Tag: CNPA

December 21, 2021 Nick Kempe 8 comments

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…

December 16, 2021 Nick Kempe 10 comments

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…

December 10, 2021 Nick Kempe 3 comments

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…

December 8, 2021 Nick Kempe 7 comments

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…

December 3, 2021 Nick Kempe 1 comment

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…

November 25, 2021 Nick Kempe 2 comments

A recent visit to the Cromdale Hills prompted some thoughts about the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA)’s policy approach to hill tracks, the use of All Terrain Vehicles and their impact on the natural environment. What the CNPA National Park Partnership plan says about hill tracks The draft National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP), which is…

November 11, 2021 Nick Kempe 4 comments

There are lots of good aspirations in the draft Cairngorms National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP), which is out for public consultation until 17th December (see here), but at the heart of its plan for nature is an unambitious target for carbon emissions.  The effect of this will be to allow unsustainable management of land to…

October 29, 2021 Nick Kempe 8 comments

What the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) have discovered at Mar Lodge While away in Lochaber last week I read a very interesting article in the latest Reforesting Scotland journal (Issue 64) on ‘Regenerating aspen: “spontaneous appearance” at Mar Lodge Estate’.  The author, the ecologist Andrew Painting, recounts how in 2018, while undertaking fieldwork in…

October 25, 2021 Nick Kempe 8 comments

Development for “sporting” purposes on the Pitmain and Glenbanchor estates in the Cairngorms National Park, albeit interspersed with some tokenistic conservation projects funded by our public authorities (see here), is relentless. On 8th October Highland Council validated a planning application (see here), submitted by Savills, to erect a 6m high lattice radio mast and equipment…

October 7, 2021 Nick Kempe 4 comments

In my posts  (see here) and (here) criticising the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board for abandoning their decision-making role and allowing senior staff to take control, I was aware of a recent exception to the rule.  At the Planning Committee on 30th August (see here for papers) Board Members rejected a recommendation…

September 20, 2021 Nick Kempe No comments exist

The National Park Partnership Plan is a five year plan which sets out the overarching framework for what happens in our National Parks, the contribution of the various public authorities involved and priorities for action. The current plan for the Cairngorms runs out in 2022 and the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) is in the…

September 19, 2021 Alan Brattey 7 comments

The Cairngorm National Park Planning Committee saw fit to grant Cairngorm Mountain [Scotland] Ltd (CMSL), Highland and Island Enterprise’s wholly owned subsidiary, permission to set up a Campervan Park in Coire na Ciste on Cairn Gorm. That consent was granted on 21 May 2021. CMSL indicated to the planning committee that they might be able…

September 6, 2021 Nick Kempe 8 comments

On 19th August a firm called Caledonian Building Surveyors Ltd submitted a Screening Request (see here) to Highland Council on behalf of the Pitmain and Glenbanchor Estate Ltd. It asked if an Environmental Impact Assessment was required before they could upgrade and create new tracks and upgrade part of the public road up Glen Banchor…