 | Home > Off Topic > Now I Understand....Its the Farmers Fault we are flooding |
 
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| GUM97 Member Since: 05 Feb 2012 Location: Cheshire Posts: 3555   
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Everyone has their own 'who to blame'...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-25793358 An engine to TDi for! "Land Rover- Proudly turning drivers into mechanics since 1948"  |
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29th Jan 2014 4:58pm |
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| Laurie Member Since: 22 Feb 2008 Location: Sussex, England Posts: 2897  
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Must have been fast growing trees
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29th Jan 2014 5:33pm |
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| Cheshire110 Member Since: 26 Jul 2013 Location: Cheshire/London Posts: 2769
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I always thought tress were good for stopping flooding?
stop the soil being washed away, intercept some rainfall etc? Cheers, David Land Rovers of all shapes S3 onwards… Daily is a 110 V8. |
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29th Jan 2014 6:33pm |
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| GUM97 Member Since: 05 Feb 2012 Location: Cheshire Posts: 3555
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^^Indeed, they are very good at stopping flooding. Their roots stop the erosion of soil. They also intercept the rain through transpiration, and they slow the surface runoff during heavy rain, thus helping to prevent flooding. An engine to TDi for!
"Land Rover- Proudly turning drivers into mechanics since 1948" |
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29th Jan 2014 6:39pm |
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| custom90 Member Since: 21 Jan 2010 Location: South West, England. Posts: 20612
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I think he means fallen trees and dead ones being carried by the water. Chillin In The Backwoods🇬🇧🇺🇸
⛽️🛢️⚙️🧰💪 |
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29th Jan 2014 6:47pm |
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| lambert.the.farmer Member Since: 11 Apr 2012 Location: harrogate Posts: 2006 
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It's all well and good laying this at the door of farming but there would be more outcry if we weren't producing as much food as we do and the shortfall had to be imported at vast expense-milk from Europe at a tenner a pint just because of transport costs assuming the French weren't blockading the ports.
There is always a price to pay. If the country doesn't want such intensive farming and a reversion back to more nature friendly practices then fine. It has a cost either the price at the till goes higher to pay for imports or the population of the country has to decrease, which would be good as we would not need to build on the flood plains. Rhubarb and custard let fly with their secret weapon. |
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30th Jan 2014 3:29pm |
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| Mountain_man Member Since: 09 Dec 2011 Location: Right side of Offas Dyke Posts: 756 
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Nail-Head there Lambert. The first and biggest problem here is that there are too many people living on this island (and planet in general). Conflicts of interests are only going to get worse and worse. People who pick on sound bites like we need more trees, or we need to dredge the rivers as 2 examples of the be-all-and-end-all solutions are typical of too many of the population who are unable to see just how complicated nature is. George Monbiot is guilty of picking on a couple of emotive and easily repeated mantras that the Daily Mail or the man down the pub can get behind (he makes a great living out of it). Lets blame the farmers for having too many sheep and cutting down all the trees.
FACT. The UK sheep population has fallen by over 12.5% in the past 10 years. FACT. More trees and hedgerows have been planted in the UK over the past 20 years by farmers than by the FCommision OK. Lets implement up-river measures to hold back the water to alleviate flooding lower downstream. I got news for you. The ground up here is saturated and cannot hold another ml of water. If it rains, it is flowing downhill, simple physics. If you had build dams and resevoirs in advance to increase capacity they too would now be full and overflowing. OK. Plant more trees, they use water, and draw it up from their roots to release it harmlessly into the atmosphere. Ahem, it is winter, the trees are asleep! OK, we dredge the rivers. Now this will help, a bit, but only for half the day. You see, these rivers only actually empty into the see when the tide is out. When the tide is in the water can't go out as the Somerset levels are right there... at sea level. When the tide is in the sluices at the river mouths are shut and the pumps are working. But if the rivers were deeper they would surely shift the water out to sea a whole lot quicker and give a bit more volume to refill when the tide is in. However, this loses habitat and costs money.... All I know is that it is wet out side, wetter than I have ever known it. Ground is saturated to the point that when it rains there is water running continually across the surface, everywhere. It is going somewhere. |
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30th Jan 2014 7:04pm |
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| mick Member Since: 08 Feb 2010 Location: Yorkshire Posts: 2109 
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Yep I do and the bows that hang in the water backing the water up |
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30th Jan 2014 7:08pm |
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| martinfiattech Member Since: 13 Nov 2013 Location: leicester Posts: 422
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Why don't the people in these flood prone areas refuse to pay there council tax / water rates until the problems have been delt with, after all that money must be going some where as its not being spent on infrastructure.
