Moral Hazard, Invasive edition

A few years ago, one of 'our' reg’lar hill-walkers paused at the gate for a chat. In among a lot of other information, he mentioned that he’d seen a clump of Rhododendron ponticum up the hill, far from any walkers’ motorway, but close to the fence that separates the commonage from the various single proprietor holdings. I was interested, because I’d shared a house with two long-haired botanists in the 00s and one of them had contract work in Killarney National Park . . . where Rhododendron is an invasive scourge – relentlessly driving native oak Quercus & Scot’s Pinus climax woodland to the brink of extinction. It can be 'treated' [R is for Roundup] but it's hard, hand, work.

I was interested, but I was also still working and it was term-time and I didn't immediately make it up the lane to yomp across the pathless mountain to take pics and write it all up for The Blob. Indeed, with my two-week event horizon, the whole incident slipped from my ‘mind’ temporarily and then Coronarama closed down at lot of practice and patterns and habits . . . including plant identification.

Then, a few days ago, we heard that one of the other Blackstairs commons had scored 0% /100 in their evaluation under Acres: the latest = current agri-environmental scheme. The explanation given telegraphically as “invasive alien species, contact Head Office for remediation”.
I thought “feckit, that Rhodo has come home to roost on our neighbours and I'm sorry they’re getting 0% help from The Man”
then I thought “feckit, if I / we / they had done something about it when it was one scraggly bush five years ago, then it would have been a lot easier to extirpate”
and then I thought “feckit, how long do we have before the offspring of that lone bush sends tentrils up the stairs and strangles us all in our beds?”

By contrast [Smug alert] Our commonage score was 65%, which rounds up to 70% which secures all 20 of us commoners a modest stipend from Bruxelles. It’s more money than a score of 60% (let alone brrrpt 0%) and close enough to 75% (rounds to 80%) giving us something extra to which can aspire. I won’t bore you with the details but we also have problem with invasive plants degrading the quality of our iconic, fragile, endangered Dry Heath [it's a biome / habitat]. IF we can fell out all visible Sitka spruce Picea sitchensis before the next visit of the inspectors in Summer 2025 THEN we can get paid at a higher rate in the future. 

I was articulating my indignation on behalf of our near neighbours who had been hung out to dry because Rhodo appeared on their patch through no fault of their own. Then I found myself asking why? we had a problem with Sitka spruce degrading one of Europe’s precious rare extensive habitats. It’s because, 45 years ago, Coillte (the semi-state forestry quango) acquired 20 hectares of upland cheap and planted it with a mono-culture of Sitka. That forest was clear felled in 2021 but not before it had spread Picea seedlings far and wide across our commonage, which abuts the Coillte forest. We’ve spent chunks of the last 5 years cutting these buggers down. But it’s only under the Acres scheme that we are actively getting penalized for the presence of Sitka.

Coillte made money on acquiring then planting their enormous land-bank – A Lot of money – and locally they’ve doubled down on planting spruce to set another 40 year cycle in train. When big corporations (banks, bloodbank, beef, broadcaster and that's just be Bs) take risks  and make a lot of money for directors and shareholders then they keep the profits. When they take risks and it doesn’t work out, they are too big to fail and the government bails them out. It’s called moral hazard when no adverse consequences attach to poor decisions.  

Coillte, by washing hands and walking away from the eco-mess they have visited upon us, their neighbours, are basking in the privileges of moral hazard. It’s the poor bloody infantry farmers who are left to stamp out the contagion.