Strike balance between farming and environment

I question who made the countryside in the first place. Generations of farmers, from the first caveman.

A balance must be struck between the varying interested bodies. The RSPB must be realistic and practical as must the other relevant parties.

This small country of ours cannot afford to buy all its food from abroad, nor would the public want us to. Their support and need for farmers' markets – local produce, beef, pork, lamb, poultry and vegetables – fresh from farm to abattoir and field supports this statement.

As for livestock being a significant contribution to global warming, what about all the human population? What do these experts suggest as a solution for that? The EU, CAP and Defra would no longer exist

(O happy thought!) without farmers. So all these people must get their act together for the benefit of all, and soon.

From: Pamela Frankland, Hull Road, Dunnington, York.

From: Mrs C Whalley, Green Hammerton, York.

we have had a fish pond in the garden for many years without any problems. After the past few months of severe weather we wondered if our fish would survive which most of them have, but we have found about 40 frogs which have died and floated to the surface after all the frost and ice has gone.

We wondered, as your correspondent did, if they had frozen to death under the ice, but as we've always made sure there has been a clear surface through the ice (because of the fish) we thought that this would also help the frogs. So, we have wondered if there has been any virus which would account for the death of so many frogs. On a happier note, this past week has seen several clumps of frog spawn – so not all the wildlife has suffered.

From: Margaret Halton, Orchard Close, South Milford, North Yorkshire.

FURTHER to the letter from Y Spencer about dead frogs, we have a pond in our garden with quite a deep area. This year, the ice has been very thick, taking a long time for a kettle of boiling water to thaw a small area of ice.

We have found two dead frogs, of identical appearance to the one photographed. We also have found two dead goldfish about eight inches long, however, small fish have survived. On lifting some greenery on the edge of the pond we have, however, found a large number of alive (but dopey!) small frogs.

From: Eric Walkington, Middlethorpe Grove, Dringhouses, York.

THE brilliant wildlife article by Robert Fuller on the woodcock (Country Week, March 13), made reference to the location where he saw this well-camouflaged bird. A "small pool in a valley bottom near Thixendale.... where spring water flowed in and out of the pool..."

It reminded me very much of our school's visit to the dry valleys in the porous chalk of the Wolds, where we were studying agricultural land use.

After the severe winter of 1963 I suggested to the students that we may witness a "gypsey", the Yorkshire term denoting a stream that appears intermittently when the water table is higher, eg, when heavy snow melt occurs, usually in the spring.

Those in the South prefer to call the chalkland streams "bournes", hence Bournemouth, Eastbourne.

One of my students, in writing his report, said he witnessed a "gipsy" emerge from the valley floor, run 200 yards through the village of Thixendale, then disappear into the ground. I'm uncertain if his DNA had a Romany link.