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Does the military run the best nature reserves?
DAVE BANGS explains the unintended positive consequences of off-limits military training grounds
MoD exercises on Salisbury Plain; (inset) a Whinchat

THE Ministry of Defence military lands include many of our best and most intact wild places.

Now hold on! I’m no friend of the armed forces. Let me illustrate.

It’s near midsummer, and dusk is far advanced. I clamber over the gate and make my way along the forest track, accompanied by the soft descending song of willow warblers and the faint calling of a cuckoo from across the wooded valley.

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