The hills are alive… with anguished wails about the Lake District | Letters

George Monbiot should set his sights against the 4x4s ravaging Little Langdale, not Lakeland sheep, says Jinty Nelson; Scotland is forging a middle way between sheep and trees, says Paul Brannen MEP

Two months ago you published an article by George Monbiot (The Lake District as a world heritage site – what a disaster that would be, 10 May). I responded in a letter the Guardian published online (12 May). I wrote that George had not set his sights well, had failed to say which Lake District farmers have fought “tooth and nail” against conservation and “revile” the National Trust and the RSPB, and had failed to show why world heritage status conferred by Unesco should be disastrous for Lakeland.

In this week’s intemperate article (The Lake District as a world heritage site is a blatant assault on nature, 12 July), George has the sheep in his sights again, reviling them as “a fully automated system for ecological destruction”, and alleging that they “cleanse the land of almost all wildlife”. This is a travesty of the Lake District I know and love. Unesco’s award is conditional on conserving the area, and that includes its sheep, as well as its wildlife and its unique tranquillity.

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