"Robert Seago" wrote in message
...
In article , Jim Webster
wrote:

But you must accept that the great crash in populations of these
butterflies along with so many others occurred at times of grassland
improvement, not conservation interference.

yep, government interference as opposed to other government interference
:-(
So are you really saying that the significant loss of the traditional farm
species of the UK such as some butterflies never disappeared through
intensification.

I accept that grants from government were sometimes the enabling factor

What I was meaning was that effectively 'fashions' change. The previous
'fashion' was for full bore food production. The current 'fashion' is for
the environment. In agriculture we await with interest the arrival of the
next 'fashion'. (fashion isn't meant in any derogatory sense)





Incidentally there is still a very viable population on Salisbury
Plain, where the agriculture is not very intensive, and so many of the
other declined agricultural species still thrive.

It is going to be genuinely interesting to see what the next five years
bring Jim Webster


I'm not quite sure what you are saying.

Single Farm Payment.
One or two people have said it will be the biggest thing to happen since
1939 with regard to its effects on the countryside, and I quite believe
them.

Jim Webster