It’s one thing to flog your land till there is nothing left but bare earth blowing away in the autumn gales. It is another thing entirely to pretend that your short-sighted greed and mismanagement has anything at all to do with "protecting the environment". This isn’t desert. Other properties nearby were in vastly better shape. Sure, it’s hard country after a bad year, but this vast expanse of bare ground has one cause and one cause only: too many sheep left without feed for much too long.