In November I spent an hour or so on the eastern side of Coille Coire Chuilc, north west of Crianlarich (for maps showing location see below). The wood (“coille”) is the second most southerly fragment of the Caledonian Pine Forest in Scotland and protected as such, being a Site of Special Scientific Interest and being…
Month: December 2021
I have not blogged about the Glen Etive hydro schemes since preliminary construction work started two years ago (see here). I am afraid I have kept away. I was very pleased, therefore, but also extremely concerned to be sent these recent photos of the Allt Charnan by John Sinclair, a local resident. What you can…
We appear back where we were earlier in the year (see here) with the “stay at home” message assuming a central role in the Scottish Government’s attempts to slow the spread of the Omicron variant. This post takes a look at the messaging and its implications. The evolution of the latest “stay at home”…
It was Drennan Watson, long-time conservation activist in the Cairngorms, who first pointed out to me that when saplings emerge from tree shelters they are the perfect height for deer to nibble. But until yesterday I didn’t have any photos to demonstrate what happens. The tree tubes were a few kilometres beyond the neglected western…
Over three weeks after Storm Arwen, a message about storm damaged paths still runs across the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) website. Click on the link Current path closures and you are taken to two headings, “Temporary path closures” and “Current path closures.” This post takes a look at how the CNPA is ignoring the…
I am not a hair shirt environmentalist but, sitting at home with three layers on observing the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) meeting last Monday, I could not help but notice how many members of the Board and senior staff sat through the proceedings in their shirt sleeves. It is possible of…
The Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA)’s consultation on their draft National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP) officially closes on Friday, apparently at 5pm. So far, I have only considered the draft plan from a climate and nature conservation perspective but will continue covering other aspects of the plan after the consultation closes. Before that, however, I…
Following his post on the A82 upgrade (see here), John Urquhart and other volunteers from the Helensburgh and District Access Trust (HADAT) requested a deputation to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board on their alternative proposals for a high road linking Tarbet and Invernan. This was accepted and the HADAT delegation was…
In September it was widely reported (see here for example) that Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust (SLIPIT) had purchased 1,447 hectares of land in the Cairngorms National Park for £7.5m as part of its carbon strategy. This followed BrewDog’s purchase of Kinrara earlier in the year for similar purposes (see here) . This post…
The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) Board meeting today was meant to be held both on-line and in public at the National Park HQ. With the wave of Omicron sweeping the country, I fully expected the meeting to be cancelled but the notice (above) was up last night and still was this…
In my recent post criticising the use of plastic tree tubes to plant woodland in the Cairngorms (see here), I argued that tree shelters wouldn’t be necessary if nature was not so out of kilter – primarily due to sporting land management. The addiction of the native woodland planting business to tree tubes, however, goes…
In Scotland it is often easy to tell whether land is protected for nature, it looks, sounds and feels like nature is doing well. Ben Dolphin explained this recently in a fine article for walkhighlands (see here) about why Scotland’s Nature National Reserves are a good place to walk. The challenge for both the Scottish…
One thing the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) needs to fix urgently in the new National Park Partnership Plan, which is currently out for consultation, is the plastic tree tube problem (see here). The case against using plastic in the countryside I had not driven along the A95 north of Grantown-on-Spey for a number of…