Nevis Faces - Cathy Mayne
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- Опубликовано: 21 апр 2020
- The fourth in a series of six films I made last year for the Nevis Landscape Partnership. All feature interesting folk who are very different but share a common interest - Ben Nevis. I'll upload the rest of the series in the coming days. Cathy Mayne is an ecologist and works on projects restoring natural woodlands and other habitats in Glen Nevis and many other parts of the Scottish highlands. I particularly like her dose of realism about the nature of ecosystems and the choices we have to make to look after them properly.
The Nevis Landscape Partnership do a ton of excellent work looking after the Ben Nevis and Glen Nevis area. Please do donate to them if you can and support everything from footpath maintenance to native forest regeneration.
www.nevislandscape.co.uk
My books about training for climbing: www.davemacleod.com/shop
My Patreon: / davemacleod 
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I like this person. She has a great thought process and ideology that I wish more people were inline with. As a person whom eats an almost complete plant based diet, I find myself agreeing with her ideas entirely. I am reluctant for the most part to share my diet choices with people as I feel a large proportion of the general public have incorrect or binary thoughts of why the 'Vegan' choice exists. Great film Dave!
Best one yet !!!! Pod cast style interview talk with this lady please, if she is willing.
Dave, this might just be the best and most important video/film you’ve made. I’ve recently discovered your channel via my personal return to climbing. I absolutely love your climbing videos. I’m also a hunter and this video my friend is excellent. The entire topic is so appropriate for a larger discussion. Thank you very much for filming this!
Such a fantastic mini documentary. I look forward to more. Thank you!
Really enjoying these videos.
She’s correct. The USA and Canada have very quickly turned into places where we cannot access the nicest places of nature without excessive driving.
I love! "When in doubt go out" possibly a tag line to live by. I to find great comfort and spirituality when i am in wild areas. Great film covering a huge and a very sensitive subject that I'm sure many people will find conflicting to watch however her message is on point
That was brilliant thanks. Really appreciate listening to someone who looks at these issues with their head, logic and education leading the argument backed up by the passion from the heart. Excellent! 🤘
This is really superb, thanks Claire and Dave.
this series is really great, thanks for making it!
What a great informative film!
Nice one! 👍
this was a great look at human ecological impact and loved her views! thanks dave for the video extremely well shot!
I'd love to hear more about this if possible. Brilliant series so far, as it puts into perspective the enormity of the work that goes on in an area like this, and I'm sure every outdoor area we all enjoy, and to see it from other perspectives than climbers is fantastic. Can't wait for more. Fantastic production level as always Dave.
beautiful filming, fascinating topic, loved it.... didn't really want to hear the closing message right now though but just unfortunate timing!
Just discovered this mini series - thought provoking stuff about how we engage with the "natural" landscape. Well done C&D!
This is astounding work, Dave. I love your climbing films, books, etc., but this is a worthwhile venture down a different path. I can't understand why this doesn't have a million views. It's beautifully shot, the character sketch of Cathy is intimate and powerful. The message is important, and Cathy excels in her role as advocate. I wish you well in this new venture.
Well done!
enjoying these Dave, well done from Noozieland where we have plenty of our own issues! once t pests/ not-native fauna+flora are in you’re way up t creek.....but as Cathy said, if we want to be consumers there’s a price; shamefully nature pays most of that
This one is awesome. As a climber and a (new) hunter, I've found those two worlds at times hard to reconcile. Many in the climbing world are skeptical of the hunting world, and the climbing world is altogether foreign to most in the hunting world. It's cool to see a climber I look up to showing such an intelligent, analytic hunter.
Thanks for all the awesome motivation over the years Dave.
Agree- these worlds are normally far apart. I find many people in the climbing community have a negative view on hunting, because we don't technically need to do it anymore. Hence, if you are not doing it out of necessity then it is wrong, which I actually agree with...However, people like Cathy are doing it out of necessity, but I don't think many people understand that there are places where hunting can aid the overall habitat, as unfortunately there is currently no way to go back to the natural food chain.
What an impressive person. Fantastic film.
Very clear and very true words
Dr. Mayne makes some brilliant points and I found most of the feature very interesting. However, between 4:53 and 6:10 I have some issues. I think Dr. Mayne is mostly talking about hunting deer, but it does sound like she is making general points about climate change and the way food production is treated in conjunction with nature globally. This does not imply her commentary is restricted to the Highlands.