Perhaps the government should give a televised account of how much money comes in goes out and what happens in the middle. Now that's reality tv............ |
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30th Jan 2014 10:05pm |
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| ickle Member Since: 22 Jul 2010 Location: South Vendee Posts: 1822  
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One explanation for the county of Somerset's name is that, in prehistory, because of winter flooding people restricted their use of the Levels to the summer, leading to a derivation from Sumorsaete, meaning land of the summer people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_Levels It's below sea level, it will flood, this is a wet island, we get rain, its a risk you take when you choose to live where you choose to live. |
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30th Jan 2014 10:24pm |
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| mick Member Since: 08 Feb 2010 Location: Yorkshire Posts: 2109
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Bet the Dutch would have it sorted in no time
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30th Jan 2014 10:45pm |
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| JWL Member Since: 26 Oct 2011 Location: Hereford Posts: 3443 
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With the demise of the National Sheep Flock, one of the reasons that I left farming as I was the shepherd for a large private estate in Warwickshire with a flock of 1350 breeding ewes. I was called into the managers office to be told that due to a change of policy that the flock was to be halved, my job was to be replaced with contract labour and I had 6weeks to find a new job and somewhere else to live, my eldest boy had just had his first birthday and we were beginning to become aware that he had mental health problems. Not one of the best parts of my life.
The UK has been shaped over the centurys by agriculture, this is what has given us this "Green and pleasant land" that we know, but, it has to be said that with interference from bureaucracy and those who think they know better have undone a lot of the work of those who shaped the land before us. Red tape has stopped the farmers from keeping the watercourses as they were designed for, to enable the water to flow downstream but now they are left to grow over and become stagnant in the interests of nature. Yes while nature should be protected it hasn't done Britains wildlife much good to have had its environment under 6' of water for the past 6 weeks which is now becoming a regular occourance. Countryside skills are fast disappearing as is the knowledge on how to manage the countryside. Even so I think that the old boys who drained the likes of the Somerset Levels and the Fens would be struggling to get their heads round how to cope with the amount of run off from the nations road network let alone the swathes of land covered in housing, factory complexes and car parks. Then there are the new breed of landowners who have no idea on how to manage the land they own, you look at the outskirts of towns and cities where large exclusive executive homes have taken over with large landscaped gardens, natural watercourses have been diverted as they were not asthetically pleasing to the eye and anceint field drains cut up and discarded. Those old boys doing drainage by hand didn't put those clay pipes in for fun, they wouldn't waste their energy for nothing, it's damned hard work by hand and without laser levels. I could rant on for pages so I'll leave it alone for the sake of everybody! |
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30th Jan 2014 11:07pm |
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| Laurie Member Since: 22 Feb 2008 Location: Sussex, England Posts: 2897
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Not MORE windmills!  |
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30th Jan 2014 11:11pm |
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| custom90 Member Since: 21 Jan 2010 Location: South West, England. Posts: 20612
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JWL - "Countryside skills are fast disappearing as is the knowledge on how to manage the countryside."
I very much agree, trouble is I think there are plenty out there that would be prepared to continue the right course of action into the future talking from a younger generations point of view. However that's IF they are allowed to without having mountains of expensive pieces of paper and certificates to do so. Most of which that do are so theory orientated they can't actually do the work required. Rural employers often complain that there are no younger people to take on from them in the future and the ones that are aren't any good with their qualifications. Yet they cut their own noses off to spite their face as when someone with the correct practical ability but without the paper work to go with it - they aren't interested from the outset often with the attitude that you don't know anything and aren't worth the time of day... What happened to the old fashioned "show me what you can do lad" attitude of yester-year? Chillin In The Backwoods🇬🇧🇺🇸 ⛽️🛢️⚙️🧰💪 |
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30th Jan 2014 11:18pm |
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