A week after the Herald piece, on 29th December, Prince Charles was interviewed about his views on the natural environment by Margaret Atwood, guest editor for the Today programme (see here – from 2.20.30 to 2.29.30).  It is highly recommended listening.  I had not realised that Prince Charles had been speaking out about the dangers of plastic since 1970 and he explained how his concerns about new technologies had been what got him interested in organic farming.  Great stuff but it begs the question, why is Prince Charles allowing his private estate in the Cairngorms, Delnadamph (see here), and Balmoral (see here), to be managed in the way they are?

First though, credit where credit is due. There is very little tree planting going on at Delnadamph but, where there is, there is not a plastic tree tube in sight (see here). That I don’t think is an accident.  Unlike Prince Charles, other landowners round about appear to use plastic tree tubes as a matter of course:

Prince Charles made another very interesting point on the programme.  Despite trying to influence people about the importance of nature through seminars, conferences and “dinner after dinner” he felt he had never got past what he described as the “barriers to change” until the last couple of years. While he fears we may now be too late, he can take an opportunity for change that has not existed up until now.  What better time then to persuade all the other estates in the East Cairngorms Moorland Partnership (see here), perhaps with the support of the National Trust for Scotland, to abandon plastic tree tubes and other damaging land-management practices?

Apart from the absence of plastic, however, there is very little evidence of Prince Charles implementing the beliefs he discussed on Radio 4 at Delnadamph.  He gave a very cogent explanation of his interest in organic farming and his concerns about preventing chemicals getting into the natural environment. That makes the widespread use of what appears to be medicated grit at Delnadamph even harder to explain, let alone justify:

If the grit is not medicated, Prince Charles should say so.  Whatever the case, he should join with those calling on a ban on the use of medicated grit on grouse moors as part of any new licensing system as part of the Scottish Government’s response to the Werritty Review (see here).

Prince Charles went on to explain his concerns about modern agriculture, “nature is not a monoculture, it is based on diversity”.  Why then is Prince Charles allowing a red grouse monoculture at Delnadamph?

Does Prince Charles have no control over the people who are managing his land?   If he believes so strongly in biodiversity, why too is he allowing trapping of stoat and weasel and shooting of mountain hare to continue at Delnadamph?

Delnadamph has fantastic potential in terms of biodiversity.  The soils on upper Donside are better than on Deeside and given the chance the estate could be a wildlife jewel in the eastern Cairngorms.  Instead, most of it is an enormous farm, managed for one species, red grouse, and using new technologies and techniques which Prince Charles identified in the programme as posing an enormous threat to the natural environment.

Over at Balmoral, the situation is slightly different but no better.  It’s also managed to promote one species for shooting, but red deer instead of red grouse.  Dave Morris, a regular contributor to parkswatch, explained the issues well in a letter which appeared in the Herald this week:

The double-think in the letter from the British Association of Shooting and Conservation is striking, claiming sporting estates are benefitting wildlife through muirburn while at the same time claiming those estates are busy sequestering carbon. Clearly BASC have no conception that golden plover, merlin, curlew, whinchat and lesser redpoll existed long before grouse moors. It is time that Prince Charles cut through this nonsense, which is totally alien to his own philosophy, and supported re-wilding at both Delnadamph and at Balmoral.

Prince Charles could do this by adopting the following New Year resolutions for the land he holds in custodianship in the Cairngorms National Park:

• Stop managing Delnadamph as a red grouse farm and let it return to mother nature
• Stop wildlife persecution (corvids, mustelids, hare) and let animal diversity return
• Recognise that in the absence of natural predators, it’s necessary to reduce deer numbers at Balmoral drastically to enable other species to flourish

The attempts by the Cairngorms National Park to promote conservation management by voluntary means, as in the East Cairngorms Moorland Partnership, won’t work unless Prince Charles resolves to put his principles into practice.  If similar New Year resolutions were adopted by landowners across the Cairngorms National Park it would become the most brilliant place for wildlife in the British Isles.