She identifies our reluctance to face the brutality of nature as one of the barriers to restoring strong and resilient natural processes. Maybe in the Scottish highlands or in New Zealand which faces similar problems with large grazers this is true, but this cannot be applied to very many ecosystems globally. For example trapping, baiting and shooting of feral animals in Australia is not hampered by public squeamishness; and how extensively can we pose as apex predators to allow broader livestock opportunities and managed culling of native grazers anywhere else? I find this a bizarre generalization from her without qualification beyond her hunting. Does the comment “we won’t tolerate the brutality of nature as it sorts its systems out for itself” actually make sense in context to anyone?? It sounds more like she is lamenting that people don’t understand the necessity of her hunting.
She connects all this to climate change, restoring natural processes, and that sustainable food sources primarily depend on “how it got to your plate”. I still feel this is a weird connection to make but either way, in order to protect nature, you have to do a lot of things: Why does restoring resilient processes supplant simple sustainable food decisions as a general guiding principle, just because we do not have a comprehensive guarantee of the impact a general diet has on sustainability and conservation? I don’t think we need a “shift”, I think we need this discourse she very interestingly introduces as an expert, in addition to guidance on food choices. Her grand take on it all is a bit convoluted and shifts the responsibility because it implies that controlling the impacts of food production is more complex than the macro decisions of a population (like a plant based diet). This is only weakly observant and mostly unhelpful.
The fact remains that until we have fully characterized supply chains and ratings of ecological impacts (such as carbon emissions, water usage, eutrophication potential, ecotoxicity, land clearing etc.) of our food products, and I hope we soon do, ONE of the most effective and simple things you can do on average to mitigate carbon emissions and general ecological harm is to eat less meat. There are plenty of exceptions, and hunting deer in the Highlands is one of them. I would love if we could make sustainable food choices more nuanced than this in the future, but we’re mostly not there yet, and Dr. Mayne gets very close to letting people off the hook, which I’m not sure is what she intended.
Well I am not Cathy, but my interpretation was absolutely that her discussion was not limited to deer hunting and has relevance for wider food production, land management etc worldwide. The comment about nature sorting problems out for itself makes sense to me - if we do not accept our role in the ecosystem (one of many other predators) then not only will the herbivores ultimately suffer but many other animals in the ecosystem. The system will regenerate in time with other predators, but not before a lot of suffering has taken place.
I think you see an illusory dichotomy between restoring resilient ecosystem processes and sustainable food decisions. They are, in the end, one and the same, generally speaking. I think what she is getting at is that simplistic decisions such as adopting a plant based diet are precisely the problem. I take it from her comments that she encourages people to be on the hook to look beyond the simplistic idea that eating less meat will significantly mitigate carbon emissions and cause ecological damage and actually look at both the impacts on places such as her own, but also the scientific data.
@@climbermacleod Thanks for the clarification Dave, I'm a huge fan and I found the video very worthy and relevant. on your second paragraph, I agree that we should be more curious about our food and take more responsibility for the wider impact that it has. However, in refusing to generalize by only seeking case by case answers, we have to be careful we are not resigning ourselves to inaction by default: Some simple ideas are effective, as long as they don't become dogma (that may be Dr. Mayne's issue). We're also talking about the behavior of world's population, too much complexity can be paralyzing.
It remains that for those unwilling or unable to delve into the science, it's highly likely that eating less meat will yield environmental benefits on average, and it is the most simple sustainable adjustment to their diet that they can make at the moment. Nonetheless, this was a fascinating mini-doco/case study into our other options. These conversations absolutely need to become more sophisticated.
Food for thought
No way, it's Cath! Good egg all round.
Great film, beautifully produced and a wonderful person. Interesting comments about over population of large herbivores. Very true, but this is hugely exacerbated by much current deer stalking which right now is barely wild hunting. At the population levels it is akin to canned hunting. People pay money to stalk so estates essentially overstock so paying guests get their kill. It’s an emotive issue but grouse and deer shooting are not great for the land or wilderness in their current over-commercialised forms. They are pretty much mono-cultures. I’m not opposed to responsible hunting, but they are corrupted by money and deer estates and grouse moors rarely support great diverse eco-systems.
why is Emma Thompson telling me to shoot dear?
