Yesterday, on my way up to Speyside I pulled into a layby and parked behind a trailer loaded with crates. I did not realise immediately but half were packed with adult red legged partridge (you can just see them in the lower four crates on the left). Breeding of red-legged partridge is now a sizeable…
Tag: conservation
In the early hours of Sunday, only six days after it was re-opened (see here), the A83 was closed after another landslide on the slopes of Beinn Luibhean (see here). The BBC report stated there had been 75mm of rain in 24 hours. Then yesterday the West Highland Line was closed between Bridge or…
Last Sunday I went for a walk around Ceann na Baintighearna from Glen Buckie which runs south from Loch Voil. We took a slanting track up from north of Ballimore, past this neat farm dump. It had been preceded by piles of equally neatly stacked logs which were slowly rotting. A wasted resource. I don’t…
The village of Nethy Bridge prides itself as being the Forest Village, being almost fully surrounded by woodland and forest, much of which is classified as ancient woodland. Yet tomorrow (see here for papers) Cairngorms National Park Authority planners are recommending approval of a planning application submitted by developer Castle Glen Properties of Aberdeen for…
Having announced a new masterplan, that wasn’t, in April 2017 (see here) and, eighteen months later, a new £27 million vision that went nowhere (see here), Highlands and Islands Enterprise, without reference to those failures or what could be learned from them, launched at the end of July a consultation called “towards a new vision…
In the same week that Plantlife Scotland, with the support of the Cairngorms National Park Authority, launched this new scheme that hopes to “restore and protect some of the rare plants and fungi of our pinewoods, meadows and mountains” and, on the same day my letter appeared in the Scotsman, CNPA’s planners published their report…
Earlier in the week, a few people copied me into a twitter exchange about Scottish Natural Heritage’s delayed name change. If I was capable of doing anything on twitter, except using it as a means of enabling people to follow parkwatch’s posts, I might have shared this: Says it all really! If you don’t…
Last Tuesday, almost exactly a year after the large floods that caused so much destruction in Glen Falloch (see here), torrential rain triggered another massive landslip on the slopes of Beinn Luibhean closing the A83 and the old Military Road below the Rest and Be Thankful. This post argues that the Scottish Government’s tinkering option…
The Cairngorms National Park Authority may have acted promptly against its vice-convener, Gena Blackett, last week for something she said (see here), but when it comes to meaningful actions on conservation, it is not fit for purpose. This post takes a look at the CNPA’s multiple failures when it comes to protecting wildlife as revealed…
Back in February I blogged about the Hunter Foundation’s proposals to develop a “Global Leadership Centre” on the shore of Loch Lomond near Ross Priory in partnership with Strathclyde University (see here). A Planning Application was submitted at the beginning of March (see here for planning papers) and has been slowly progressed during the Covid-19…
The village of Nethy Bridge prides itself as being the Forest Village, being almost fully surrounded by woodland and forest, much of which is classified as ancient woodland. Yet developer Castle Glen Properties of Aberdeen has submitted a planning application for planning permission in principle to the Cairngorms National Park Authority for the construction of…
Highlands and Islands Enterprises (HIE) are at it again as evidenced by the latest planning application, to repair the funicular (see here for papers). It has been noted many times in the past that HIE have a habit of pre-empting decisions being made about operations at the Cairngorm Mountain ski resort, currently being operated under…
In the corona panic, the Scottish Government and our Public Authorities have completely lost all sense of reason. It will have serious human and environmental consequences. What the Coronavirus Health Protection Restriction Scotland Regulations (see here), passed last week by the Scottish Government without any parliamentary scrutiny, actually say is that you cannot leave where…
I was pleased to have this letter published in the Herald last week following a post last year asking why grazing had been allowed to continue on the slopes (see here). The proposed Woodland creation scheme for the Rest and Be Thankful 2019-29 on the slopes of Beinn Luibhean is still open for consultation (see…
Recently, Forest and Land Scotland have been flailing trees on Forest Drive in the Trossachs. Flailing is much cheaper than cutting trees manually but is a very destructive practice. It might be acceptable for clearing scrub from roadside verges, but little else. Its impact on hedges, for example, is disastrous, destroying their structure and ecological…
Anyone trying to understand Scotland’s deer problem need only travel between Perth and Braemar and see the herds of deer desperately seeking food and shelter in the snowy wilds. This photo is taken close to the location where Brian Shackleton filmed masses of deer on the move a few years ago (see here). There are…
Until reading the Report of the Deer Working Group (DWG) to the Scottish Government (see here) and (here), I had not realised that the Scottish Government was dishing out public money to landowners to undertake muirburn for red deer. The payments appear to have been introduced by the Scottish Government in 2015 and then, in…
The latest plans to develop the shores of Loch Lomond were made known to the wider public at the weekend (see here – includes photomontage). Tom Hunter wants to develop a £10m “global leadership centre”, named after him, at Ross Priory on the South West corner of Loch Lomond. Ross Priory is run…
My apologies for accidentally omitting the final three paras from Dave Morris’ post on Balmoral and the recommendations of the Deer Working Group.They have been added to the post and posted for convenience below. In the section of the Deer Working Report that addresses the impact of deer on the Natural Heritage there is an…
Anyone who wonders why new legislation is needed to regulate deer numbers in Scotland need only study this photograph, taken in Oct 2018, and then read David Lintern’s fine article from 2017 on Walkhighlands “Bare hill of the Hind” (see here). The Walk Highlands article includes a video of a massive herd of red deer…
Two very interesting articles on Parkswatch by Alistair Bell (see here) and Drennan Watson (see here) go some way towards explaining some of what has gone on and is going on at Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL). Alistair Bell says skiers are partly to blame because nobody really questioned what was happening until the Save…
A winter’s day In a deep and dark December Is what it was for most of December. Dreich was the word to describe it. What better kind of day for a trip down memory lane? I first climbed on Creagh Meagaidh in the early 1970’s. The place gripped me from the start. The location was,…
I was pleased to get this letter into the Badenoch and Strathspey Herald on Thursday in response to their excellent coverage the week before about the potential for camping byelaws to be introduced into the Cairngorms National Park Authority. While it was good to see Grant Moir, the CNPA Chief Executive (above) deny there…
Alistair Bell’s open letter published on 2nd January (see here) was fascinating as an insider’s tale of what has happened to downhill skiing on Cairn Gorm. But I disagree with his final conclusion. Basically, he tackles the old issue “Cock-up or Conspiracy” and decides it was a conspiracy along the lines of the Gas Lighting…
After the criticisms in my last post of the lack of transparency in the planning system, its nice to report that in other areas the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority is showing signs of improvement. The LLTNPA’s recent publication of Deer Management Plans for the area is particularly welcome. The impact of deer…