The day after turnout for the General Election was 67% for the UK as a whole and 68.1% in Scotland its worth considering more lessons from Australia (see here) where voting is compulsory for all government elections and referenda. There too, the lower house, equivalent to the UK’s House of Commons, while like us having…
Category: National Parks
While who gets elected in the General Election may in large part be decided by attitudes to Scottish Independence and Brexit, the wider issues facing the world are the ongoing crisis in the capitalism, the climate emergency and the collapse of the natural environment. Our National Parks are microcosms of that wider world and reflect…
Fires and National Parks I have been back from Australia two weeks. Yesterday I checked on the fire that had been burning in the Wollemi National Park when I was out there (see here). Its still burning. At the end of October, soon after it started, 3400 hectares of the National Park, the second…
I am in Australia, having travelled from a country where soils and vegetation are being washed away by water (see here) to one where they are being ravaged by fire. Both fire and flood have been triggered by extreme weather events which are a consequence of the global climate and environmental crisis. In Australia there have…
Last Thursday a friend of mine who lives in the Lake District attended a packed extraordinary meeting of Keswick Town Council called to consider a motion of no confidence in the Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA). The motion was prompted by the decision of the LDNPA to grant planning permission to itself to tarmac…
A number of people have been asking me about what is happening with the seven Glen Etive Hydro schemes which were approved by the full Highland Council in March. Until last month, it was difficult to answer. There had been no reports of activity on the ground and no further information had been added to…
Its now over 6 weeks since Scottish Natural Heritage opened its consultation on the General License (see here) which runs until Weds 9th October. This post takes a look at the consultation, how the licensing system for killing wild birds in Scotland operates and argues that different and higher standards should apply in our National…
[This post has been updated since publication to correct two erroneous claims, that not all of Balmoral is included in the East Cairngorms Moorland Partnership and that Delnadamph, owned by Prince Charles, was not a member of the partnership. See below]. The news that mountain hare numbers have collapsed in Scotland (see here for excellent…
Last year in the Pyrenees, after a couple of hours walking west from Bujaruelo along the GR11 we came across a large – 50 plus – group of young people packing up camp after a night of very heavy rain. I was struck at the time that you would be very unlikely to see such…
Almost the first newspaper article I read on return from the Pyrenees was about an Innovation Challenge launched by Forest and Land Scotland to increase the number of seeds from trees which are planted that develop into saplings (see here). Apparently two thirds of seeds planted for forestry purposes in Scotland never make it due…
I have recently returned from my second walking trip to the Pyrenees (see here for links to posts last year). On the French side Public transport up into the Pyrenean valleys from the rail network are poor and we had to wait a couple of hours in Gedre for a connection to Gavarnie with…
The night before going on holiday a couple of weeks ago, I was on the Question and Answer Panel organised by Patagonia following the showing of their fantastic film Blue Heart in Edinburgh (see here for film – 45 mins). The discussion (a podcast of the event is being produced) focused on the similarities and…
Background The Planning Bill, which is about to be considered again by the Scottish Parliament, originated as a response to developers who claimed that the Planning System was an impediment to “economic development”. The real explanation for why developments can take a long time to materialise lies in most developments being driven first and foremost…
A lot has happened since my posts last month on the Glen Etive hydro schemes (see here) and (here). For almost the first time in Scotland hydro schemes are being subject to detailed scrutiny by locally elected members, informed by their knowledge and skills and the considerable public debate that has been taking place. This…
What is the connection between national parks and Brexit? Not much might be your first reaction, but read on…… The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy has an influence on most of the UK’s countryside, from the intensively managed fields adjacent to our villages and towns to the highest summits where the sheep roam freely. Most…
Following my last post on the seven Glen Etive hydro schemes (see here) I found that Mountaineering Scotland had issued an excellent news release prior to the site visit by Councillors on Monday (see here). This does not appear to have been picked up by the mainstream media. What did get coverage in the Press and…
Today the South Area Planning Committee of Highland Council is taking a (road-side) look at the sites of all seven proposed Glen Etive Hydro Schemes, and a further hydro scheme in Glen Coe. Then, at a special meeting on Wednesday at Council HQ in Inverness they will take a decision on the applications (see here…
Following my post (see here) on the revisions to the Glen Etive hydro schemes, on the shortest day I went to take a closer look to compare what is being proposed compared with what is on the ground. I walked over the land included in four of the seven schemes, including the two subject to new…
Notifications that two of the Glen Etive hydro applications had been withdrawn were issued by Highland Council last week but, before anyone celebrates, they have been replaced with new applications for the Allt Mheuran and the Allt Fhaolain. That re-starts the whole planning process. If you objected first time round, that objection is no longer…
Four more hydro schemes are being proposed in one of the most special parts of Scotland which, if it were anywhere else in the world, be a National Park. Unlike the proposed schemes in Glen Etive (see here), which I hope to post more on soon, these schemes have so far received little attention…
I have followed some of the Parkswatch blogs about the awful hydro tracks around Glen Falloch (see here) and seen them for myself from the hills. In July 2017 we were staying in Lochcarron and I was horrified to see a hydro scheme at Coulags at the start of the walk up Maol Chean-dearg. This…
Last week Community Land Scotland, who have the ear of the Scottish Government, was reported in the Herald as claiming “Rural communities are being “airbrushed” out of Scotland’s rugged landscapes by policymakers who care more about maintaining an artificial wilderness” (see here). One of CLS’s central arguments is that protection of wild land is preventing…
Following my piece, illustrated with David Lintern’s fine photos,on the would be desecration of Glen Etive by 7 hydro schemes (see here) Tim Parkin, who runs a landscape photography magazine (http://www.timparkin.net), offered to get more photos for use on Parkswatch to help show what is at stake. One of the things I should have said…
Following on from the ‘Lessons from the Pyrenees’ posts I recently visited the Jotunheimen National Park which covers a mountainous area of more than 1,000 km2 including Galdhoppigen, the highest peak in Northern Europe. It’s not surprising that this is Norway’s premier walking area and, with increasing visitor numbers, there has been significant pressure on…
The Glen Etive hydro proposals After the developments at the head of Glen Coe (see here), just when one thought it couldn’t get any worse, seven planning applications have been submitted for hydro schemes in Glen Etive on land owned by the Dalness Estate. Each scheme has been submitted as an individual application with its…