I don't understand why she thinks wolves/lynxes are completely incompatible with keeping livestock... There are wolves in most of Europe and many parts of the US. They seem to manage a compromise
My daughter and I usually eat venison steaks once a week. It's by far the best meat available. Healthier than beef or pork, and far more delicious!
I know this is a campaign to cover the Nevis area specifically, but it would be great to see other interesting areas covered like Skye or Torridon.
Thanks for posting these Dave. They're a welcome escape!
Thanks. I'd agree that wild venison is healthier than grain and soybean raised pork. But not beef. Ruminants have a rather special ability of being able to convert most of the linoleic acid they consume and so are essentially as healthy as venison.
@@climbermacleod We usually buy beef steaks only when venison isn't available, but we'll change to beef more often now I think.
Thanks Dave. Please keep up the amazing work!
I agree with this ideology but I dont think that doing that behind a sniper is the right method.
Super serie and it's nice to get this point of view on youtube
What method would you suggest that is cleaner than a bullet? You'll be hard pressed to find a better way to clean a kill.
Another bad example of hunters in the UK: ruclips.net/video/_qI7o9H_wAY/видео.html [This Woman Runs Into Hunts to Save Foxes | The Dodo - 2019]
Not saying this applies to Cathy Mayne, but this is one example why hunting should be viewed and reported critical. It might be a necessity in some places but it should never be viewed as a sport or fun thing to do.
Why is the introduction of larger predators not working? She sadly does not explain that part very well. Are the pastures impossible to fence off or impossible to replace with crops? I agree with culling if it is indeed impossible to introduce predators, but I would love to see some evidence since I don't know much about that area. The cull needs to be balanced and planned well or it won't work. Hunting is not a sustainable choice if too many people start hunting and wipe out the deer population. It does not scale well for the general population. In our history humans were very good with removing some species from the earth by hunting. No, I don't judge her for culling if there is no other way but please don't promote hunting as a casual activity or at least warn about possible negative impacts as well.
It's very sad to see deer treated like livestock and bred for "sport / recreational hunting" in places like the USA ("deer farms"). Also, let's hope CWD won't make it to the UK, I think it's speculated that it originated from a deer farm, but I am not sure if I remember that correctly. UGH, this disease gives me the shivers!! By the way, hunting and eating bush meat is generally not a great thing if we think about other zoonotic diseases like COVID-19 (Probably pangolins / bats). Animal agriculture plays a role in zoonotic diseases as well, since it can function as a potent amplifier / bridge:
(2*)"While many originate in wildlife, livestock often serve as an epidemiological bridge between wildlife and human infections. This is especially the case for intensively-reared livestock which are often genetically similar within a herd or flock and therefore lack the genetic diversity that provides resilience: the result of being bred for production characteristics rather than disease resistance."
Sadly, pangolins are bred for consumption as well, let's hope this will all stop one day. Hopefully, some day in the future, with advancements in technology, cultured meat will replace (animal-) agriculture as a whole. No more (1*)"It is estimated that each year 72 billion land animals are slaughtered for food."
Only eat (wild-) animals if you depend on it for survival but better replace it with plant food.
One problem in Scotland is that much of the grazing is open grazing on hillsides. These are difficult/impossible to fence off or replace with crops. Hunting here is also far more niche than in places such as the US, I think it would take a long time for it to become so popular that it would risk wiping out the entire deer population.
I think it's important to remember this video is a localised perspective on what needs to be done in the Scottish Highlands and doesn't apply elsewhere, likewise our global ideas about general rules of ecology need to be tempered when applied to specific locations with their own nuances.
It seems that the deer population is far too high. (Can happen with any species.)
Also, she said if you try to introduce wolves or other large predators, then they gorge on all the deer and now you have a lot of breeding (too many predators now).
Very interesting article I just read and slightly related: www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/25/the-end-of-farming-rewilding-intensive-agriculture-food-safety
I might edit this post with more information.
Fails to mention about the sheep that grazed these hills in there thousands for decades before they were taken away when subsidies stopped, stop blaming deer for lack of trees.
Deer are the issue now.
More surrounded by technology ? Like the expensive rifle and sights ?Is deer hunting not a privilege for those with money or contacts ?Still flying regularly? Why should anyone take you seriously ?