Hillwise Freelance Mountain Leader

I was recently reading “The secret life of trees” by Peter Wohlleben, an excellent read, which I would recommend to anyone interested in developing or maintaining woodland. However as the book went on I started to get a sinking feeling, a feeling of almost hopelessness. The problem is not about identifying sites and planting trees, […]

Recently I blogged about Rewilding and the amount of pasture used for horse grazing. Having focused my mind I decided to take things a stage further, so I printed off a OS1:25000 scale, which I had zoomed in on and selected to cover approximately 12 square Kilometres in an area close to my home.

It is a strange  that, in my experience, many villagers, in most parts of the country, whilst liking to see a stream pass through their village, would struggle, to describe where that stream rises, which other villages it passes through and where it meets the sea, let alone what pollution risks there might be to […]

A case of horses for courses?

Climate change is happening, and we need to act, so that means planting more trees right? Well yes that will help, although it requires a more nuanced approach than just chucking any old tree in on any bit of spare land. However in the UK there is an arguably equally powerful tool, which if left […]

Let me begin by saying that “I believe in rewilding”, this implies that I put my faith in this concept, in this case my faith for the future of the planet. Many, many people are thinking and saying the same, to the point where this “faith” is fast becoming a global religion. But like most […]

I read a lot about rewilding and I hear a lot more about it. Usually the theme is planting trees or allowing trees to regenerate naturally in uplands and pasture land. I don’t intend to go into the rights and wrongs of converting these areas to woodland, but to focus on one aspect of the […]

Regular readers of my blog could be forgiven for believing that it’s just a page about walking kit, but in reality its about any issues impinging on the hillgoer, and environment is central to the hillwalkers raison d’etre. Environment is also more controversial than which boots are best, and it should be understood that I’m […]