Country diary: Gorse or gold? Choose your riches
Crockanboy comes from the Irish, cnocán buí, meaning 'yellow hillock'. It's a name you could give to each of the Sperrins' undulating curves. These modest mountains are the eroded remnants of huge peaks uplifted millions of years ago by tectonic collisions. Those collisions also forged the metal at the Sperrins' core. In their dark heart, as well as on their sunlit flanks, there's gold in these hills. But which is their true treasure?
Fidelma O'Kane is clear on that matter. With the Save Our Sperrins (SOS) campaign, she has spearheaded resistance to Dalradian, a US-owned mining company that, in 2017, sought permission to mine for gold in this area of outstanding natural beauty. Gold-mining can severely pollute both air and water. Among the many concerns of local people is the amount of water needed to process the ore, which risks dehydrating the surrounding bogland, turning it from a carbon sink into a carbon emitter. There's also concern about rivers like the Owenkillew, home to a rare freshwater mussel, and potential risks to human health.
Eight years on, while legal arguments continue, Dalradian's intentions have been thwarted by the efforts of the local community. Protesters have mounted a stunningly successful environmental campaign, mixing peaceful direct action with dogged planning objections, all leavened by irrepressible creativity and humour. These people appreciate the earth's true value. As theirs has become something of a test case, they also feel a responsibility to other communities in a similar position.
I catch up with Fidelma at a local arts event in support of SOS. As the poet Cherry Smyth reads, we hear the voice of the Sperrins in her words: 'A mountain makes the soul seen. / Its heart, if it should need one, / beats in a ruckle of boulders'.
I glance around at the rapt faces of the audience. The heart of the Sperrins is beating here.
Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian's Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at guardianbookshop.com and get a 15% discount
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
2 days ago
- The Sun
Delta flight carrying 150 passengers narrowly avoids crash as another jet almost lands on top of it during takeoff
A DELTA flight on its way to the US almost had another jet land on top of it. The plane, which had 150 people onboard, was departing for Atlanta when the other flight landed directly in front of it this week. 1 Delta Flight 590 was rolling out of Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez in Mexico City when the AeroMéxico Connect flight 1631 flew over the plane less than 200 feet away on Monday, according to CNN. As the flight was preparing for takeoff, the crew saw another plane landing on the same runway. The jet then landed in front of the Delta flight. After the near-crash, the plane turned back around to the terminal. The crew then spoke with multiple officials before it departed once again almost three hours later. 'Delta will fully cooperate with authorities as the circumstances around this flight are investigated,' Delta said in a statement. 'We appreciate the flight crew's actions to maintain situational awareness and act quickly – part of Delta's extensive training.' Aeromexico said in a statement that the airline is "working closely with the corresponding authorities to conduct a detailed investigation,' according to The Hill. 'At Aeromexico, the safety of our customers and employees is, and will always be, our highest priority.' The near-crash comes after months of frightening flight incidents popping up across the globe. In January, an American Airlines jet collided with an Army helicopter in Washington, D.C., killing everyone on board. Just last month an Air India plane on its way to London crashed with 242 passengers and crew members. Only one person survived, and 19 others were killed on the ground, tallying the death toll to 260, according to the New York Times.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- The Guardian
US faces alarming shortage of firefighters during peak wildfire season, data reveals
More than a quarter of firefighting positions at the United States Forest Service (USFS) remain vacant, according to internal data reviewed by the Guardian, creating staffing shortages as extreme conditions fuel dozens of blazes across the US. The data paints a dangerously different picture than the one offered by Tom Schultz, the chief of the USFS, who has repeatedly assured lawmakers and the public that the agency is fully prepared for the onslaught in fire activity expected through this year. It's already been busy. So far this year there have been more than 41,000 wildfires - an amount nearly 31% higher than the ten-year average. 'In terms of firefighting capacity we are there,' Schultz said during a Senate committee hearing on 10 July, claiming the USFS had hit 99% of hiring goals. He repeated the claim multiple times. But staffing reports produced on 17 July show more than 5,100 positions were unfilled, more than 26%. The problem was especially grim in the Pacific Northwest, a region facing extremely high fire risk this year, with a vacancy rate of 39%. The Intermountain region, the largest region with close to 34 million acres of forest lands that stretch across parts of Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho and California, has nearly 37%. The numbers also fail to capture the strain being felt in specific areas within these regions where ranks are severely thin. There are reports of USFS crews staffed with less than half of the positions once considered necessary to be fully operational. Six federal firefighters, who asked for anonymity because they are barred from speaking publicly, described how the staffing shortages have complicated crews' ability to suppress large fires and contribute to increased injuries and risks for firefighters on the ground. 'There is definitely a lot of tension in the system this season,' said a fire captain, describing how these issues have long plagued the agency. 'It's sort of like that medieval torture devise that stretched people – just one more crank.' Many of the positions left unfilled are in middle management and leadership, leaving critical gaps in experience and tactical planning. 'The agency saying it is 'fully staffed' is dangerous,' a squad leader familiar with the data said. 'Maxing out 19-year-olds with no qualifications isn't the best strategy.' Vacancies at higher levels create limitations on who can be deployed in the field. 'We can't send [a crew] without supervision because it is unsafe – if they don't have a qualified supervisor that engine is parked' said Bobbie Scopa, a retired firefighter who dedicated 45 years to the service. The empty positions also add to fatigue for firefighters who are already working in extreme weather and spending weeks at a time on fire lines with little opportunity for rest and recovery. Without back-up, those at higher levels are less able to take badly-needed time off. If they get sick or injured, there's no one to take over. 