of restoring or rewilding habitats, which is one of the most important tools in countering the crisis.
Conservationist Roy Tindle put it well quoting Lowther Forestry's own profile back at them
Replying to
@LowtherForestry
"Working with nature"? Hardly if you are destroying native plants, like ragwort. Working against nature would be a more accurate description!
