UK - Last April, Offham Hill Valley was saved from senseless destruction after hundreds of volunteers labored for two weeks to restore irreplaceable South Downs turf heavily damaged by a farmer's plow.
Offham Valley lies near Lewes in the eastern portion of the South Downs in Sussex. A small and beautiful valley, it consists of a mix of species-rich downland, woodland and scrub. Largely untouched because of its steepness, it is an oasis of life in a desert of plowed fields. It is designated a SSSI (Site of Special Scenic Interest), one of the strictest protections available in Britain.
Farmer Harmer, the landowner, had been receiving £40 ($64) per hectare by the Ministry of Agriculture to leave the land alone. But Harmer reckoned he could do better and submitted an application to plow up the land to plant flax, which would earn him £591 ($946) a hectare.
Harmer managed to plow about a third of the valley before he was stopped by a small group of protesters (including members of the local Labour Party) who threw their bodies in front of his tractor. Early the next morning, several members of Earth First!ers built a barricade on the path leading to the valley.
Brighton Friends of the Earth held a well-attended press conference overlooking the destruction and suddenly the campaign was big news (even though a leading Sussex conservationist stated that he thought there was "zero chance" of saving what remained).
A group of squatters set up a camp on the downs and began a vigil as the deadline for planting the flax crop approached.
While Harmer's tractor had cross-plowed much of the downland, the turf on a substantial portion of the land had only been turned over. We set about the long task of "unplowing" this portion - burying our hands in the earth and reinstalling the turf. Working so closely with the soil, we noticed how species-rich and intricate the downland flora really is. It was an amazing experience as, foot by arduous foot, we saw what had been desolation begin to green over.
As Barry Lopez put it: "I know of no restorative of heart, body, and soul more effective against hopelessness than the restoration of the Earth. Like childbirth, like the giving and receiving of gifts, like the passion and gesture of the various forms of human love, it is holy."
During a campaign stop in Brighton, Labour Party leader Tony Blair was asked if he was against the destruction of the Offham SSSI. He replied, "I've always been against the destruction at Offham." His statement was faxed to the local Tory MP's and suddenly, politicians were falling over each other to be the most committed to "defending Offham." Even a Tory MP who helped draft the notorious anti-activist Criminal Justice Act announced, "I support the Un-plowers."
In a last-minute attempt to help out the beleaguered local Tories' re-election chances, the Environment Minister put a Protection Order on Offham - one of only six issued in the last five years. In a vain publicity stunt, Harmer even came up and turned some turf - until the cameras went away. We had won.
A "Picnic and Turf Turning" event was held three days later, to celebrate the victory. It was an amazing sight as people of all ages wound their way through the barricades and on to the sunny down. All day the turf was turned back. At one point, nearly 250 people - many of them children - lined up across the hill with spades, forks and bare hands, helping the earth heal.
Taking on farmers is a lot easier than taking on road building. While campaigns against road-building are essential, they give the illusion that mega-developments alone are the major cause of ecological destruction while the leading cause of devastation in the UK is the way we grow our food. We are conducting a biological "Farmageddon" against the Earth.
In 1940, the German Luftwaffe made an aerial survey of much of Britain. "These magnificent photographs," wrote Oliver Rackham in 1986, "record every tree, hedge, bush, pingo and pond in several counties." They show that "almost every hedge, wood, heath, fen etc. on the Ordnance Survey map of 1870 is still there…. The 70 eventful years between, and even World War two itself, were less destructive than any five years since." The commonest cause of this post-war orgy of vandalism, Rackham concludes, "has been destruction by modern agriculture; the second, destruction by modern forestry."
According to the Council for the Protection of Rural England, "since 1945, the UK has lost 30 percent of its rough grazing land, 65 percent of song thrushes, 90 percent of meadows, 50 percent of lowland woodlands, heaths and fens and 140,000 miles of hedgerow."
We spent nine gorgeous days at Offham. Living there and defending the land re-inspired us. If you ever walk the South Downs Way and you come across a beautifully vibrant valley just north of Lewes, kiss the earth and shout to the four winds - "Direct Action Works!".
- South Downs Earth First! c/o PO Box 2971 Brighton BN2 2TT UK
savage@easynet.co.uk
Turf-Battle Victory at Offham Hill