Harvest Time

Well it’s around harvest time, so here’s the aftermath of a Lakeland tree harvest.  The connection by the way is “mountains”, although the one above is less rocky and not nearly as high above sea level, but it’s roughly the same shape.  Could it instead be a “hill”?  What is the threshold that determines whether high ground is either termed as a hill or a mountain?

The photo was originated on slide film 15 or so years ago during a cycle trip through the Lake District, which although a national park is also a working environment…which means scars on the landscape such as this one can be found in various places.  Some might ask whether or not this sort of human activity, based on a non-indigenous species of tree, is appropriate in a national park.  Also, what happens to the unsightly (?) stumps which are left after tree harvesting?  I’d assumed that eventually they went back to nature, thereby allowing more trees to be planted, but it seems that stump harvesting for biomass energy production is also carried out.

Whatever the situation is with tree management, the image is an example of how humans manipulate the environment to their advantage…or is it in fact the aftermath of a beavers stripping the hillside of trees to build a large dam?