'Folks are having to fill in and fill holes,' Scopa said, 'and they are going out without all the positions they need for a team.' The agency did not respond to requests for comment about the issues or questions about Schultz's claims of full staffing. But one firefighter speculated the agency may be using hiring numbers that only show whether an offer was accepted, and not if that hiring created a vacancy in another area. 'If people that are already permanent take a different job it still counts as a hiring action,' he said. 'But if the place they leave doesn't get backfilled, it just means they moved someone, not that they added someone.' Another firefighter said the agency might be exploiting the difference between 'minimum' staffing requirements and what was traditionally considered 'fully staffed'. 'You can technically play a football game with 11 people on the team,' he said. 'It would be considered negligent, maybe even abusive to the players, but they signed up to play and it's technically allowed.' The Forest Service has struggled to recruit and retain qualified firefighters in recent years, as escalating job hazards paired with low pay pushed scores of people out of the service. The exodus has exacerbated the exhaustion felt by those who remained, creating a viscous cycle at a time when the climate crisis is fueling a new era of catastrophic fire. The USFS lost nearly half of its permanent employees between 2021 and 2024 alone, leaving the agency scrambling to fill positions with less experienced recruits. The loss in experience took a toll on the workforce, several firefighters said, and the agency was left struggling to keep pace. The issue has come into sharper focus as the Trump administration continues to slash budgets and cut support staff positions, creating a new layer of challenges and plummeting morale. Firefighters and forest experts expressed deep concerns that the drastic cuts and resignation incentives offered earlier this year, which culled thousands from the agency's ranks, have left crews dangerously unprepared. Roughly 4,800 USFS workers signed on to a program offering paid administrative leave through September if they opted to resign or retire, pushed by the Trump administration as a way to rapidly shrink the federal government. While firefighters were exempt from the programs , they left significant gaps in a workforce that supports wildfire mitigation and suppression. That figure also includes 1,400 people with so-called 'red cards' who trained to join operations on the fire line if needed. The Department of Agriculture, which oversees the forest service, has tried to address the loss of employees with fire qualifications by calling for those with red cards who took early resignation or retiring offers to voluntarily return for the season and take on fire assignments until their contracts end. But when Senators questioned Schultz about the problem, he said the agency did not yet have numbers on if staffers decided to return. 'We depend on those people to help run the large fires,' Scopa said. 'Teams are not fully functional right now because we have lost so many people.' Firefighters have already been experiencing the effects of a reduced workforce firsthand. There have been reports of crews being left without power for weeks due to cut maintenance workers, paychecks being late or halved because administrative roles were left empty, or firefighters having to mow lawns or do plumbing work in addition to their other duties. 'I am hearing from firefighters who aren't getting meals because they are having problems with the contracts for the caterers because we laid off people who worked in contracting,' Scopa said. 'There was no efficiency in this – they just slashed it with an ax.' And more cuts could be coming. Schultz told lawmakers that the Trump administration's plans to eliminate multiple programs in the agency along with 'significant funding reductions in programs that remain', with greater responsibility shifted to states, private landowners, and tribes to fund emergency preparedness, management, and response. The administration is also proposing to consolidate federal firefighters into a new agency, housed under the Department of Interior – an idea that many federal firefighters support – but there are concerns that the process is being rushed and prioritized over managing emergency response during an intense summer. 'You all have trotted out another new reorganization in the middle of a very dangerous fire season,' said Ron Wyden, the Oregon senator, to Schultz during the committee meeting, warning that the lack of emergency preparation this year could cost lives. 'These infernos are not your grandfather's fires – they are bigger and they are hotter,' he said. 'We need to address this critical preparedness gap.' In Oregon, where region-wide staffing gaps are among the most acute, the governor declared a state of emergency last week to preposition resources for the threats expected from wildfire. Several blazes have already torn through the state this year, including the Cram fire, which had sprawled across more than 95,000 acres by Monday, making it the largest in the nation. Firefighters were battling 83 large blazes nationwide on 21 July, roughly two-weeks after the country's fire managers moved the country's response to 'Preparation Level 4,' the second-highest designation meant to show that resources are already heavily committed. Despite his assurances to Congress that the USFS was ready for the intense fire activity, Schultz shifted tone in an internal memo sent to agency leadership last week, shared with the Guardian. 'As expected, the 2025 fire year is proving to be extremely challenging,' he wrote. Forecasts issued from the Climate Prediction Center and Predictive Services indicate the season is far from slowing. Higher than normal temperatures are predicted for much of the US through September, along with drier than normal conditions, creating high risks for big burns. 'We have reached a critical point in our national response efforts and we must make every resource available,' Schultz added. 'At times like this we know the demand for resources outpaces their availability.'
Times
4 days ago
- Times
US nuclear weapons ‘on UK soil' for first time in 17 years
The US has stationed nuclear weapons in Britain for the first time in nearly 20 years for potential deployment on a new squadron of British jets, analysts have said. A transport plane was tracked on Thursday during a ten-hour flight from Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, the US Air Force's main nuclear storage site, to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. Analysts said that the route taken by the C-17 transport looked like a 'one-way drop-off' and meant that it was likely that the UK was hosting US nuclear weapons for the first time since 2008. The US and the UK declined to comment. RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk is the largest US air base in Europe ALAMY RAF Lakenheath is host to US air force units and military personnel. The US recently upgraded the facilities in preparation for the arrival of B61 nuclear weapons, including the addition of ballistic shelters and shields.
