And what has primarily caused that degradation?

Sheep.

So removing them is a very obvious prerequisite to repairing the ecology, not *more* sheep grazing.

More farmers realising that releasing invasive species out into the hills is:

A) financially ruinous
B) stunting upland communities as a result.

Up on the commonage, this holly 'got away' by seeding in a raised spot. But it can't grow any higher, as sheep can now eat any top growth from above.

If the sheep were gone, this whole rocky wasteland would revert to rich wildlife habitat. Let's give farmers the option to do so.

Sheep farmers complain about wool prices while being subsidised to trash the UK's hillsides, destroying woodland and keeping rural communities on their knees.

Even sheep farmers know sheep herd kill forests. They just don't care because they want the subsidies.

The illusion that there's nothing wrong with our uplands and valleys has to stop, what in God's name are we doing to the country that those who went before us fought and died for. What chance has any of our wildlife have trying to survive on a barren landscape. #overgrazing

Hills which should be covered in trees but instead are overgrazed and bare. Sheep farmers have destroyed our nature.

'Hi, it's the British public — we'd like our forests back'

🚨 BREAKING NEWS: A small, taxpayer-funded cabal have bred and released 30 MILLION non-native mammals across the UK, including in national parks and conservations areas. Please RT so people are aware!

This is yesterday. What an industry! Burning our hills and illegally killing our eagles. Killing 100s of thousands of native birds and mammals per annum. TO SHOOT GROUSE FOR FUN! What climate change and biodiversity collapse?Gillian Martin

It’s time to talk about sheep. The unavoidable truth is that sheep are the principal obstacle standing in the way of meaningful nature recovery in Britain’s national parks and other agriculturally marginal landscapes. There is no getting around it. The sheep have got to go.

It…

Like an atomic cloud the carbon released by the muirburn of Dartmoor weaves its toxic trail to the north and the south as the winds dictate. Destroying any cover that forms in a landscape that's already a ruin.

Northumberland is overgrazed and is a depressing example of how much we've destroyed – this is a photo of a ruined castle and a ruined landscape.

This is the view across the valley from my house today, an overgrazed Kerry upland after heavy rain... All the topsoil and vegetation in an area the size of a football pitch has just slid off the mountain. And yes, for scale, the white dots are sheep #overgrazing

New study by Sheffield University says upland sheep farmers would make more money planting forests for carbon capture rather than “farming” sheep which at present isn’t an industry at all, just a massive benefit handout scheme overgrazing our uplands and accelerating flooding.

Thread 👉 Centuries of deforestation then overgrazing by deer and sheep have left much of the Highlands of Scotland looking like this - what Frank Fraser Darling called a treeless 'wet desert'

Borrowdale is the wet heart of the Lake District, with some spectacular fragments of temperate rainforest - but they’re declining due to overgrazing by sheep

Great piece by Ben Martynoga about restoring nature to the area, with some comments from me
theguardian.com/environment/20…

Can we spot the trees in a hollow, about half way up the picture to the right? Imagine this landscape all green and reforested? The plight of land turned barren by overgrazing by sheep, on so many lands!

This tweet is being negatively received by members of public, and with good reason

There are visible signs of the damage overgrazing sheep are causing within the photos, along with other issues

Is this how we want our uplands and lowlands to be used?
Can we change them?

On the left, a desperately degraded former savannah in northernmost Africa. Virtually no trees or wildlife remain after decades of overgrazing by sheep and goats. On the right, the Cambrian plateau in Wales. The only difference between the two is the weather.